This study explores the available English lexicon of Spanish adolescents in the twelfth form. It combines a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the English words produced by males and females in a lexical availability task. The objectives are twofold. Firstly, we identify the number of words retrieved by each group in response to nine prompts related to learners’ realities, such as ‘Food & drink’, ‘Clothes’, ‘School’, or ‘Hobbies’. Secondly, we analyse the most frequent words retrieved by males and females to ascertain whether patterns of gender variation are observed. Overall, the results indicated more similarities than differences. A closer analysis on the means points to the absence of significant differences in the number of words produced by males and females both for the whole task and per prompt. However, differential tendencies were also observed in the exclusive words for each group that were found in the prompts ‘Professions’ and ‘Clothes’.

Linguistic mediation is one of the aspects to be developed within communicative competence, as established by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2002). The aim of this study is to check whether linguistic mediation somehow contributes the development of other communicative constructs, in this case oral production. To this end, a group of 40 students from the 1st year of Bachillerato at a public secondary school in Madrid carried out a total of eight language mediation activities designed ad hoc. The activities were carried out once a week, in 50-minute sessions. The participants took an oral production test before and after the didactic intervention. Oral production was measured in terms of coherence and cohesion, lexical and grammatical variety, fluency, interaction, and pronunciation. The results showed that after the completion of the mediation activities, the students’ fluency and interaction had improved significantly, thus suggesting the added value of linguistic mediation not only as important in itself but as a facilitator in the development of other communicative skills.

Todo multilingue esta sujeto a cambios en la produccion oral de su L1, por no utilizarla o por la influencia de otras lenguas dominantes. Ademas, la trayectoria de adquisicion de lenguas se caracteriza por su aislamiento, sobre todo en contextos educativos, en los que la globalizacion potencia la importancia de la lengua extranjera. Esto provoca reservas ante el riesgo de que el multilingue no adquiriera habilidades comunicativas adecuadas en la L1. Asimismo, la construccion de significado parece estar caracterizada por el intercambio de diferentes modos que fluyen en la intercomunicacion social. La presente revision de investigaciones previas en translenguaje y multimodalidad nos lleva a la comprension de su relacion dentro de la perspectiva de multicompetencia. Esta describe la lengua como un sistema semiotico multisensorial y multimodal asociado a otros sistemas cognitivos reconocibles e inseparables. El concepto de translenguaje sugiere la integracion de varias lenguas en el discurso. La multicompetencia asimismo entiende el uso de las diferentes lenguas como un proceso de aculturacion. Esto unido al impacto de otras lenguas sobre la L1 podria subyacer a su erosion. El supuesto de que el multilinguismo se identifica con toda la mente explica como el desarrollo tambien ocurre en la totalidad del repertorio linguistico. Asi, el translenguaje protege las lenguas minoritarias evitando su aislamiento. Esta contribucion trata de clarificar como nuestro instinto de translenguaje, parte de la multimodalidad, en la multicompetencia, puede enriquecer los procesos de ensenanza y aprendizaje, en particular las habilidades comunicativas de la L1, con la totalidad del repertorio comunicativo. All multilinguals are subjected to alteration in their L1 oral production, because they do not use it or due to the influence of other dominant languages. Besides, the language acquisition trajectory is featured by segregation, especially in educational contexts, where due to globalization, the foreign language is increasingly gaining relevance. This also provokes reservations about the danger of multilinguals not attaining adequate communicative skills in the L1. Moreover, the construction of meaning seems to be characterised by the interchange of different modes that flow in social intercommunication. The present review of previous research on translanguaging and multimodality makes us comprehend the relationship between the two concepts within the multicompetence perspective. This describes language as a multisensory and multimodal semiotic system associated with other recognizable cognitive systems that cannot be separated. The concept of translanguaging suggests the integration of various languages in discourse. Furthermore, from the multicompetence perspective, the use of different languages is understood as an acculturation process. This fact, together with the impact of other languages on the L1, may underlie attrition. The supposition that multilingualism relates to the speakers’ whole mind explains how development also occurs within their entire linguistic repertoire. Thus, translanguaging can be understood as a benefit for minoritised languages not isolating them from others. The present study tries to shed light on how our translingual instinct as part of multimodality, within the multicompetence perspective, may endow the teaching and learning processes, and in particular L1 communicative skills, with the richness of the whole communicative repertoire.

Intercultural language teaching and learning is one manifestation of the critical turn in language education. Its critical dimension is characterised by a strong emphasis on self-reflexivity in both teaching and learning, and by a transformational agenda for language education (Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013). Within language education, the critical project requires that the focus of language learning is to develop social actors capable of using language repertoires in ways that provide for agency both over language (in the choices they make about how to use their language resources) and through language (in the social possibilities they realise for themselves through their language repertoires). Within such a view of education, critical reflection comes to play an important role. To consider language education in such a way requires reconceptualising some of the fundamental starting assumptions of language education, which provides a basis for creating new emphases in both theory and practice. This presentation begins by examining the nature of this reconceptualisation and then examines the consequences of such reconceptualising for teaching and learning. It examines data from language learners to exemplify the forms of learning involved in this manifestation of the critical turn in language education.

This article shows the preliminary results of a longitudinal study that aims to (i) determine the impact of bilingual education on the acquisition of contents related to social sciences, and (ii) its effect on the reduction of gender-based achievement differences. To this end, the results of students in the 4th year of primary education (n = 119) of one bilingual and one nonbilingual school located in an urban area were compared. It was guaranteed that the groups were homogeneous in terms of socio-economic level, that they had received a similar teaching methodology and same amount of social science teaching hours (3 hours a week). The results showed (i) the students who received the subject of social sciences in English had acquired knowledge in a similar manner to those who had received it in their mother tongue and (ii) the bilingual education levelled the gender differences observed in the non-bilingual school in favour of males.