Plurilingualism and pluriculturalism in Common European Framework of Reference for Languages

Key concepts related to multicultural education issues. Using a multilingual approach in discourse classes. Teaching or learning a phraseology at the level of a close native. The definition of plurilingual and pluralistic competence by students.

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PLURILINGUALISM AND PLURICULTURALISM IN CEFR

M.S. Ko9man

Formulation and justification of the relevance of the problem. Today in language classes the low efficiency of language instruction is being discussed by many of the researchers and teachers as well. The way we teach foreign languages, especially English, causes lots of problems. Another issue that is being discussed is the use of students' L1 use in language classes.

should teachers teach the content only using English or is it possible to make use of students' previously learned languages? In another word, should we adopt a monolingual approach while teaching English or is it possible to integrate the other languages which are spoken by students.

Analysis of recent research and publications. Scheffler (2013) argues that there is a need for a change in terms of using monolingual approaches as dominant languages. In recent studies, it is possible to see views advocating the opportunities that allow students go beyond only learning the target language [Ustunel 2016, Wilson and Davies, 2016]. Learning about the culture and traditions of people who use target language as their mother tongue is gaining popularity.

In this respect, the term plurilingualism which is especially used in European context need to be integrated into the language learning processes. According to Wilson and Davies (2016), plurilingual learning skills can be transferred to other learning contexts, which means that there will be increase in the efficiency of language education.

However, there are some misconceptions about what plurilingualism is and how it can be integrated into the curriculum. In Turkey, whose national language education policy is compatible with European education policies, there is a need for clearer identification of plurilingual matters.

The purpose of the article. This study which is a literature review aims at investigating the plurilingual competence in European context and identifying some key concept that should be integrated into the curriculum so that more effective language education could be possible. Because as Piccardo (2013) states «language proficiency is no longer seen as a monolithic phenomenon that occurs independently of the linguistic repertoires and trajectories of learners and teachers, but rather shaped by uneven and ever-changing competences, both linguistic and cultural» [p. 600].

The main material of the study. This paper compares and contrasts the findings of previous studies in the field. It also summarizes the findings of previously carried out research.

When we search through the literature on «Plurilingualism» in European context, we see that the debate is around the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). So it wouldn't be wrong to look at the CEFR to set the situation and have the authorities' point of view.

There are different bodies dealing with language learning and education in European Union. Dombi (2010) gives detailed information about language policy and language learning issues in Europe. «There are two bodies to coordinate the Council of Europe's work on language education: the Language Policy Division and the European Center for Modern Languages» [Dombi 2010; p.163]. Today, it is possible to get information from these bodies' references the most significant of which is Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (published in its final version in 2001) (CEFR here after).

CEFR aims at forming a curricula and syllabi for language teaching and here the «framework», as Beacco and Byram (2002) state in the preface of Guide and Reference Studies provides the basis for differentiated management of courses by proposing clear referential levels for identifying degrees of language competence so as to create opportunities for the teaching of more languages in schools and in lifelong learning. The main aim is to involve learners in understanding others cultures than their own. European societies as part of globalized nations with their differences and transcultural currents shouldn't become lost in this globalization in search of `perfect' language or languages valued at the expense of others. On the contrary, plurality of the languages of Europe and plurilingualism should be recognized as a condition for collective creativity and for development because it is seen as a component of democratic citizenship through linguistic tolerance, and thus as a fundamental value of people's actions in languages and language teaching.

In this respect, most of the studies on plurilingualism either take the CEFR as basis or aimed at forming a basis for CEFR.

When we look at the historical development of plurilingualism issue, which is the desired aim for more than five decades for the Council of Europe, the earliest document is the European Cultural Convention (1954) which gives importance to learning and esteeming languages of other countries and aims at pursuing a policy common action to protect and promote European culture.

Within the Article 2 of the Convention mutual respect for languages and cultures, promoting mobility to help people learn other European cultures, respect for languages and openness towards other cultures were the central issues which were aimed at. But, in the last fifty years a considerable change has been witnessed. «The council of Europe's language education policy today articulates these needs as they promote (1) plurilingualism, (2) democratic citizenship, (3) linguistic diversity, (4) social cohesion and (5) mutual understanding [Language Policy Division Brochure, no date, p. 2]» [6, p, 164].

