Plurilingualism and the challenges
The purpose of this contribution is to retrace a movement of extension and integration from foreign language teaching to plurilingual education. <i>Extension</i> in so far as foreign language learning is more and more seen as one of the most important goals for school systems. <i>Integration</i> in so far as foreign language learning may be acknowledged today as a fundamental part of a more general plurilingual education serving several aims well beyond developing communicative competence in different languages. Within the Modern languages projects of the Council of Europe focus has shifted onto the place and function of languages in the whole curriculum and their key role in the educational process. This is largely due to a reinterpretation of the notion of plurilingual (and pluricultural) competence and to the inclusion of the language of schooling in the analyses and proposals regarding languages in/for education.