Modes of communication and language learning in the 21st century: challenges for internationalization

Abstract

Multicultural and multilingual issues are of central importance in everyday communication as a result of growing internationalization. Thus, as the places and possibilities for the authorized use of (first and foreign) languages become research objects and relevant topics in teacher education, conventions of use and diversity reaffirm their importance in communicative processes, and linguistic-communicative skills consolidate their value as inalienable assets in professional qualification. This paper addresses the complexity of this new scenario and how language learning relates to new ways of knowing something, knowing how to (learn to) do something, and knowing how to exist. It consists in an exploratory endeavor, based on the authors' experience as teachers, researchers and managers, which has been motivated by reflections on our individual presentations in the VII World Symposium on Portuguese Language Studies (VII Simpósio Mundial de Estudos da Língua Portuguesa), which took place in Porto de Galinhas (Brazil) in August 2019. The objective is to look into internationalization in three specific domains, i.e.: the modes of communication highlighted in The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), the teaching of languages for specific purposes, and education policies for the 21st century. Following the theoretical discussion, we attempt to demonstrate how the management of teaching policies related to internationalization - Portuguese to speakers of other languages, or other languages to speakers of Portuguese - can foster the development of practices in response to pressing professional and educational issues in the 21st century.