• The Conference
  • Home
  • Programme
  • Venue & directions
  • Organizing Committee
  • Scientific Committee
  • Exhibitors & sponsors
  • Satellite events
  • Conference Party
• Past & future
  • Previous symposia
  • Finland 2014
  • Spain 2016
• About FU Berlin
  • University homepage
  • Humanities at FU

Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 947

Part of Session 176: Re-thinking language policy and practice in urban education (Other abstracts in this session)

Reporting on practiced policy in public urban primary schools in France

Authors: Young, Andrea Susan
Submitted by: Young, Andrea Susan (Université de Strasbourg, France)

In urban contexts in France, as in many other countries (OECD, 2010), the number of allophone children attending state schools is steadily increasing. Current official policy advocates the integration of the newly arrived migrant pupil into a mainstream class as soon as possible, with support offered in the form of French as a Second Language lessons taught by a specialised teacher when available. Children who are not new arrivals in the country but who nevertheless do not speak the language of education at home are not identified as requiring additional language support, as neither are any children under the age of 6. It is therefore generally the well-meaning, sometimes inexperienced and frequently overstretched and unprepared class teacher who is left to provide what support s/he can. Most teachers still receive little or no training in how to support children for whom the language of instruction is not the language of the home and whilst instinctively aware of the specific needs of these children, they invariably feel ill-equipped to meet them. Some practitioners firmly believe that in order to respect Republican values a policy of French only should be maintained in the classroom which is sometimes extended to include the playground and may even be recommended as a policy for parents in the home. Yet others are beginning to acknowledge the bilingualism of these children and to practise policies of inclusion (Bonacina, 2010) as opposed to ignoring pupils’ plurilingual repertoires and characterising them as linguistically deficient.

This paper will present and analyse data collected in 2011, through interviews with teachers in 17 public, urban, primary and nursery schools in the Alsace region of France. The interviews were conducted by university students as part of an awareness-raising module focussing on overt and covert language practices and policies within the French school context. Analysis of the reported data from these interviews reveals a range of practiced policies, underpinned by a variety of beliefs, ideologies and conventions (Hornberger, 2010). Findings underline the need for teacher educators to propose courses which adopt a critical language awareness approach, allowing students to uncover, analyse and question language ideologies, to become aware of their own positions in the world, to address and negotiate tensions and empowering them with knowledge and pedagogies so that they may become agents of change in the multilingual classroom (Hélot & Laoire, 2011).

References:

Bonacina, F. 2010. "A Conversation Analytic approach to practiced language policies: The example of an induction classroom for newly-arrived immigrant children in France". Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.

Hélot, C. and Laoire M.Ó. 2011. Language Policy for the Multilingual Classroom: Pedagogy of the Possible. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Hornberger, N. H. (2010) Sociolinguistics and language education, Multilingual Matters, Clevedon, UK.

OECD (2010) Closing the Gap for Immigrant Students: Policies, Practice and Performance, OECD Reviews of Migrant Education.  Paris: OECD Publishing.