The UNITA project on Intercomprehension: inclusive multilingualism in educational settings

Sandra Garbarino

UNITA, Universitas Montium, EU

Panel: Language as a means of inclusion in educational and institutional settings

Chair: Maria Margherita Mattioda, Università di Torino, Italy

In order to be inclusive, multilingual language education must embrace all the levels of the vertical curriculum, also – and above all – the highest one: that of the university and its actors.

Training current and future protagonists of the research world in multilingual communication through intercomprehension (IC) also means allowing for and encouraging a more complete and holistic dialogue between disciplines, in a perspective that considers diversity not only a controversial issue but an epistemological, political and ontological principle (Castellotti et al., 2016: 49). Disciplines often convey complex knowledge through specific terminology, which is sometimes difficult to translate into other languages even when they come from the same Latin matrix. The IC approach will enrich disciplinary understanding and communication.

Within the UNITA alliance, the benefits of an IC approach are already beginning to emerge after a year of experimentation, in both quantitative and qualitative terms. The preliminary results tell us that, to date, several syllabi have already been implemented for the IC training of students at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature and Modern Cultures; of students who are about to participate in the Erasmus exchange programme; of language teachers who are training in IC teaching; and of content teachers who welcome foreign students into their classrooms. 

This paper will illustrate initial qualitative results obtained within the project, stressing the inclusive value of the activities, which fostered the enhancement of personal linguistic profiles and the creation of a global and international communicative environment.

References:

Bonvino, E., Jamet, M.C. (2016). Intercomprensione: lingue, processi e percorsi, Venezia : Edizioni Ca’ Foscari.

Capucho, F. (2012). L’Intercompréhension – un nouvel atout dans le monde professionnel [online]. Degache, Ch., Garbarino, S. (éds.) Intercompréhension: compétences plurielles, corpus, intégration, Actes du colloque IC2012 (Grenoble, 21-23 juin 2012). http://ic2012.u-grenoble3.fr/OpenConf/papers/67.pdf (2013-11-11).

Carrasco Perea, E.,  De Carlo, M. (2019).  «¿Cómo implementar una educación plurilingüe y evaluarla? El ejemplo de la Intercomprensión». Lenguaje y Textos, 50 (28 diciembre 2019), 75–85. https://doi.org/10.4995/lyt.2019.12004.

Garbarino, S. (2019). Sviluppare competenze in intercomprensione di livello avanzato. Il contributo dei descrittori del REFIC. EL.LE, 1, Vol. 8/2019.

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