Polítiques europees en educació i multilingüisme: el rol dels professors de llengües estrangeres

Abstract

The article summarises the origins of the Communitys policy in the field of fostering the learning of foreign languages, and contextualises this process in the progressive setting up of the European work area and the language needs that can facilitate the mobility of workers. Then recent changes in the presence of foreign languages in education systems are synthetically described, as are developments in the results of this presence as regards the language skills of the general population. Then, drawing on a study commissioned by the Comission, the article presents in some detail the profile of the teacher of foreign languages, who are at the coal face, implementing these policies. As the main conclusion, it is clear that the Unions powers in this field, as decided by the Member States, remain very limited, and that even longstanding recomendations, for instance, that the curriculum for training future language teachers should include a compulsory stay in a country that speaks the language the student will in future teach, have in practice made scant inroads. Nevertheless, the growing presence of languages (and especially English) in the school curriculum, even at primary level, is also clear.