Bleichenbacher, Lukas

This keynote explores the dynamics of multilingualism in movies from a perspective grounded in language policy analysis. It begins by drawing parallels between the treatment of multilingualism—encompassing different languages, dialects, and other varieties—in the study of cinematic texts and in language pedagogy. This includes a consideration of some basic tenets of current European language policy, with focus on the notion of comprehensibility and the facilitation of intercultural communication. To illustrate these concepts, the lecture examines the example of multilingual and multidialectal dialogue, accompanied by subtitles in various national languages, in the 2023 Swiss comedy Bon Schuur Ticino (‘Hello Ticino’; dir. Peter Luisi). The film portrays characters from diverse linguistic backgrounds grappling with the imposition of a new and dystopic language policy, following a controversial popular vote resulting in the country being declared monolingual with French as the sole official language. These insights lead into a discussion of how university teaching can effectively blend generic and applied disciplinary content for a variety of professions, including future teachers and translators.

One of the aims of teacher education is to contribute to continuity in plurilingual, intercultural, and language-sensitive education, across subjects and educational levels. In this paper, we present selected results of two European projects that support this aim. The article outlines the background and potential of a taxonomy of teacher competences that exemplifies dimensions of language-related teacher competence shared by teachers of languages and other subjects. The dimensions include descriptors for teaching competences proper, for collaboration with other teachers and stakeholders, and for teacher development. Furthermore, a dimension containing competences related to the analysis of languages, discourse and cultures reframes aspects of language teachers’ content knowledge as a competence domain that is relevant, albeit to varying degrees, for all teachers. Two transversal dimensions, which contain teachers’ language and digital competences, an overview of teachers’ values and principles, and an account of professional learning opportunities complete the taxonomy.

Our contribution draws on quantitative data from a longitudinal mixed-methods study to uncover different patterns of social contacts of study abroad (SA) students and the relationship of these social contacts with (a) language use, (b) target language development, and (c) contextual variables. Data were obtained by means of online questionnaires pre, during, and post sojourn. English oral proficiency gains were measured using the Oral Proficiency Interview by Computer (OPIc) test before and after the stay. Latent profile analysis yielded four profiles of social contacts, which differed in terms of the degree of integration into the community of locals or international students. Students with distinct profiles differ significantly with respect to language use but not in terms of language gains. Regression analyses indicate that comparable progress in oral proficiency was made by students across profiles of social contacts and also by those in an English as a lingua franca (ELF) context suggesting that different SA context and networking patterns are conducive to second language (L2) gains.