English in the French workplace: realism and anxieties

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The adoption of English as a corporate language in an increasingly large number of French companies has provoked various reactions ranging from enthusiastic embrace to strong rejection based on anxiety and cultural protectionism. This paper is an attempt to understand these reactions based on a stratified study of the extent to which English has taken root in the French workplace. Results point to a real “English divide” between educated and less educated groups, and between upper management and shop floor workers. While most employees are willing to adopt English to facilitate international trade, they reject the top‐down imposition of English that often leads to exclusion and various forms of de‐skilling. The paper proposes a model that allows different levels of proficiency to coexist in such a way as to attenuate the perverse effects on power relationships that the adoption of English sometimes results in.