The European Cultural Convention, which is the foundation for cooperation among member states, declares the aims as:

...to develop mutual understanding among the peoples of Europe and reciprocal appreciation of their cultural diversity, to safeguard European culture, to promote national contributions to

Europe's common cultural heritage respecting the same fundamental values and to encourage in particular the study of the languages, history and civilization of the Parties to the Convention.

In the White Paper (1995) although the word «plurilingual» was not directly used, a statement that embrace both plurilingualism and intercultural understanding was used together for the first time. Yet, from this statement the concept of plurilingual individual can easily be understood whereas the word multilingualism was used instead of it. But, the distinction between the two terms, plurilingualism and multilingualism, was not adequately defined. In «The Common European Framework of References» (2001) we can see the difference.

Plurilingualism differs from multilingualism, which is the knowledge of a number of languages, or the co-existence of different languages in a given society. Multilingualism may be attained by simply diversifying the languages on offer in a particular school or educational system.

Also CEFR (2001) describes the plurilingualism as an approach: emphasizing] the fact that as an individual person's experience of language in its cultural contexs expands, from the language of the home to that of society at large and then to the languages of other peoples (whether learnt at school or college, or by direct experience), he or she does not keep these languages and cultures in strictly separated mental compartments, but rather builds up a communicative competence to which all knowledge and experience of languge contributes and in which languages interrelate and interac].

However, CEFR assumes that during language learning process individuals not only become plurilingual but also develop interculturally. According to the «The European Commission's Action Plan for language learning and linguistic diversity' (2003) the secondary education should provide individual skills that will help them throughout a lifetime of language learning.

«Native speaker's fluency is not the objective but appropriate levels of skill in reading, listening, writing and speaking in two foreign languages are required, together with intercultural competencies and the ability to learn languages whether with a teacher or alone» [Action Plan, p. 9].

In 2007 a publication of «Council of Europe, the Guide for the Development of Language Education Policies in Europe' aimed at promoting a «global concept» of languages. It argues that national language policies must have common characteristic complying with the Council of Europe's values and principles to develop plurilingual competence for every individual throughout life which can be achieved giving importance to intercultural competence. And the Guide defines plurilingualism in relation to intercultural education: «plurilingualism should be understood in this dual sense: it constitutes a conception of the speaker as fundamentally plural and a value in that it is the basis of linguistic tolerance, an essential element of intercultural education».

The Council of Europe published the White Paper on Intercutural Dialogue in May 2008 to provide a conceptual framework and a guide. It advocates the intercultural approach for managing cultural diversity and claims the inclusion of intercultural dialogue at all levels of education. Moreover the opportunity to develop a plurilingual competence should be provided for all students. And it also «emphasizes that plurilingualism and intercultural awareness are equally important concepts for the Council of Europe's language education policy».

Why do we need to be plurilingual?

Although researchers share more or less similar points of view about the need for plurilingualism and the use of it, they deal with the issue with relatively different standpoints. Some of the reasons about the need for plurilingualism can be:

- to develop a common European identity with linguistic and cultural diversity;

- to enable successful interaction both between societies and individuals;

- as a result of increased mobility, to overcome communication problems;

- in terms of social inclusion and democratic citizenship;

- to protect linguistic and cultural heritage;

- to improve mutual respect and understanding;

- to promoting shared values and identities;

- in terms of enabling sustainable existence in complex societies;

- to overcome social and emotional barriers that may occur in relationships;

- to exchange knowledge and other kinds of information;

- for a quality education;

- to be able to respond the needs of global society;

- to cope with economic, social and political challenges.

Medeiros et al. (2005/2006) points out that with the foundation of European Union and free market a need to re-consider the role of the languages in today's society has emerged. In a society with mixed identities and languages where attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviors of different societies integrate and interact with the other, learning foreign languages become a necessity since the distances are shortened and interchanges facilitate and developed. Although physical mobility has increased because of the lack of frontiers, linguistic-cultural interchange has also become possible thanks to technologies which allow us to travel without leaving home. According to Medeiros et al.(2005/2006) citing from Cruz&Melo (2004) this online mobility supports the need for a bigger formation at the level of European interculturality and plurilingualism. Therefore online mobility makes it possible to develop intercultural and plurilingual projects between schools throughout Europe and may help to enhance the promotion of intercomprehension among European populations.

