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Paper short abstract:

In Europe, attempts to practice CLIL are expanding as plurilingual education and its effectiveness has been studied. What about plurilingual education for learning Japanese, which has a linguistic distance from the European languages? The purpose of study is examination of this research question.

Paper long abstract:

I have investigated the process of learning and acquiring Japanese for students of higher education institutions in France, who use pluri(multi)lingual and pluri(multi)cultural competence (Coste et al., 1997, 2009), to think about Japanese language learning and education in a dynamic society in the global age. In Europe, foreign language education according to plurilingualism and pluriculturalism, which is the principle of the CEFR, is being conducted, attempts to practice CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) are expanding as plurilingual education, and its effectiveness has been studied. But what about plurilingual education for learning Japanese, which has a linguistic distance from the European languages such as English, Spanish, and German that French students have learned? The purpose of this study is examination of this research question.

An ethnographic survey showed that learners' learning strategies based on plurilingual and pluricultural competence and pluri(multi)literacy competence (Moore, 2006) were used to acquire Japanese. The competence to acquire plurilingual competence (Castellotti & Moore, 2011), which has been acquired up to that time by learners, can also promote Japanese language appropriation (acquisition). In addition, we surveyed the process of Japanese language production activities of students and investigated how to use the pluriliteracy competence concretely. This study takes into account a paradigm shift characterized by diversification of learning objectives, learner mobility, and complexity of pathways. Then, based on the results of surveys on learning and practicing Japanese not only in the classroom but also in social life, we considered the possibility of plurilingual education that would also support autonomous learning.

Flexible communication of plurilingual speakers through multiple linguistic resources is not special, and multimodality is also progressing. While plurilingualism positively recognizes the mobilization of available abilities and resources of speakers to achieve one's goal, monolingual standard classrooms will not be able to take full advantage of such multilingual learner processes. The practice of plurilingual education and Translanguaging, in line with the realities of learners' plurilingual competence and language use, is indeed possible in Japanese language classrooms. An activity that supports learners in the process of producing Japanese using plurilingual competence and pluriliteracy competence, for example, focusing on negotiation of meaning of vocabulary, is conceivable.