4 Language use and the language user/learner

Following the first three introductory and explanatory chapters, Chapters 4 and 5 now present a fairly detailed scheme of categories for the description of language use and the language user. In accordance with the action-oriented approach taken, it is assumed that the language learner is in the process of becoming a language user, so that the same set of categories will apply. There is, however, an important modification which must be made. The learner of a second or foreign language and culture does not cease to be competent in his or her mother tongue and the associated culture. Nor is the new competence kept entirely separate from the old. The learner does not simply acquire two distinct, unrelated ways of acting and communicating. The language learner becomes plurilingual and develops interculturality. The linguistic and cultural competences in respect of each language are modified by knowledge of the other and contribute to intercultural awareness, skills and know-how. They enable the individual to develop an enriched, more complex personality and an enhanced capacity for further language learning and greater openness to new cultural experiences. Learners are also enabled to mediate, through interpretation and translation, between speakers of the two languages concerned who cannot communicate directly. A place is of course given to these activities (section 4.4.4) and competences (sections 5.1.1.3, 5.1.2.2 and 5.1.4), which differentiate the language learner from the monolingual native speaker.

Question boxes. Readers will see that from this point on, each section is followed by a box in which the Framework user is invited: ‘to consider and where appropriate state’ the answers to one or more questions that follow. The alternatives in the phrase ‘need/be equipped/be required’ relate to learning, teaching and assessment respectively. The content of the box is phrased as an invitation rather than as an instruction in order to emphasise the non-directive character of the Framework enterprise. If a user decides that a whole area is not of concern, there is no need to consider each section within that area in detail. In most cases, however, we expect that the Framework user will reflect on the question posed in each box and take a decision one way or another. If the decision taken is of significance, it can be formulated using the categories and examples supplied, supplemented as may be found necessary for the purpose in hand.

The analysis of language use and the language user contained in Chapter 4 is fundamental to the use of the Framework, since it offers a structure of parameters and categorieswhichshould enable all those involved in language learning, teaching and assessment to consider and state in concrete terms and in whatever degree of detail they wish, what they expect the learners towards whom they undertake responsibilities to be able to do with a language, and what they should know in order to be able to act. Its aim is to be comprehensive in its coverage, but not of course exhaustive. Course designers, textbook

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