Doye (2005) argues that like any other linguistic phenomenon, intercomprehension can be regarded from competence and performance perspective. From the performance aspect it can be described as an activity of people with different first languages who communicate in such a way as to use their own language and understand that of the other's. From the competence aspect it can be conceived as the capacity to understand other languages without having studying them. education plurilingual pluralistic competence

So intercomprehension can be seen as an alternative to the use of lingua franca. Because, although lingua franca facilitates the communication of people in intercultural/lingual encounters it has the danger of becoming linguistic imperialism, disadvantage of a culture- free use, and insufficient communication and potential depreciation of the mother tongue. In this respect lingua franca is not in the serve of promoting linguistic diversity only with facilitating the communication between people. But it always lacks the cultural dimension of the language and contradicts with the principles of Council of Europe. But intercomprehension approach deals with the communication between those people that have to get along with each other in the future and is a good way to ensure the linguistic cultural diversity.

The development of social inclusion and development of democratic citizenship in Europe is crucial and Europe both culturally rich and diverse and dependent on a certain degree of unity has to find balance between preservation and promotion of cultural diversity and the development of a common communicative sphere. People will have to be able to communicate, to create a common communicative sphere and maintain a discourse about the shape of a common polity called `Europe'. And plurilingualism is the way to achieve this. This is where language education policies gains importance because competence in language(s) is a characteristic of democratic citizenship in Europe both as a prerequisite and its practice.

...policies for language education should therefore promote the learning of several languages for all individuals in the course of several languages for all individuals in the course of their lives, so that Europeans actually become plurilingual and intercultural citizens, able to interact with other Europeans in all aspects of their lives [9, p. 7].

From another point of view Coste and Simon (2009) argues that a social actor's being plurilingual is very crucial in creating harmonious conditions to live together and the development of democracy in societies. Moreover, it is important not only in terms of protecting linguistic and cultural heritage of humanity but also it improving the mutual respect and promoting a set of shared values. By this way it can be argued that a sustainable development of species may be ensured. To this end every social actor has to cope with any kind of plurality one of which is plurality in education.

Skutnabb-Kangas (2002) who deals with the situation from quite different aspect and states that linguistic uniformity was the best way to constitute a tolerant and peaceful society and make the men understand each other in old days. Nevertheless, she stated that this idea might not be a good one since she had found a correlation between the death of linguistic and cultural diversity and the disappearance of biological species. So she concludes that linguistic diversity should be maintained and supported in Europe in order not to cause the destruction of civilization.

Moreover, she (2002) argues that linguistically and culturally diverse societies provide people with more varied knowledge, ideas, and cosmo-visions than the ones that are not. And in our post industrialist society the most valuable thing is the knowledge and ideas we have and languages are the main means of transferring ideas and knowledge. As a result «multilingualism is the key to human success and possibly even existence» [8, p. 197].

Several other researchers (Nabhan 2001, baker 2001, Pagel and Mace 2004, cited in Glaser 2005) who studied on similar subject as Skutnabb- Kangass reached similar results.

«.the subject of interlinguistics is the plurilingualism of the human being. It is everything that exists between the two poles of unilingual uniformity and humanlingual universality in our languages. It is everything that reduces and abolishes the linguistic barriers and walls between people» [10, p. 199].

As is stated above people from different linguistic backgrounds can be brought together by enhancing plurilingualism. And Glaser (2005) states that since Europe's political and ideological goal is to develop a European identity besides its citizens' cultural identity, it is vital to be able to speak several languages.

Since educating large numbers of people linguistically and culturally will be highly costly, using its inner sources, classes in which children with different linguistic and cultural background, would be more rational for a country. Children in these countries can learn about another culture or language by engaging in activities such as singing songs, playing games, studying on poems of the other culture, learning about different behavioral and rules. This would bring children much closer to the cultures of their immediate surroundings and would probably lay the foundation stone for intercultural competence, greater mutual understanding and more goodwill than we are now seeing.

