Strengthening European Identity by promoting multilingualism in education

Actual understanding of multilingualism refers to the ability of individuals to consistently use two or more languages in communication. Knowing several languages facilitates international mobility and cooperation, fosters educational and professional integration, strengthens people's belonging to the European community as European citizens. Many European citizens are motivated to study another foreign language because of multiple reasons, especially the personal and professional advantages of language skills. However, it is also important to understand why many others are not currently studying foreign languages or are limited to the knowledge of English as second language. Some may consider foreign languages not to be essential for their lives, others may consider teaching methods too academic, rigid, less attractive, too boring, other may be traumatized by their school experiences. Whatever the reasons, solutions must be found to overcome these hesitations and learning fears. The purpose of these study is to investigate students' representations (future teachers) on European multilingualism and their attitudes towards the acquisition, knowledge and practicing of foreign languages in Europe. In order to establish the theoretical framework of our research, we have reviewed official studies elaborated by the European Commission, specialized articles and papers addressing the issue of multilingualism in European context. Using a questionnaire based research we aimed to identify students' (future teachers) reasons for choosing the study of a foreign language; the extent to which students know and exploit the benefits of European multilingualism and how they think it could be promoted by them, as future teachers. In line with the results of our research, we intend to we intend to highlight ways of promoting multilingualism in education.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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