https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5963-648X
![Sample our Language & Literature journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5941/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Language-Literature.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This article focuses on the effects of a 21-hour Romance Intercomprehension (RIC) module on the plurilingual competence in Romance languages of no prior knowledge and EFL reading comprehension skills of a group of Italian schoolchildren aged 10–11. Data were collected pre- and post-training through a simple language identification and comprehension questionnaire (within subjects, n = 19), and an EFL reading comprehension test (between subjects, RIC group n = 15; control n = 23), to answer the following questions: 1) What type of plurilingual reading strategies and competence can a short RIC module develop in a school con-text? and 2) Do the competences and strategies acquired through such a RIC course affect proficiency in EFL reading comprehension? Comparisons of pre- and post-test results indicated not only that the RIC-trained group did develop an initial level of plurilingual competence in Romance languages, but also that their EFL reading comprehension skills improved more than those of the control group. Further research is needed to substantiate these data and confirm this strategy transfer. However, alongside validating Intercomprehension methodology for quick development of plurilingual reading competence, this study seems to indicate that such competence can be extended outside a language family even in young learners.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 On receptive multilingualism as an interesting option to reduce the competition among languages taught in institutional contexts, see Vetter (Citation2011).
2 For a state-of-the-art collection of IC experiences, see e.g. Bonvino et al. (Citation2018).
3 Such material was retrievable until January 2021 at www.http://www.unilat.org/DPEL/Intercomprehension/Itinerairesromans/fr, but the recent shutdown of Adobe Flahs Player has, regrettably, made it unavailable.
4 See, for instance, Marshall & Moore’s well-argued and fervent reply (Citation2016) to some of the above critiques/misconceptions about plurilingualism.
5 One might find, for instance, conceptual similarities between the intercomprehensive approach an translanguaging (Canagarajah, Citation2011; García & Otheguy, Citation2019, among others), particularly in that they both make recourse to students’ full linguistic repertoires and they share – following Cummins’ Common Underlying Proficiency theories (Citation1979) – a view of language management as a single unitary system, as opposed to two separate ones. Yet, we feel that translanguaging, for its being deeply connected with already bilingual contexts, would not support as effectively the didactic and pedagogic intent of this study, which is that of broadening the range of languages known by a group of mostly monolingual pupils.
6 The national curriculum for language teaching in Italian middle-schools prescribes the compulsory teaching of English plus one other EU language. The two languages are taught respectively for three and two hours a week, usually by different teachers and with different target levels at the end of the three-year school cycle (A2 for English, A1 for the 2FL). As for Italian L1, as well as Italian L2 (where applicable), they are treated as completely separate subjects from FLs (in fact, Italian L1 or L2 curricula are regarded as having more to share with those of world history and geography, than with other languages!), with no official space for interdepartmental dialogue.
7 In fact, as the interest of families and pupils in the project was significantly higher than the possibilities of implementation offered by the school (45 applications for 20 places available), some selection criteria had to be established. These criteria were based on linguistic background (a pro-linguistic-diversity approach was adopted, though most applicants were monolingual Italians) and on equality in class distribution. Once these initial criteria were met, as the applicants still outnumbered the places available, a drawing lots procedure was used.
8 INVALSI (Italian National Institute for the Assessment of the Education System) tests are the official, compulsory large-scale assessment tools used by the Italian Ministry of Education to annually test the school population at various stages of their education in Italian, mathematics and (since 2017–18) EFL. The EFL INVALSI tests for pupils in ‘terza media’ (13–14-year-olds) are a combination of A1 and A2 computer-based reading and listening tasks.
9 It is worth noting that Milan has a very large Romanian community, which makes the high number of ‘don’t know’ answers in the case of Romanian prior to the RIC course particularly striking.