Enjeux de la double médiation du plurilinguisme dans le milieu académique multilingue. Internationalisation ou diversité dans l’enseignement supérieur ?

Ces dernières années, les processus d’internationalisation de la formation et de la recherche ont accéléré le développement et la promotion de l’anglais comme langue internationale pour les sciences et pour l’enseignement/apprentissage. La question développée dans cet article concerne moins l’impérialisme linguistique de l’anglais dans le milieu académique globalisé que la perception de l’usage de la langue par ceux qui l’utilisent. Qui l’emploie avec qui, pour quelle raison, dans quel contexte, à quel moment et de quelle manière ? Comment chaque choix est encadré, soutenu, géré, (dé)valorisé, outillé, médié ou remédié ? Quelle politique linguistique universitaire à mettre en place pour trouver un juste équilibre entre l’anglais « lingua academica » et les autres langues, dans le but de garantir une convergence entre l’internationalisation de la formation et le maintien de la diversité au niveau individuel et institutionnel, ce en termes de complémentarité et d’intégration ? L’objectif de cette contribution sera de confronter les représentations sociales que les acteurs sociaux ont de l’internationalisation avec la politique linguistique institutionnelle plurilingue, d’explorer ce que représentent les pratiques scientifiques et académiques plurilingues et d’identifier une convergence ou divergence possibles entre les connaissances scientifiques et la sensibilité des acteurs aux théories sur le plurilinguisme. Notre intérêt porte particulièrement sur les enjeux linguistiques dans le processus d’internationalisation des savoirs, notamment sur le rôle de (re-)médiation du langage et les fonctions des langues tels rapportés par des étudiants de différentes disciplines.Currently, the process of internationalization of training and research has accelerated the development and the promotion of English as an international language for science and teaching/learning. The question developed in this article is less concerned with the linguistic imperialism of English in the globalized academic environment than it is with the perception of the language use by those who employ it. Who uses it with whom, for what reason, in what context, at which particular moment time and in what way? How is each choice framed, supported, managed, (de)valorized, instrumented, mediated or remedied? How does a university put in place its language policy so as to find a fair balance between English «Lingua Academica» and other languages, with the aim of ensuring a convergence between the internationalization of the education and the maintenance of diversity at both the individual and institutional levels, in terms of complementarity and integration? The goal of this contribution is to confront the social representations that the social actors have regarding internationalization in multilingual institutional linguistic policies, to explore the meaning of plurilingual scientific and academic practices, and also to identify a possible convergence or divergence between scientific knowledge and the sensitivity of the actors towards theories on plurilingualism. Our interest focuses particularly on language issues in the process of knowledge internationalization, including the role of (re-)mediation of the language and the functions of languages such as reported by students of different disciplines

Histoire du français et sa présence actuelle dans le royaume thaï

1. Présence française dans le royaume de Siam En 1985, la France et le royaume de Thaïlande ont célébré le tricentenaire de leurs relations diplomatiques, ouvertes à l'époque de Louis XIV et du roi Naraï. Ainsi, la présence de la langue française en Thaïlande ne date pas d'hier. Au XVIIe siècle déjà, des responsables du royaume de Siam avaient fait l'effort d'apprendre le français pour mieux communiquer avec les envoyés du roi français. Cette esquisse historique des premières relations diplom..

“English is the language of business”: An exploration of language ideologies in two European corporate contexts

The increased linguistic and cultural diversity of international workplaces challenges different understandings of corporate language, corporate communication and even language ideologies. The understanding, attitudes and ideologies towards language and language policies of members in culturally and linguistically mixed teams are an important aspect of business communication studies that so far has received little attention. Through an analysis of two case studies of MNCs in Switzerland and Italy in the banking sector, based on semi-structured interviews with employees in those companies, this paper aims to explore ideologies of multilingualism and English that dominate in the workplace and those that underpin the official and unofficial corporate policies adopted. The dominant discourse is that “English is the language of business” and it remains a fixed and unquestioned corporate language. However, the importance of collaborative, flexible and multilingual practices at all levels of professional communication has been highlighted in the experiences reported by business professionals interviewed. The use of BELF and other languages does not necessarily function, as companies’ policies would require, following the monolingual language separation mode, but in a mixed, fluid and flexible mode. Finally, the promotion of a translingual use of BELF in corporate communication may allow flexibility and equality in dealing with the diversity of repertoires and access to resources for plurilingual employees

