The knowledge and promotion of linguistic heritages in the plurilingual classroom. Guidelines from primary schools on

Abstract

Basing on the experience gained in the project The plurilingual classroom. Research on linguistic complexity for inclusive teaching, we present some recommendations for action with the aim of reaching an improved knowledge of the plurilingual learners’ linguistic repertoires and to make them visible and promote them in the school activities, in order to enrich the linguistic and intercultural experience of the entire class. By means of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, teachers can collect useful elements to shape the teaching activities in the context of the plurilingual classroom. The promotion will be the more impactful, the more it will be able to involve all the languages of the classroom in interdisciplinary activities. Thanks to the attention to the dimension of plurilingualism per se, rather than to the individual languages, it will be possible to avoid counterproductive stimuli on individuals who are reluctant to share their experiences and, at the same time, to involve also tendentially monolingual speakers, guiding them to discover the pervasiveness of plurilingualism in society.

Keywords

• plurilingualism
• linguistic education
• linguistic heritage
• learners with a migration background
• promotion of linguistic repertoires