Overcoming the myth of the native speaker

Thursday, March 15, 2018 6:30 pm - 6:30 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Overcoming the myth of the native speaker. Challenges and successes.

The monolingual disposition (Gogolin, 1994) of our societies and school systems is a big obstacle to innovation in language education. In particular, it constitutes a filter that prevents appreciation of linguistic and cultural diversity and fails to acknowledge learners’ resources and funds of knowledge. However, a movement away from a linear vision of language education into a more dynamic and flexible one capable of dealing with multilingual classes and plurilingual individuals is in place.

This talk by Prof. Enrica Piccardo (University of Toronto - OISE) will focus on the new CEFR Companion Volume (CEFR/CV) (Council of Europe, 2018), which produced new descriptors for mediation and plurilingual/pluricultural competence. In particular, we will discuss the shift away from the linear monolingual vision that the CEFR initiated and that the CEFR/CV brought to its completion as well as the implications of such shifts for language education at a broader level.

Enrica Piccardo is is an Associate Professor with the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning, and a member the Centre for Educational Research in Languages and Literacies at OISE. Her research is centred around French as a second and foreign language, the impact of the Common European Framework of Reference on language teaching and assessment, complexity theories and creativity, plurilingualism, and cognitive and emotional aspects of language acquisition.