Patterns of language use in polyglossic urban areas and multilingual regions and institutions: a Swiss case study

Growing mobility of important parts of the world's population has led to a massive increase in multilingualism in post-modern societies and a lasting change from homoglossic to polyglossic communities with important "deterritorialised” linguistic minorities, mostly plurilingual to a variable degree. Ideologies and practices of communication in old and new multilingual contexts vary largely. The "solutions” for overcoming potential problems go from using a lingua franca (often English), inventing pidgin like emergent varieties, choosing the language of one of the interlocutors known (partially) by the others (namely in the case of immigrants), insisting on receptive competences (everybody uses his or her own language, e. g. in officially multilingual institutions), to various forms of mixed speech and, of course, to interpretation and translation processes. Drawing on extensive field work in bilingual institutions and multilingual companies in Europe, particularly in Switzerland, we propose to discuss various ways of mobilizing multilingual repertoires in situations of cross-linguistic and intercultural communication. The analyzed data will mainly consist of dyadic and polyadic oral interactions. It will also include written texts and signs that are part of the linguistic landscape. Our work is grounded in the assumption that multilingualism is no longer considered a marginal phenomenon, only of interest to specialists, but instead a characteristic of the majority of human being

Multilingualism and third language acquisition: Learning and teaching trends

The purpose of this book is to present recent studies in the field of multilingualism and L3, bringing together contributions from an international group of specialists from Austria, Canada, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and United States. The main focuses of the articles are three: language acquisition, language learning and teaching. A collection of theoretical and empirical articles from scholars of multilingualism and language acquisition makes the book a significant resource as the papers present a wide perspective from main theories to current issues, reflecting new trends in the field. The authors focus on the heterogeneity and complexity that characterize third language acquisition, multilingual learning and teaching. As the issues addressed in this book intersect, it represents an asset and therefore the texts will be of great relevance for the scientific community. Part I presents different topics of L3 acquisition, such as syntax, phonology, working memory and selective attention, and lexicon. Part II comprises texts that show how the research on language acquisition informs pedagogical issues. For instance, the role of the knowledge of previous languages in the teaching of L3, the attitudes of multilingual teachers to plurilingual approaches, and the benefits of crosslinguistic pedagogy versus classroom monolingual bias. In sequence, Part III consists of texts on individual learning strategies, such as motivation and attitudes, crosslinguistic awareness, and students’ perceptions about teachers’ “plurilingual nonnativism”. All these chapters include several different languages in contact in an acquisition/learning context: Basque, English, French, German, Italian, Ladin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish

Multilingualism and third language acquisition: Learning and teaching trends

The purpose of this book is to present recent studies in the field of multilingualism and L3, bringing together contributions from an international group of specialists from Austria, Canada, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and United States. The main focuses of the articles are three: language acquisition, language learning and teaching. A collection of theoretical and empirical articles from scholars of multilingualism and language acquisition makes the book a significant resource as the papers present a wide perspective from main theories to current issues, reflecting new trends in the field. The authors focus on the heterogeneity and complexity that characterize third language acquisition, multilingual learning and teaching. As the issues addressed in this book intersect, it represents an asset and therefore the texts will be of great relevance for the scientific community. Part I presents different topics of L3 acquisition, such as syntax, phonology, working memory and selective attention, and lexicon. Part II comprises texts that show how the research on language acquisition informs pedagogical issues. For instance, the role of the knowledge of previous languages in the teaching of L3, the attitudes of multilingual teachers to plurilingual approaches, and the benefits of crosslinguistic pedagogy versus classroom monolingual bias. In sequence, Part III consists of texts on individual learning strategies, such as motivation and attitudes, crosslinguistic awareness, and students’ perceptions about teachers’ “plurilingual nonnativism”. All these chapters include several different languages in contact in an acquisition/learning context: Basque, English, French, German, Italian, Ladin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish