Acceso usuarios
Cecilia Serra
In our qualitative study, we analyse how the social representations of three Swiss universities providing plurilingual education emerge in texts of language policy and in teachers' discourse. In particular, we investigate how the representations of the institutions vary in terms of contexts, languages and models of plurilingual teaching (macro level). Teachers' representations provide further information about the interplay of conflicting areas resulting from their plurilingual teaching practice and the institutional set of assumptions (micro level).
A first result concerns the institutional choice of languages. At the bachelor level, the preference is given to Swiss local and non-local languages, while at the masters level English is preferred or is used in association with Swiss languages. The attached representations converge on all-embracing positive aspects of plurilingualism, such as enhancing professional skills, disseminating research, and fostering internal and external mobility. A second result concerns the practice of plurilingualism in teaching settings. The cross analysis of institutional and individual representations shows contradictions in the use of plurilingual resources in subject teaching practices, and a controversial understanding of the effective role of plurilingualism to build up knowledge. Finally, we suggest that plurilingual teaching effectiveness might be enhanced by specific training in academic plurilingual teaching.
