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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 527

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

A tale of one city: Different approaches to regional language primary bilingual education in Strasbourg

Authors: Harrison, Michelle
Submitted by: Harrison, Michelle (University of Liverpool, United Kingdom)

Set against a backdrop of a traditionally strong monolingual language policy, bilingual education in the French regional languages is a relatively new phenomenon. Bilingual education in Alsace presents a special case, owing to the dual nature of the regional language, considered to comprise of Alsatian, which refers to the traditional speech varieties spoken in the area since the fourth century, and standard German, which has been employed as the language of reference and writing. Bilingual classes have been established in Alsace in the public and private sectors since the early 1990s. Following a model of partial immersion in the regional language and French, standard German consistently has been privileged over Alsatian, which has traditionally been regarded as a language of the home, but whose intergenerational transmission has been in decline since the mid-twentieth century, to be replaced by French. The advantages of learning standard German have been highlighted by language-in-education policy makers in Alsace; as well as being the written form of the regional language, the local education authority underlines that German is the most widely spoken language in the European Union, the language of neighbouring countries, an asset when seeking employment and a useful language to know in the learning of another prestigious language, English (Académie de Strasbourg, 2012). Nevertheless, whilst there is no obligation to include Alsatian in bilingual education in the public system, there remains the possibility to do so. In private bilingual primary schools, known as associative schools, Alsatian is employed to varying extents, although it remains in a minority position in comparison with standard German.

This paper will examine how two bilingual schools (one public, one private) situated in the heart of the city of Strasbourg differ in their approaches to teaching the regional language. It is widely acknowledged that the practice of Alsatian has diminished dramatically in the most urban areas (INSEE 2002, 4). Here I will look in particular at how it is being handled in these city-centre primary schools, presenting some of the findings from classroom observations carried out as a part of my PhD research. I will also examine the ideologies behind the creation of language policies in the public and private systems. Furthermore, I will discuss the attitudes of teachers and parents towards the teaching of the regional language from interviews and questionnaires that I have undertaken. In the bilingual classrooms of a multicultural and multilingual city is there the space, and/or the desire, for Alsatian to play a role?

References

INSEE (2012), ‘L’alsacien, deuxième langue régionale de France’. Available at: [Accessed 18th January 2012]

Académie de Strasbourg, ‘Voie bilingue paritaire’. Available at: [Accessed 18^th January 2012]