CEFR Plurilingual and Pluricultural Competence 5

Question 1

In the CEFR framework, the European Language Portfolio (ELP) supports plurilingual competence primarily by:

Accepted Answer

Encouraging learners to document and reflect on all their language and cultural experiences

Answer

The ELP helps learners record, reflect on, and value all their linguistic and cultural experiences, reinforcing the CEFR's plurilingual vision.

Question 2

A language program that teaches Spanish, French, and Italian in an integrated way — pointing out shared Latin roots and contrasting false cognates — is applying which CEFR-aligned approach?

Accepted Answer

An integrated plurilingual curriculum leveraging cross-linguistic awareness

Answer

Explicitly drawing on cross-linguistic relationships in teaching reflects the CEFR's integrated plurilingual approach rather than treating each language as a silo.

Question 3

Which of the following CEFR descriptors from the Companion Volume relates most directly to pluricultural competence?

Accepted Answer

Acting as intermediary in informal situations — pluricultural interpretation

Answer

The Companion Volume introduced descriptors for 'acting as intermediary' that explicitly address cross-cultural interpretation, directly targeting pluricultural competence.

Question 4

How does the CEFR distinguish a 'plurilingual' speaker from a 'multilingual' society?

Accepted Answer

Plurilingual refers to an individual's integrated repertoire; multilingual describes a society with multiple languages coexisting

Answer

The CEFR deliberately uses 'plurilingual' for individuals and 'multilingual' for societies to highlight the integrated, personal nature of individual language repertoires.

Question 5

A heritage language speaker of Mandarin uses their home-language literacy to accelerate acquisition of written Japanese. The CEFR would view this as:

Accepted Answer

A natural and valuable use of plurilingual resources to support new language learning

Answer

Using existing literacy and linguistic knowledge as a scaffold for new language acquisition exemplifies the CEFR's view of plurilingual competence as a positive, integrated resource.

CEFR - Common European Framework Practice Test

CEFR - Common European Framework Practice Test

CEFR Plurilingual and Pluricultural Competence 5