Language In France Research Articles

Conceptualizing Linguistic and Cultural Identity among Breton and Arabic Users in Brittany

The linguistic diversity of France is a highly discussed topic, particularly in relation to the French state's (lack of) support for regional and minority languages (RMLs). There are approximately 200,000 speakers of the regional language Breton, while Arabic is the second-most widely spoken language in France with an estimated 3–4 million speakers. Recent studies have called for comparative analyses and this research seeks to fill this gap, focusing on individual speakers and their social experiences as they relate to language(s), diversity, and identity. This paper discusses findings of fieldwork conducted in Brittany with Breton and Arabic language users, examining how Breton and Arabic language users describe their language experiences, and how identity can be shaped by language practices. This research also explores how such language practices relate to diversity and multilingualism across France more broadly, and how individuals understand the multifaceted nature of identity using terms such as ‘double culture’ and ‘mélange’.

Problems on the path of formation of local self-government in France

The article is devoted to defining the peculiarities of the genesis of local self-government in France. The peculiarities of the formation of local self-government in the countries of continental law, in particular France and Ukraine, are determined. A superficial comparative analysis of the implementation of the powers of local self-government bodies in Ukraine and France at various stages of the countries’ development was conducted. The article states that the then French system of local self-government did not fully implement the principle of electability of all bodies and officials of local self-government, and at the end of the XIX century. this criterion was considered the main characteristic of administrative decentralization and began to be applied even to departmental self-government. It was noted that French society actively discussed the issue of the direction of the further development of the local self-government system. The scientific article contains information about forms of self-government similar to France in Belgium and Italy; in comparison with England, the state system of France should be considered not a democracy, but a bureaucracy. The article mentions the French revolution, the struggle against regionalism, the elimination of provinces and the creation of a new system of districts. The strengthening of the regionalization process, which went into decline only by the middle of the 20th century, is analyzed. The constant interest in the system of local self­government in France, especially the period of the French Republic, when a model of local self-government with broad representation, based on secret, universal, equal suffrage, was first proposed (during the 19th - early 20th centuries in Europe) is emphasized. The article states that the attitude towards the French model of local self-government depended on the perception of France itself, which sometimes led to a distorted perception of its organization of local self-government. The tendency is especially noticeable in the works of German political scientists and legal scholars. It was determined that the concepts of local self-government and decentralization of power were not distinguished and detailed in France, so due to the confusion of terms during administrative decentralization, the development of the system of self-government as a political institution of language in France was somewhat behind. It was established that the negative attitude towards the French system of local government, which developed during the period of the second monarchy and was supported by German jurists and political scientists, persisted even after the reform of 1871.
 It was concluded that the development and formation of local self-government in France had its own problems, but this did not prevent it from arriving at an effective both legislative and practical model of the exercise of powers by local self-government bodies.

Overrepresentation of Whiteness Is in Sign Language As Well: A Commentary on “Undoing Competence: Coloniality, Homogeneity, and the Overrepresentation of Whiteness in Applied Linguistics”

Overrepresentation of Whiteness Is in Sign Language As Well: A Commentary on “Undoing Competence: Coloniality, Homogeneity, and the Overrepresentation of Whiteness in Applied Linguistics”

Convergence and Divergence on Gender Inclusive Language in France and Australia

Convergence and Divergence on Gender Inclusive Language in France and Australia

Языковая политика Франции в XXI веке

The article analyzes the language policy of the French state and the activities of public institutions to support the French language. It is noted that despite the fact of a fairly wide spread of the French language on the planet, there is currently a tendency to weaken it as a language of international communication, so France is trying in every possible way to strengthen the position of the French language by developing and implementing an active language policy aimed at strengthening the position of the French language as one of the largest world languages in the world. The article analyzes the activities of such organizations as the General Delegation of the French Language and Languages of France, the Supreme Council for the French Language, the French Alliance, the University Agency of Francophonie, the International Organization of French-speaking Countries, whose main goal is to preserve the role of French as a language of international communication, as well as to ensure its wide study not only in France, but also in other countries. The role of the media in the implementation of language policy is shown. It is suggested that the numerous efforts of the French state to implement a targeted language policy will contribute to the fact that the French language will strengthen its status as the language of international communication and become one of the main languages of the world and an asset of globalization.