To diminish existing prejudice against immigrant, neighboring or minority cultures and to become sensitive to language issues, children should start at the age of three or four to become familiar with basic aspects of the languages and cultures of their immediate surroundings. [Glaser 2005, p. 206].

In terms of the relationship between language and identity Glaser (2009), citing from Pagel and Mace's study, The Cultural Wealth of Nation, (2004), states that languages used to be used as a means to create barriers, to protect and preserve the group identities, and to protect peoples' resources but today since there are plenty of resources and people do not need to fight for material resources, there is a global and highly complicated networks in which small language groups are facing with the danger of losing their identity. So, in order to maintain the groups' language and identity and protect them from being melt in huge global system, plurilingualism can be seen as a solution. If people are given to learn the language of their neighbors, this may help to tear down the communication barriers and small minorities or groups may survive and preserve their identity and languages. Because languages enhance mobility and the ability to communicate reduces the fear of `otherness makes the people ready to cross the borders. By this means increased cultural understanding among people will surely develop.

Linguistic diversity, however, shows us that the world can be viewed from different angles. This is why it is important to learn other languages. With every language we learn, we add a different perspective. By becoming plurilingual and not by speaking English only, Europeans will make the necessary incremental progress in overcoming the mental and emotional barriers that separate them to this day.

Plurilingualism enhances creativity. High level Plurilinguals as a group do better than corresponding monolinguals on tests measuring several aspects of «intelligence», creativity, divergent thinking, cognitive flexibility etc. ... thus education that leads to high levels of plurilingualism provides not only local linguistic and cultural capital but knowledge capital that will be exchangeable for other types of capital in the information society [8, p. 14].

As can be understood from the above citation pluriligualism foster the potential of a society to cope with economic, political and social challenges. In her study Dombi (2010) sees the plurilingualism as a necessity as a result of economic globalization and societal internalization that we are experiencing and adds that European policy on language education should aim at promoting and publicizing plurilingualism and interculturalism that will enable us to understand each other in a better way. In another study Coste et al. see the plurilingual and intercultural education within a rationale concerning the right to education. The writers also states that for the council of Europe to language education, plurilingual and intercultural education should be seen as both an integral part and a major component of quality education.

In relation with the language education and plurilingualism Furlong (2009) shows that language educators, learners and users are particularly well placed to respond to the needs of a global society since, once they are likely to be in the position to retrieve, compare and link multiple socio-cultural and linguistic systems. ... high level plurilingual/cultural individuals are well equipped to deal with these challenges and to act as connectors between concepts, systems and/or people.

The learner of a second or foreign language and culture does not cease to be competent in his or her mother tongue and the associated culture. Nor is the new competence kept entirely separate from the old. The learner does not simply acquire two distinct, unrelated ways of acting and communicating. The language learner becomes plurilingual and develops interculturality. The linguistic and cultural competences in respect of each language are modified by knowledge of the other and contribute to intercultural awareness, skills and know-how. They enable the individual to develop an enriched, more complex personality and an enhanced capacity for further language learning and greater openness to new cultural experiences.

According to Coste et al. (2009) the rights of the pupil, learning experiences that facilitate the exercise of these rights and relationships between these rights and social expectations inherent in the education system are what constitute the plurilingual and intercultural education. «shared culture», «common core competences» and «key competences» are the notions that many European countries are concerned along with the values. So language education which is a part of quality education is inevitably plurilingual and intercultural and the development of language repertoires, competences and awareness is a crucial part of this language education.

Mammadov (2009) first defines the term «plurilingualism» as the Commision of Europe defined it in 2001. According to him plurilingualism results from the acquisition of linguistic and intercultural competences and it means to be able to use several languages to varying levels of proficiency for different purposes. Then he states that being plurilingual means having a certain degree of competence (oral, written, etc.) in several linguistic varieties, with varying functions, the whole being subject to changes over time... a plurilingual person has a repertoire of languages and language varieties and competences of different kinds and levels within the repertoire.

