Would you like to discover what intercomprehension is?
According to the Larousse dictionary, it is the “ability of speakers to understand statements made by others.”
Studies on intercomprehension define it as “the ability to understand a foreign language based on another language without having learned it.” (Meissner, 2003:31).
Recent studies on intercomprehension and its teaching have highlighted that this practice should actually be seen as a set of different perspectives. For this reason, we can define it as:
- A way of communicating that has been practiced for centuries, based on mutual understanding, even when speakers do not share the same language.
- A set of communication strategies that take advantage of language similarities and proximity.
- A didactic approach (emerging in the late 20th century) aimed at promoting understanding among speakers of languages that belong to the same linguistic family.
In summary, we can define it as:
“The development of the ability to co-construct meaning when different languages come into contact and to use it in a given communicative situation in a pragmatic way. In other words, intercomprehension is also the ability to understand a language (without necessarily having studied it before) in a specific context, by using developed discourse competence.” (Capucho, F., “Línguas e identidades culturais: da implicação de políticos (socio)linguistas.” In Fábio L. da Silva & Kanavillil Rajagopalan (eds.), A linguística que nos faz falhar. São Paulo: Unicamp: Parábola Editorial, 2004. 83–87.)
To define it even more precisely, we can distinguish various types of intercomprehension. When discussing intercomprehension, we actually distinguish:
- Receptive intercomprehension, which consists of reading or listening to music.
- Interactive intercomprehension, which involves written or oral interaction.
Additionally, we can further differentiate between:
- Intercomprehension between related languages (such as Romance, Slavic, or Germanic languages).
- Intercomprehension between unrelated languages.
Through a proactive language strategy based on multilingualism, UNITA promotes one of the cornerstones of the European project and aims to contribute significantly to the fulfillment of the motto “Unity in diversity”. To support learning and communication in an English-friendly but Romance language speaking community, UNITA will develop training programs for students, teaching staff and administrative staff in the field of intercomprehension.