Language Ideologies and Policies at Work: Obstructing Arabic Instruction from the French Colonial Era to the Present

This article analyzes France’s language policies regarding Arabic instruction, considering the historical relationship with the Arabic language and its speakers, from colonial to postmodern eras. The polemic surrounding Arabic instruction in the schools of the republic is not a nascent political development regarding minority linguistic rights, but, rather, a byproduct of ideologically motivated educational policies that aim to marginalize the role of Arabic, both within the Arab world and the French diaspora. The debate demonstrates the centrality of language ideologies in shaping France’s identities, both nationally and abroad, and the maintenance of French as well as Arabic, the language of France’s largest minority. France has historically promoted the dominance of the French language, including Francophonie’s inception (Kasuya 2001; Vigouroux 2013) in the post-independence era and laïcité in modern-day France (Tetreault 2021). Analyzing current political debates in France shows that the circulating ideologies that characterizes teaching Arabic is not born in a vacuum, but, rather, it continues a legacy of contention that has characterized France’s relationship with the Arabic speaking world.

Venetian Cinquecento Pictures and France in the 1820s: Painting, Perception, Influence

This article deals with reassessing Venetian Cinquecento painting in France in the 1820s. This research is a series of case studies related to this problem and providing various types of historical analysis. It examines particular artworks, artistic, social, political contexts, and the influence of Venetian art on the formation of a new artistic language in France in the 1820s. Using an analysis of a wide range of both visual and verbal primary sources, I explore theoretical and practical aspects of the reassessment of Venetian Cinquecento painting in early nineteenth-century France. The paper presents a detailed examination of various French publications of that time regarding Venetian art, as well as a comparative analysis of artworks by Venetian and French artists, namely, Jacopo Robusti, Paolo Veronese, Andrea Schiavone, Eugène Delacroix, Xavier Sigalon, and Eugène Devéria. In this article, I address the following questions. What was the knowledge about Italian Renaissance art in France in the early 19th century? What place did the Venetian school take among the Italian schools of painting in the French consciousness at that time? How was Venetian painting perceived, revisited and presented? How did it influence the formation of a new artistic language in the 1820s? This study reveals the causes, specifics, aspects, and far-reaching consequences of the reconsideration of Venetian Cinquecento painting in the 1820s and its significance for the understanding of the patterns of art development in 19th-century France.

The 2021 French Law on the Protection of the Heritage Character of Regional Languages and Their Promotion: A French Story

The French Law on the Protection of the Heritage Character of Regional Languages and their Promotion, championed by Breton lawmaker Paul Molac (the so-called ‘Molac Law’), was adopted on 8 April 2021. It was enacted in a modified version, on 21 May 2021, after the Constitutional Council found some of its provisions unconstitutional. This piece of legislation represents the latest attempt of French lawmakers to strengthen the legal protection of regional languages. The present article starts with some background on the politics of language in France. It then presents the content of the Molac Law as adopted by the French National Assembly, the ensuing decision of the Constitutional Council, as well as the ideological hurdles and controversies that have surrounded them. It shows how the constitutionally- enforced unity principle continues to curtail proposals to advance the protection of regional languages and how this contrasts with the accommodation of language diversity as practiced locally in different territories of the French Republic.

"Excuse my Misunderstanding": Using Intercultural Approach to teach English as a Foreign Language in France

In France, the intercultural approach has been largely associated with teaching French as a Foreign language due to the multicultural and multilingual nature of the classes. There is very little research on the use of such an approach in teaching English as a Foreign language. This is due to the fact that the majority, if not all the students, share a similar culture and common linguistic codes. The intercultural experience, in that case, is encountered through the English program as presented by the teacher, who in most cases is also French. This paper examines the use of the intercultural approach in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) to French learners (middle school /university students) by a foreign teacher and the consideration of social representations (stereotypes) as a strategy to develop classroom participation in verbal communication. It discusses theoretical understanding of the intercultural approach and how this approach could be used in practice by drawing examples from the teacher and the learners' experiences. Data was collected through participatory observations and questioning. The research findings will show that using social representations as a strategy in intercultural approach can be instrumental to the development of verbal communication.

