Volume: 3  Number: 2  Page: 125–138

Plurilingualism and Strategic Competence in Context

Danièle Moore Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada

This contribution documents the strategies bi/plurilingual children spontaneously develop when confronted with a task that demands comprehension of texts in a third language. To illustrate these strategies in context, the paper draws from classroom interaction excerpts: small groups of children (ages 8–10) discover meaning in a text in a language unknown to them (Mandarin written in the Chinese script). International research has long documented the metalinguistic abilities shown by bilinguals in approaching new languages (e.g. Bialystok, 2001; Cummins, 2000), and their facilitative nature for further language learning. This paper documents how competence in two languages, and specifically heightened language awareness, serve as resources to build knowledge in context.

Keywords: plurilingualism, strategic competence, metalinguistic representations, multilingual factor

© 2006 D. Moore

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