Linking "heritage language" education and plurilingual repertoires development: Evidences from drawings of portuguese pupils in Germany

Abstract

This article discusses the outcomes of an investigation of social representations of Portuguese primary school pupils in Germany towards 'their languages' (mainly Portuguese and German) within a theoreti-cal framework based on the concept of 'Heritage Language' and its role in the development of plurilin-gual competences. The results of the collected data (956 drawings from pupils in 7 German Federal States) point at the existence of: i) bounds between Heritage Language and the development of Plurilingual Competence; ii) stereotyped representations towards languages and cultures; and iii) the building up of a 'linguistic culture', since the pupils have already developed attitudes, knowledge and aptitude to deal with linguis-tic and cultural diversity. The study emphasizes the need to develop a more consistent multilingual awareness in order to optimize attitudes, knowledge and aptitudes evinced, namely in Heritage Lan-guage classroom. © 2012 International Association for the Improvement of Mother tongue Education.