Page 37 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

Grammar-Translation Method

‘evaporation, condensation, precipitation’ into their L1 and discuss the Latin
origin of the terms.

Developing Plurilingual Competence
The role of translation has also been reconsidered with the introduction of
the concepts of ‘mediation’ and ‘plurilingual competence’ in the Companion
Volume to the Common European Framework of Reference (Council of Europe,
2018, p. 103):

Inmediation,theuser/learneractsasasocialagentwhocreatesbridges
and helps to construct or convey meaning, sometimes within the same
language, sometimes from one language to another (cross-linguistic
mediation). The focus is on the role of language in processes like cre-
ating the space and conditions for communicating and/or learning,
collaborating to construct new meaning, encouraging others to con-
struct or understand new meaning, and passing on new information
in an appropriate form.

As already emphasised in the Common European Framework of Reference
(2001), mediation language activities (translation or interpretation, para-
phrasing, summarising, etc.) help develop competences which will enable
individuals to effectively communicate with each other also in situations in
which direct communication is not possible. Mediation is closely related to
plurilingual competence which involves the ability to make use of the whole
repertoire of languages available to a learner (besides foreign or second lan-
guages, also the mother tongue and various dialects) in communication by,
for instance, switching from one language to another, expressing oneself in
one language and understanding a speaker speaking another.
The concepts of mediation and plurilingual competence have acquired a
new significance with the realisation that children do not switch off their
languages (and dialects) when they enter the foreign language classroom.
Classroom activities which involve the learners’ linguistic repertoires pro-
mote plurilingual competence and cross-linguistic mediation and thus con-
tribute to effective communication both in and outside the classroom. As
McConnell Duff (1989, p. 6) points out, ‘translation happens everywhere, all
the time, so why not in the classroom.’
The development of plurilingual competence involves, amid other things,
the forming of positive attitudes and perceptions towards foreign/second
languages and the related cultures. In developing the language education
policy, the Council of Europe recognised the promotion of linguistic diver-
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