The FREPA Descriptors: an Operationalisation to Deepen and Complement Byram’s and Deardorff’s Definitions of Intercultural Competence

The paper discusses a set of tools that have been developed within the FREPA research project, supported since 2004 by the Council of Europe’s European Centre for Modern Languages. The Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures (FREPA) represents a complement to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, specifying in detail and structuring its rationale on intercultural and plurilingual competences. The FREPA tools consist of (a) a comprehensive list of descriptors operationalizing intercultural and plurilingual competences in terms of knowledge, attitudes and skills, (b) a database of teaching material and (c) a training kit for teachers.
The paper presents the FREPA descriptors by comparing them to Byram’s definition of intercultural communicative competence and Deardorff’s intercultural competence model and emphasises that FREPA deepens and complements Byram’s and Deardorff’s approaches through its distinction between competences and resources, the finely scaled catalogue of subdescriptors, the integration of plurilingual competences, and the establishment of learning to learn as a transversal dimension. Finally, the paper illustrates that the FREPA project bridges theory and practice by equipping teachers with practical tools, which suit the needs of various contexts.