“Awakening to Languages” and Educational Language Policy

Abstract

“Awakening to languages” (AtL) is a linear heir of the “language awareness” approach that emerged in the UK during the 1980s, thanks mainly to the theoretical and practical work of Eric Hawkins (Awareness of language. An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984). It has been defined as follows in the European Evlang program (see Candelier, M. Janua Linguarum – The gateway to languages – The introduction of language awareness into the curriculum: Awakening to languages. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2003, pp. 18–19): An awakening to languages is when part of the activities concerns languages that the school does not intend to teach (which may or may not be the mother tongues of some pupils). This does not mean that only that part of the work that focuses on these languages deserves to be called an awakening to languages. Such a differentiation would not make sense as normally it has to be a global enterprise, usually comparative in nature, that concerns both those languages, the language or languages of the school and any foreign (or other) language learnt. The aim of the present contribution is to outline theoretical and practical research about educational and social benefits from using this approach for educational language policy. The AtL approach is particularly relevant in today’s societies: openness to others and plurilingual competences as well as policies aiming at reducing inequality have become an urgent need. The contribution will also refer to the integration of AtL into a set of language learning and teaching approaches – called “pluralistic approaches” – which contributes to its dissemination.