Chinese Ethnic Media in France

Abstract This article seeks to analyze recent developments in overseas media in the Chinese language in France. To do so it underlines the links between these media, created for and by Chinese migrants, and the trajectory of an entrepreneurial diaspora within the host country. The vast bulk of data is drawn from a qualitative study of several media organizations of the Chinese diaspora in France. In particular, a comparative study of two media, Ouzhou shibao and Huarenjie, has enabled an examination of a twofold interrelated phenomenon. On the one hand, the changes in commercial strategy to respond to the evolution of the Chinese diaspora in France, and, on the other, the relations between the Paris-based Chinese ethnic media and the authorities of the country of origin. It is argued that these media contribute to building social and political capital for the Chinese diasporic entrepreneurs in France.

Из истории одной цитаты… (Роль французского языка на международной арене в XVI веке: диахронический аспект)

The article is devoted to analyzing the role of the French language in the European society of the XVI century, when la langue francoyse becomes the common language of the communication to both in the field of the official correspondence and in the literature. The research is conducted in the diachronic aspect, concerning different extralinguistic factors (political, ideological, historical and cultural). The origins of this phenomenon are considered: for example, since the XI century, French language was the official language of the court of England and the aristocracy, and then became the working language of the court (le français du loi) and Parliament (the so-called Norman French). Gradually, the tendency to use French as a means of communication between the king and his entourage became the norm of court etiquette in Europe. The XVI century is not only the period of active formation of the French language as the national literary language of France, but also the time of its distribution in Europe as the language of diplomacy, international business and cultural communication of the European elite. The work shows how, due to the compositions of encyclopedic scientists, the work of Francophone teachers outside of France, and the popularization of the French language by translators-humanists (who served at the court of the king François I and his descendants), la langue francoyse consolidated its position in the international arena in the XVI century. At the same time, with the spread of translations into French from the ancient languages (Latin, ancient Greek) the interest of the secular elite of France increases to the past of Europe. And the translations into French from the “living” languages (Italian and Spanish) contributed to the interest to the current problems of modern European literature, as well as history, politics and culture, which was typical for the Renaissance. The article deals with the special attitude of the Renaissance to the French language through the prism of the language worldview of that epoch.

Lexique partagé en français et en francoprovençal des Pouilles dans la perspective du plurilinguisme

The purpose of this article is to present the results of our research into the lexicon shared between the Francoprovencal of Puglia and French, two languages belonging to the Gallo-Roman domain. The two varieties of Francoprovencal spoken in the small villages of Faeto and Celle di San Vito, located in the Monti Dauni area of the province of Foggia, are poorly endowed, with an oral tradition and endangered. Despite this, recent sociolinguistic surveys note that this language represents a communication code with a considerable linguistic vitality, determined by the extremely positive attitude of the inhabitants towards it. In addition, Faetani and Cellesi, recognizing their ethnolinguistic affiliation with French, show also a positive attitude towards the French language, which has many similarities with their local language. Hence our idea that French might represent a further incentive for Faetani and Cellesi to preserve their language, as well as its usefulness in understanding the official language of France and of other languages, in order to enjoy the benefits of plurilingualism. From this perspective, we will present a corpus of about 250 similar words in Francoprovencal and in French, organized according to the practice of intercomprehension. We find it relevant to make learners work on extracts of texts containing the sort of proposed lexicon. The learner will rely on the similarities, possibly on the lexical identities, which, by referring to the context, will allow him/her easy access to meaning.

Analyzing interactive dimension of teacher gestures in naturalistic instructional contexts

This paper discusses the concept of interactive gestures in instructional contexts whose interactional specificity lends itself to the study of these gestures which typically contribute to the process of meaning-making and interpersonal relationship. Our empirically grounded account is based upon the analysis of video recorded classroom interactions of French as a foreign language in Turkey and French as a second language in France. The results show that the majority of the teaching gestures had interactive functions and that a degree of topicality/interactivity may be considered for some gestures; therefore, a clear categorical distinction may not be possible in some situations. Furthermore, the specificity of classroom interactions leads us to consider some gestures that are not directed towards the addressee as also interactive.

