Can receptive multilingualism blow a new wind through language teaching?

Receptive multilingualism

Ghent – Lillofee Meersseman - The world today is more than ever a village, where many cultures and languages live together. How are we supposed to deal with this multilingualism? English opens many doors in our Western world, but if we want to go beyond, a single language is not enough. How can we communicate with each other without scorning linguistic diversity? Receptive multilingualism can offer us a new perspective.

Receptive multilingualism is a form of multilingual communication in which people understand each other without speaking the language of their interlocutor or writing the language of their correspondent. In other words, receptive multilingualism occurs when everyone continues to speak or write their own language (mother tongue or other language of their own choice) and understands what is said or read.

Why should we prefer receptive multilingualism to one common language such as English? And what about receptive multilingualism in education, in language education in particular? Can receptive multilingualism blow new wind through language teaching?

 


Different ways to deal with multilingualism 

People deal with multilingual situations in different ways. Many people will switch to a lingua franca such as English, others will impose their own language, others will adapt to the language of their interlocutor, and some will mix different languages, sometimes even in one sentence.

But there is another way: receptive multilingualism. Receptive multilingualism is based on mutual intelligibility.In receptive multilingualism, people communicate orally or in writing in a language of their choice without producing the language of the other. To understand each other, they only need to master the receptive competencies: reading and listening. And you guessed it: reading and listening happen to be the two skills you learn the fastest and easiest. That is a lot of time and effort saved!


Intercomprehension?

Diving into the literature on receptive multilingualism, we come across concepts like intercomprehension and lingua receptiva. They refer to concepts that are slightly narrower than receptive multilingualism.

Intercompréhension is a term that François Grin of the University of Geneva coined in 2008 for a specific type of receptive multilingualism in which everyone uses their mother tongue. According to his definition, these mother tongues always belong to the same language family. For example, a Frenchman and an Italian may be able to understand each other, with a little effort, without having learned the language of the other.

Around 2013, the European Commission initiated several intercomprehension projects and studies with the aim of promoting intercultural contacts in Europe. EuroComRom was one such project, which demonstrated connections between Romance languages. The more connections you see between your mother tongue and a number of related languages, the better you'll understand those related languages, even without speaking or writing them.


Lingua receptiva?

Another form of receptive multilingualism is lingua receptiva or 'luistertaal' in Dutch (literally: listening language), a creation by Jan ten Thije, professor of intercultural and multilingual communication at Utrecht University. The difference between intercomprehension and lingua receptiva is that the languages used, with the latter concept, do not necessarily belong to the same family and that they do not have to be the mother tongue of the speakers. In the latter case, a certain learned knowledge of the additional language will be necessary. But, again, you don't have to speak the other person's language: understanding is enough.


Receptive multilingualism

You could say that receptive multilingualism is the sum of intercomprehension and lingua receptiva. It connects more than just languages of the same language family and emphasizes both receptive skills: listening and reading.


Receptive multilingualism in its natural habitat

At first glance, receptive multilingualism may look cumbersome and confusing, but it just isn't. It is a very simple, natural and spontaneous phenomenon. Anyone who has seen the series Borgen will have noticed that the Danes will speak Danish and the Swedish will answer in Swedish when they come into contact with each other. . Each in their own language, without problems. In border areas, receptive multilingualism may often occur spontaneously.


Level playing field for everyone

Doesn't it make more sense to talk to each other in one language instead of two languages? In one single language we all understand, a lingua franca like English for example (ELF, English as a Lingua Franca)? The advantage of English is that everyone speaks it a bit, a disadvantage is that not everyone can express themselves equally well in English. If communication is to be done in English, then the playing field will rarely be level for everyone. On the other hand, reception multilingualism offers the interlocutors or correspondents more choice about the language in which they want to express themselves.


The fear of speaking disappears 

Receptive multilingualism, whenever it is possible, comes as a relief for many people who then won't have to overcome their fear of speaking in another language. This can bring more people from different cultures and different languages closer together and thus promote social cohesion.


Equal status for each language

Furthermore, receptive multilingualism puts all languages on the same level in terms of status. This is in line with the European Union's multilingualism policy: one language is no more prestigious than the other.


Economic benefit

From an economic point of view, it is advantageous to master as many languages as possible, even if mastery is limited to the receptive language skills. Companies that let the customer communicate in their native language, whether on the phone or with the chatbot, can reach more customers around the world.


Receptive multilingualism in education

But the most interesting thing is undoubtedly what receptive multilingualism can mean on a personal level and for foreign language education. Investing less time in (the intensive acquisition of) productive language skills, frees up a lot of time to learn more languages, to work on a much broader multilingualism.

Learning to speak and write in a foreign language is certainly not a waste of time, but it does require much more time and effort than learning to listen and read in the same foreign language. Understanding more languages gives students access to more different cultures. A broad multilingualism broadens their world.

By shifting the focus from the productive to the receptive skills, we may make learning languages even more attractive for students. At a much shorter time and with less effort, they learn many more languages and a much larger world can open up for them. How fascinating is that?


A new wind blowing?

All the above benefits are within reach, if we can look at language teaching from a different perspective. Of course, the idea is not that receptive multilingualism should replace all current language education practices, but a new perspective on the state of language teaching (in Flanders at least) seems more useful than ever: the number of French teachers decreases every year, fewer and fewer students start language studies in higher education, reading skills (reading comprehension) deteriorate, the knowledge of French decreases among Flemish young people.

Perhaps receptive multilingualism can blow a new wind through traditional language teaching?


Teaching receptive multilingualism

There still is a lot of uncharted territory, when it comes to teaching receptive multilingualism. Jan ten Thije discovered that receptive multilingualism occurs spontaneously in certain places and in certain circumstances, but if we want to apply it in more places and more often, then we need to think about how we can help students build a broad receptive multilingualism. Just tear out all the pages that handle speaking or writing skills? Definitely not the right answer. New teaching methods are required.

Do you find all this inspiring and would you like to further explore receptive multilingualism? Send your feedback and comments to Lillofee Meersseman(lillofee.meersseman@detaalsector.be).

Do you read Dutch? Then you can certainly fill out this survey by Lillofee Meersseman: Receptive multilingualism: an opportunity for the export economy, a challenge for language education?.

The deadline is 31 May 2020. Take part and be among the first to receive the results of her research on the challenges and opportunities that receptive multilingualism offers for language learning.

 

Photo Tobias Mikkelsen

 


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Author: Lillofee Meersseman

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Source language: Nederlands (nl)


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