CEFR Plurilingual and Pluricultural Competence 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: How does the CEFR treat the cultural dimension in relation to language learning?
- Culture is treated as supplementary content to add after grammar is mastered
- Cultural and linguistic competences are inseparable and develop together (Correct answer)
- Culture is only relevant at C1 and C2 levels
- Cultural knowledge is assessed separately from language proficiency
Correct answer: Cultural and linguistic competences are inseparable and develop together
The CEFR treats cultural and linguistic competences as deeply intertwined, with cultural awareness embedded throughout language development at all levels.
Question 2: A teacher encourages students to compare how refusals are expressed differently in American English and Japanese. This activity primarily develops which CEFR competence?
- Phonological control
- Pluricultural and pragmatic awareness (Correct answer)
- Orthographic control
- Lexical range
Correct answer: Pluricultural and pragmatic awareness
Comparing speech acts across cultures develops pluricultural awareness and cross-cultural pragmatic competence as described in the CEFR.
Question 3: According to the CEFR Companion Volume, mediation in a plurilingual context includes which of the following?
- Only translating written documents between two languages
- Facilitating communication and creating space for all parties' linguistic repertoires (Correct answer)
- Correcting grammar errors in a learner's output
- Assessing whether a learner has reached a target proficiency level
Correct answer: Facilitating communication and creating space for all parties' linguistic repertoires
Mediation in the CEFR Companion Volume is broadly defined as facilitating understanding and creating inclusive communicative spaces, not limited to translation.
Question 4: Which of the following best illustrates 'pluricultural' rather than 'multicultural' competence?
- A person who knows facts about three different cultures
- A person who actively navigates and blends multiple cultural identities in interaction (Correct answer)
- A country that has official policies supporting multiple ethnic groups
- A curriculum that includes culture units from five nations
Correct answer: A person who actively navigates and blends multiple cultural identities in interaction
Pluricultural competence is an individual's dynamic ability to draw on multiple cultural frames interactively, distinct from multicultural as a societal or descriptive term.
Question 5: An English-dominant speaker with basic French uses French cognates to help a monolingual French speaker understand an English text. Which CEFR plurilingual descriptor applies?
- Spoken production — monologue
- Mediating a text — conveying specific information (Correct answer)
- Reading for information and argument
- Listening and identifying cues
Correct answer: Mediating a text — conveying specific information
Using cross-linguistic resources to convey information from a text to another person falls under the CEFR's mediation descriptor for conveying specific information.
Question 6: The CEFR's action-oriented approach views the language learner as:
- A passive recipient of grammatical rules
- A social agent who accomplishes tasks using all available linguistic resources (Correct answer)
- A student whose primary goal is native-speaker imitation
- An autonomous learner who studies without social interaction
Correct answer: A social agent who accomplishes tasks using all available linguistic resources
The action-oriented approach frames learners as social agents who use all linguistic and cultural resources strategically to accomplish real-world tasks.
Question 7: In the CEFR, 'savoir être' (existential competence) in a pluricultural context refers to:
- Knowledge of grammar rules in the target language
- Attitudes, motivations, and openness toward other cultures and identities (Correct answer)
- The ability to produce culturally appropriate vocabulary
- Test-taking skills for cultural knowledge assessments
Correct answer: Attitudes, motivations, and openness toward other cultures and identities
Savoir être encompasses the attitudinal and affective dimensions — curiosity, openness, and willingness to engage — that underpin pluricultural competence.
CEFR Plurilingual and Pluricultural Competence 3
How does the CEFR treat the cultural dimension in relation to language learning?