How language becomes a political issue: Social change, collective movements and political competition in Corsica

AbstractThe Mediterranean island of Corsica became French in 1768–1769, and Corsican is one of the most widely used regional languages in France. In Corsica, the language issue is politically prominent, with a very strong opposition between the nationalist regional government, which claims a co-official status for the Corsican language, and the French national government, which advocates the supremacy of the national language. However, the French linguistic integration process has been an astonishing success since the end of the nineteenth century, and the first mass mobilisations in favour of the Corsican language did not take place until the 1970s. In this article, I try to explain why the politicisation of Corsican language came so late; how this language became a politically salient issue; and how public attitudes and policies towards this language have substantially evolved. Since 1982, the state and the state-wide parties on the island have amended their strategy and challenged the near-monopoly of Corsican nationalists with regard to the defence of the Corsican language. Especially in the field of education, they promoted and implemented a language policy shift, and tried to depoliticise this issue. Nonetheless, political positions remain polarised regarding measures such as compulsory education and co-official status.

Public policy for the Corsican language: From revitalisation to normalisation?

Abstract The policy of normalisation of the Corsican language carried out by Corsica’s institutions encounters the statute of languages in France, which supports the linguistic supremacy and monopoly of French in the public area. The vitality of Corsican underlined in the first general sociolinguistic survey makes it endangered even if a large majority of people support bilingualism and the project of co-officiality is approved by the Corsican Assembly. What are the main ways and results of public policy to save, revitalize and normalize the Corsican language in the context of the success of the assimilation of French minorities, a crisis of national identity in France, and cultural globalisation for a small population of 320,000 people who live on an island in the Mediterranean Sea?

Центри навчання іноземної мови в немовному виші: французький досвід

The suggested article deals with the analysis of methodological, organizational and compositional aspects of creating Language Resource Centers as innovation projects for teaching foreign languages in France. The article focuses on the necessity to study and systematize foreign experience in teaching languages to the students of non-linguistic faculties. The main activity principles of the Language Resource Center in Strasbourg are highlighted in the article. This project was created to promote both learners’ autonomy and to stimulate them to other forms of work, since each student has to find his own way in planning his learning based on work rhythm, personal interests, and motivation. It has been determined that learning of foreign languages is performed in the Center with excellent equipment and educational resources, with reliance on information and communication technologies, as well as professional help and consultation for the teachers. There are many interesting innovations at the Language Resource Center, for example online learning Moodle platform, Tandem technology, large choice of materials by categories and levels, online testing etc. The Center offers materials for studying obligatory foreign languages that are English, German, and French as foreign languages for foreign students. Additionally, there is a good opportunity to study twenty eight other languages beyond mandatory credits. To achieve this aim there is a separate department in the Center – SPIRAL.From educational point of view such centers comply with the learning differentiation for a large number of students and teachers. It has been defined that successful autonomous language learning is possible due to the development of communicative and information technologies which contribute to such type of studying. Modern economic needs require quick adaptation to lifelong education from young people, since flexibility and mobility have become the key words in modern society.

De France et d'au-delà: les langues régionales transfrontalières ed. by Jean-Michel Eloy