Here it may be necessary to explain what intercultural means since it is usually used alongside with the term plurilingualism. According to Williems (2002) what is important in language teaching is to improve intercultural communication. The term «intercultural» is, in itself, normative and carries values, as opposed to «cross-cultural» which is neutral. Interculturality has moral-ethical dimensions for it incorporates respect for what is different. It requires knowledge (of cultural factors), insight (into what constitutes cultural identity), readiness (towards opening up to cultural differences) and skills (in negotiating «common territory» and identifying and bridging gaps).

He also states that plurilinguals will be more flexible and more emphatic communicators. And learning foreign languages is a long term process and once the intercultural communication has been achieved language study can be taken up at any time in learner's life. According to Byram (2009) the characteristics of interculturality involve: Being open to, interested in, curious about and empathetic towards people from other cultures; using this heightened awareness of otherness to engage and interact with others; to act for common purposes; and evaluating one's everyday patterns of perception, thought, feeling and behavior in order to develop greater selfknowledge and self-understanding.

So interculturality makes people act as mediators among people of different cultures, to explain and interpret different perspectives not identify with another group or adopt the cultural practices of other cultures.

Inteculturality has some underlying competences such as knowledge, attitutes, skills of interpreting and relating, skills of discovery and critical cultural awareness. And intercultural competence in an important part of democratic culture and social cohesion as is stated in Council of Europe White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue. So Byram (2009) sees the education for intercultural dialogue should counter-act the threats that multiculturalism brings to social cohesion. And compulsory education must develop learner's intercultural competence to respond this situation by language education introducing learners to other cultures internal or external to their own society.

To acquire intercultural competences means to pay special attention to certain words or phrases and to find the meanings they convey (not only their meanings, collocations but the context in which they are used). Because according to

Mammadov (2009) the primary use of language is for communication therefore what is done with words and what are they used for should be known by the speaker. In other words why the language is used is as important as the actual meanings the words convey. So by examining different socio-cultural domains and making a comparison between his/her culture, a speaker gets closer to the culture of other.

But Byram differs «pruliculturality» from «interculturality». For him «pluriculturalism involves identifying with at least some of the values, beliefs and/or practices of two or more cultures, as well as acquiring the competences which are necessary for actively participating in those cultures. Pluricultural individuals are people with the competences of knowledge, disposition and linguistic and behavioural skills required to function as a social actor within two or more cultures. Pluriculturality refers to the capacity to identify with and participate in multiple cultures. Interculturality refers to the capacity to experience and analyze cultural otherness, and to use this experience to reflect on matters that are usually taken for granted within one's own culture and environment» [1, p. 6].

So how should the concept of multilingualism be seen? According to Cavalli et al. (2009) every society is multilingual. This can be «heritage (endogenous) multilingualism resulted from existence of traditional languages which are counted as a part of a country's cultural heritage. Language varieties, minority languages, regional languages or dialects can be heritage languages. on the other hand there can be «exogenous multilingualism» which occurs as a consequence of increased economic and professional mobility which can be temporary or permanent or long time periods. Moreover, it can be said that every society is multilingual in its own way.

It is possible to state that language education has close ties with plurilingualism. Cavalla et al. (2009) also state that every language and education is plural because even the most highly regulated of languages is actually a space of plurality composed of multiple intersecting variations (variations in time, in space, between the spoken and written, in the medium used, according to the social strata, in special discourse, technical languages and caused by games, humor and irony, collective or individual creativity, the work of literary creation [2, p. 5].

In fact plurilingual and intercultural education is distinctive with respect to its purposes, which are the fundamental rights of each learner, based on values which guarantee his/her education as an individual and as a citizen. which gives learners a means of constructing their personal identity [Cavalli et al., 2009. P. 8].

Also plurilingual and intercultural education

needs to be seen as a global language education ... which provides a basis for an identity open to linguistic and cultural plurality and diversity . which aims to develop plurilingual and intercultural competence. [2, p. 8].

In accordance with the above statement Beacco and Byram, (2007) define the plurilingual competence and intercultural competence as follows:

Plurilingual competence: capacity to successively acquire and use different competences in different languages, at different levels of proficiency and for different functions. The central purpose of plurilingual education is to develop this competence.

