Renforcer l'apprentissage du français langue étrangère grâce à la didactique intégrée des langues: une nouvelle recherche empirique en Suisse

Abstract

Language learning is an integrative phenomenon, in which each new language fits into a pre-existing cognitive network. The didactics of plurilingualism has been developed over the last twenty years on the basis of these considerations and has been the subject of numerous theoretical publications along with proposals for language courses, but it has not always been implemented in schools. This can be partly explained by its lack of empirical basis. In the present article, we present a cross-sectional study currently being conducted in secondary schools in German-speaking Switzerland, which aims to document the implementation of plurilingual activities in L3 French classes. We focus here on the methodology employed. Using a mixed-methods design, we aim to measure the effects of the didactics of plurilingualism on learners' awareness of their learning of French, which is necessary for effective learning. Our research objective is to empirically attest to the theoretically positive effects of a didactic approach which is based on a dynamic and decompartmentalized conception of language learning.