Reviewed by: De France et d'au-delà: les langues régionales transfrontalières ed. by Jean-Michel Eloy Robert Train Eloy, Jean-Michel, éd. De France et d'au-delà: les langues régionales transfrontalières. L'Harmattan, 2018. ISBN 978-2-343-14414-6. Pp. 196. The mobile lives of languages and their speakers are not contained and reduced by the borders—real and imaginary—imposed upon them. This basic human condition and fundamental sociolinguistic fact refutes the enduring fiction of one-nation-onelanguage-one-identity-one-culture that normalizes the problematic borders constructed around national languages, monolingualism, citizenship, and assimilation, while denying the deleterious impacts of those borders on human lives. Eloy outlines descriptive and theoretical issues in researching langues transfrontalières, or transborder languages, especially regional languages in France. The following ten chapters treat distinct sociolinguistic and political realities of a national border cutting across a language domain. Viaut offers a glottopolitique classification of the various "transborder effects" on language policy orientations and representations of minority languages, particularly Basque/Euskara and Occitan. Iglesias discusses the complexities of a transborder "community of life and ideas" among Catalan speakers in France and Spain. Broadbridge and Marley examine the impacts of exogenous standard languages (German and Catalan) on reversing language shift among speakers of Alsatian and Catalan in France. [End Page 223] Reynès's discussion of dialectal devitalization and normative revitalization deepens our transborder understanding of Catalan in France and Spain. Ghillebaert elucidates the debates around teaching Flemish in France as a French regional language or as Dutch. Fauconnier analyzes tensions between Belgian federal territorialities/communities based on exogenous official languages (German, French, Dutch) and the diversity of endogenous regional languages (Picard, Wallon, etc.). Dawson examines the ideological, linguistic and political borders of Picard as an inter-state and inter-regional language. Engelaere asks: "Une politique transfrontalière du picard?" Rispail presents the complexity and paradoxes of borders using the example of the Platt de Lorraine. She takes us beyond a European focus to recognize (albeit, in passing) the transborder movement of European regional languages to other parts of the world through migrant flows. Huck explores the tensions between the institutional, economic and educational imaginaries of a regional language and those of actual speakers of Alsatian. For an American audience of sociolinguists and educators, this book suggests that we think of conventionally-described "transnational languages" in terms of langues transfrontalières, opening up a dialogue with "transborder" perspectives in the social sciences that name how people, communities, families, and ideas move across a variety of boundaries. We will also find parallels to traditional research into the historical communities of French and Spanish speakers in Louisiana, Maine, and the Southwest, whose lives and languages have been crossed by the shifting borders constructed around new national and imperial configurations of language, identity and territoriality. For all its merits, this volume seems limited to what Blommaert has called a traditional "sociolinguistics of distribution" constituted around the delimitation of borders—linguistic, social and territorial—rather than a forward-facing "sociolinguistics of mobility" focused on interrogating and problematizing the fundamental validity and relevance of those borders in a world characterized by human flow and migration across borders. Robert Train Sonoma State University (CA) Copyright © 2020 American Association of Teachers of French

Minderheiten und Minderheitenschutz in Frankreich

The official French state doctrine denies the existence of national minorities in French territory. One assumes a homogeneous nation (nation homogène). French is the only official language in France. The enforcement of the French language was extremely important for the success of centralization, since minorities often define themselves through their common language. Nevertheless, linguists estimated that there are still almost 80 regional languages spoken in France! - Minorities include the Flemish, Alsatian, Lorraine, Breton, Basque, Catalonian and Corsican. The people living in Occitania are also characterized by cultural and linguistic common ground. The Départments d’Outre-Mer contain a variety of regional minorities. Most people are Creoles. - French law does not know the concept of a minority. This is a consequence of the centralist thinking that has always shaped the French legal system. Since France does not recognize a minority in its territory, there is no explicit protection against discrimination for - linguistic and cultural - minorities and there are no special regulations in the right to vote for parties or members of national minorities or ethnic groups. A specialty applies only to Corsica. An autonomy statute was created for this island.

Running in French: A Question of Performance

Running entered the official French language dictionary in 2019. This paper proposes to focus on the motivations which have led to the acceptance of this Anglicism in French. Indeed, running has achieved the performance of being more than the mere activity of running: it is a whole phenomenon which has been gaining ground since the late 2000s, as communities, events and derived products have been flourishing. Supposedly, running must have been a buzzword in the field of sports. But given its lexicalization, running could not just remain a buzzword. It has become a whole concept as it contributes to feeding the field of running in French through both semantic extension and precision. It will be of interest to examine the pathway of the Anglicism running from a phenomenon creating the buzz to a widely accepted and frequently used lexeme in French. The question of linguistic performance will therefore be tackled, thanks to recent online data, in order to show how running has become important not only in the world and language of sports, but also in the standard everyday language in France.

Catholic Intellectuals and the Invention of Pluralism in France

AbstractThis article traces the invention of pluralist political language in France to a very specific ideological source: Jacques Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier, and the progressive Catholic circles that gathered around the journalEspritin the 1930s. It shows that the dialogue with the émigré Russian Jewish sociologist Georges Gurvitch was an important influence on theEspritcircle, but also that it was Maritain rather than Gurvitch who did most to disseminate the language of pluralism. The paper thus builds on recent work according Maritain and Christian democracy a central place in the intellectual history of twentieth-century politics. It also contests the Anglo-American bias that has dominated histories of pluralism, and instead places France at the centre.