Intercultural competence: combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors which allow a speaker, to varying degrees, to recognize, understand, interpret and accept other ways of living and thinking beyond his or her home culture. This competence is the basis of understanding among people, and is not limited to language ability.

Such competence is not homogenous with respect to overall mastery of the languages of the repertoire, or to linguistic activities, or to balance between competences in languages and competences in the cultural domain etc. it is diverse, malleable and evolves throughout life, linked as it is to experience and to the personal trajectories of each individual. [2, p. 8].

Plurilingual and pluricultural competence CEFR gives a sound definition for plurilingual and plurcultural competence. Plurilingual and pluricultural competence is generally uneven in one or more ways:

- Learners generally attain greater proficiency in one language than in the others;

- The profile of competences in one language is different from that in others (for example, excellent speaking competence in two languages, but good writing competence in only one of them);

- The pluricultural profile differs from the plurilingual profile (for example: good knowledge of the culture of a community but a poor knowledge of its language, or poor knowledge of a community whose dominant language is nevertheless well mastered).

.Depending onthe career path, family history, travel experience, reading and hobbies of the individual in question, significant changes take place in his/her linguistic and cultural biography, altering the forms of imbalance in his/her plurilingualism, and rendering more complex his/her experience of the plurality of cultures. This does not by any means imply instability, uncertainty or lack of balance on the part of the person in question, but rather contributes, in the majority of cases, to improved awareness of identity.

Since the socialization of an individual occurs in various complex and interrelated contexts such as family, peer groups, environment (suburb, city and village), same social actor in different communities, media, and mobility, the plurality issue should be of direct concern of educational systems. Developing plurilingual competencies should be supported in schooling. In this sense, the linguistic repertoires each pupil brings in school environment can be developed and expanded in the form of «plurilingual repertoire» [3].

Here with «repertoire» the writers mean the notion involving on an individual level, the use of diverse linguistic resources by a social actor at a given moment, and on a societal level implies intricate social functioning.

According to the writes the term «linguistic repertoire» emerged in the 1970s in the work of Gumperz and Hymes (1972/1986) constitutes the key characteristics of a more complex term «plurilingual repertoire» (coste, Moore, & Zarate, 1997). With the works of Gumperz and Hymes (1972/1986) the term communicative competences comes into play and later it turns into «plurilingual and pluricultural competence» [4, p. 1]).

So, what forms plurilingual repertoire? Beacco (2005) says: «The individuals plurilingual repertoire is therefore made up of various languages he or she has absorbed in various ways (childhood learning, teaching, independent acquisition, etc.) and in which he/she has acquired different skills (conversation, reading, listening, etc.) to different levels. The languages in the repertoire may be assigned different, perhaps specialized functions, such as communicating with the family, socializing with the neighbors, working or learning, and, as has been pointed out, provide building blocks for affiliation to groups which see themselves as having shared cultural features and their own identifying languages. Signaling group affiliation by these means also has the social function of providing a basis for hetero-identifications that give the group added solidity plurilingual whereas «plurilingualism means is the capacity of individuals to use more than one language in social communication whatever their command of those language». And using different languages with varying degrees of command for different purposes in social communication is what constitutes the plurilingual competence. This competence is more developed in some than others, according to individual's linguistic environment and personal or social path, so that the actual monolingualism in social actor is to regarded merely as the default form of plurilingualism.

In his study Beacco (2005) differs the term «plurilingualism» from the term «polyglottism» in order not to cause misunderstandings. «A polyglot person is someone who is particularly expert».

For him the function of school has changed. The aim should not generate purely personal, unified and stable image of individual identity but to improve the sharing and respect for a set of fundamental common values since the social cohesion of societies depends on this, to enable the future social actors perceive themselves as participants in this plurality (to perceive themselves as plural beings in essence and in action rather than being limited in small group) and understanding and comprehending the plurality.

Plurilingual and pluricultural competence refers to the ability to use languages for the purposes of communication and to take part in intercultural interaction, where a person, viewed as a social agent has proficiency, of varying degrees, in several languages and experience in several cultures. This is not seen as the superposition of distinct competences, but rather as the existence of a complex or even composite competence on which the user may draw [5].

