Abstract/Summary

Key-Co System has promoted targeted research, led by the University of Reading, on Multilingualism, that is deemed as a pivotal competence, especially with regard to Adult Migrant Learners (AMLs) and their educational needs. The result of this research work is “Is Multilingualism the key competence?”, a paper written by Cecilia Defilippi and Federico Faloppa, academics at the University of Reading, in cooperation with the five educational institutions from four European countries taking part in Key-Co System project. In the framework of the eight key competencies identified by the European Commission, multilingual competence is the one defining the ability to use different languages appropriately and effectively for communication. That is why AMLs can significantly benefit from the development of multilingualism: in fact, by facilitating and enhancing it, other key competencies can be fostered and fully developed. The paper focuses on this topic by addressing the following research questions: 1. To what extent are multilingualism and multilingual competence taken into account by the five partner institutions? 2. To what extent and how is the multilingual competence valued and valorized by/within the partner institutions? 3. To what extent should the perceptions of students and teachers on multilingualism be considered? 4. What kind of teaching strategies are performed in each partner institution to develop such a multilingual competence? This work aims to identify gaps and inconsistencies in the current European context, to provide readers with some common terminological and theoretical background, and provide national and transnational governing bodies with a set of questions and issues that may need to be tackled for them to meet the goals stated in the CoE’s 2018 Recommendation on key competences for lifelong learning.