In France, the majority of future primary school teachers complete a two-year master’s degree in teaching, education and training as part of their initial teacher education. On graduating, they will both teach modern foreign languages, and come into contact with an increasingly plurilingual and/or pluricultural classroom population. Therefore, their attitudes towards languages, language learning, and cross-comprehension between languages is crucial if they are to maximise their pupils’ ability to flourish as plurilingual/pluricultural beings in a linguistically and culturally heterogeneous society.

This raises a number of questions for teacher educators working in initial teacher education at primary level:
- How do these future professionals see themselves in relation to plurilingual and intercultural classroom practices?
- As they set out on their two-year programme of initial teacher education, how well-informed are they about the benefits of the pluralistic approaches promoted on both national and European levels?
- What is their vision of linguistic and cultural plurality?
- And what led them to develop their point of view?
- Was it their personal experience and history with languages?
- Observations in educational settings?
- How far are they aware of the linguistic and cultural plurality of the society within which they live?
- And to what extent do they consider it important to give this plurality a central place in the education of children in French primary schools, in order to best prepare them to live and work in an increasingly heterogeneous society?
- And how do their attitudes and representations evolve during the course of their studies?

In order to explore these questions 400 students on a two-year masters’ degree in teaching, education and training were invited to complete an online questionnaire exploring their representations of plurilinguism; as an abstract concept, in relation to themselves, in relation to their pupils and in relation to their teaching. This presentation analyses the results of this study leading to informed reflection about possible changes and improvements in the proposed programme of education in and around foreign languages within the two-year masters’ degree programme.

Keywords: Teacher education, plurilinguism, pluralistic approaches, languages, diversity.