As can be understood, plurilingual and pluricultural competence is the ability to use languages for the purpose of communication and to take part in intercultural action, where a person viewed as a social agent, has proficiency, to varying degrees, in several languages, and experience of several cultures. thus there is a distinction between plurilingualism as a speaker's competence (being able to use more than one language) and multilingualism as the presence of languages is a given geographical area.

The use and development of an individual competence is possible because different languages are not learned in isolation but can influence each other both in the learning process and in communicative use. Education systems need to ensure the harmonious development of learner's plurilingual competence through a coherent, transversal, and integrated approach that takes into account all languages in learners' plurilingual repertoires and potential to develop and adapt those repertoires to changing circumstances. [7, p. 72].

One of the most striking findings or the researchers studying in this field is the term «partial competence». Almost every writer has commented on this part of the above definition and advocated the promotion of partial skills. In CEFR section 6.1.3.4 deals with partial competence:

It is in this perspective also that the concept of partial competence in a particular language is meaningful: it is not a matter of being satisfied, for reasons of principle or pragmatism, with the development of a limited or compartmentalised mastery of a foreign language by a learner, but rather of seeing this proficiency, imperfect at a given moment, as forming part of a plurilingual competence which it enriches... in the framework of reference proposed here, the notion of partial competence is to be viewed in relation to the different components of the model (see Chapter 3)

and variation in objectives.

The writers also advocate the partial skills approach. According to Glaser (2005) the practice of partial skills in learning languages is not new because it has already been known that there has been always a kind of failure in attaining native speaker level in a target language. In other words, we cannot be completely fluent therefore the failure is inevitable so we must learn partial skills and students should be encouraged to learn several languages partially. Also, in order to enable lifelong learning learners should be encouraged to develop self-directed skills in combination with partial skills. In this way, the value of knowing more than one foreign language can be understood and the way to plurilingualism may be opened.

Conclusions and prospects for further researches of directions. Above literature shed lights on some key concepts related to pluricultural matters in education field. It is understood that the traditional view of how the languages are to be told should change. In the globalized world, economic and technological developments made the distances among people shorter. Today anybody can get in touch with others easily and communicate. So, teaching languages is highly significant. However, instead of teaching monolingual, it is better to adopt a multilingual approach in language classrooms. Here, multilingualistic point of view may have some problems. Because it may mean to teach or learn a language at the level of near-native like, which seems unrealistic.

In CEFR the concept of multilingualism is approached in a more different way. Instead of teaching languages one by one to near-native like level, it is aimed to obtain a plurilinguistic point of view. That is, everything a student learns in a language is a part of his/her plurilingusitic competence. In addition, not only the linguistic components of a language but the culture of the other who speaks that language should be at the center of language education.

There is a need to establish a common sense in terms of aims of language classrooms. teachers and students should be aware of plurilinguistic and pluricultural competence. For this purpose, inservice training sessions for teachers and awareness raising programs can be planned. Further studies focusing on plurilingual syllabuses, activities and materials are needed.

References

1. Byram, M. (2009). Multicultural societies, pluricultural people and the project of intercultural education. Language Policy Divison.

2. Cavalli, M., Coste , D., Cri^an, A., & van de Ven, P.-H. (2009). Plurilingual and intercultural education as a project.

3. Coste, D. (2001). De plus d'une langue a communiquer et competence plurilingue. Notions en Qestions (NeQ)(6), pp. 155-123.

4. Coste, D., & Simon, D.-L. (2009, May). The plurilingual social actor. Language, citizenship and education. International jomal of Multilingualism, 6(2), 168-185.

5. Council of Europe. (2001). Commo European framework of reference for languages. Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge, UK: C.U.P.

6. Dombi, J. (2010). European Language Policy on Pluralingualism and Intercultural Communication. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov Series IV: Philology and Cultural Studies, 5(52), pp. 163-166.

7. Mammadov, A. (2009). The issue of plurilingualism and language policy in Azerbaijan. Int'l. J. Soc. Lang.", 198, 65-73.

8. Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2002). Why Should Linguistic Diverstiy be Maintained and Supported in Europe? Some Arguments. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.

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