6.2 A ‘citizen of the world’ Flashcards
***‘can-do’ attitude to linguistic challenges and
is not too concerned about making mistakes or having onlyalimited
vocabulary. Even very limited language skills can be useful for
communicating and building relationships with the speakers of that language.
Plurilingual profile
No two plurilingual
profiles are the same. Even within one family, siblings will have slightly
different linguistic profiles because they were born at different stages in the family history, and roles within a family and between the family and its surroundings tend to change over time. For example, a sibling who is a
teenager when the family moves to a new country may take longer to
integrate than their younger sibling, who is just about to start school.
Furthermore, a person’s profile is made up of a complex combination of skills and knowledge. You will find that people whose language skills are very developed in one area may be less proficient in others because they have not had the opportunity to practise their skills. It is rare to find a plurilingual person who is equally proficient in every skill (i.e. speaking, reading, listening and writing) in each of the languages they use, and the balance between the person’s competencies in these languages may also change over time, for example, depending on the amount of contact they have with each of the relevant cultures at different stages of their lives.
