International Symposium

October 9-10-11, 2024

The present symposium brings together researchers interested in putting linguistic diversity in the forefront as it invites them to consider the question of language emergencies (deliberately in the plural) - which can be questioned as a collateral effect of the climate change we are experiencing (Dotte, 2023). If we already speak of the ecology of languages, as an "explanatory framework for the mutations that globalization brings about in linguistic situations" (Calvet, 2019: 123; see also Calvet, 1999), can we thus recognize language emergencies today?

The challenge is to bring together studies on the educational and sociolinguistic challenges of "minority" languages (Akin, 2023; Alén Garabato & Boyer, 2020; Hambye, 2019); a matter which has recently been the focus of international institutional initiatives, and which is at the heart of the scientific agenda¹. Indeed, the United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2019 the "International Year of Indigenous Languages", followed by an "International Decade of Indigenous Languages" for the period extending 2022-2032. On the 30th anniversary of the Declaration on the Rights of Minorities, the UN reaffirmed the urgent need to protect linguistic minorities, and UNESCO highlighted the need to integrate linguistic diversity into education (UNESCO, 2022). The colloquium will examine the notions of "endangered languages" (Moseley, 2010; Mufwene, 2008) as well as "linguistic revitalization" (Boitel, 2021).

In France, institutional initiatives have also been undertaken on a national scale². These will be examined in the light of the needs expressed by the speakers and social stakeholders concerned. A National Council for Regional Languages and Cultures was reactivated in 2022. The adoption of the Molac Law³ in 2021 caused significant tensions (Urteaga & Blanchet, 2022). Rapporteurs from the United Nations Human Rights Council have alerted the French government regarding the French Constitutional Council's decision to censure certain provisions of the law, and have thus claimed the following: "We fear that the adoption and implementation of this decision could lead to serious violations of the human rights of linguistic minorities in France" (de Varennes, Xanthaki & Boly Barry, 2022). Des "États généraux du multilinguisme dans les Outre-mer" have taken place in 2011 and again in 2021. Similarly, in 2019, the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) emphasized the need to strengthen the teaching of overseas regional languages and recommended that "every child should have the opportunity to learn to read and write in his or her mother tongue, in the same way as in the French language" (Biaux-Altmann, 2019: 5). What impact and resonance do these institutional measures and recommendations have? These questions are resolutely opened to any educational and sociolinguistic context, where issues of inclusion and recognition of linguistic diversity are present. For example, in many African countries, governments have also been attempting for some years now, with varying degrees of success, to rehabilitate African languages and give them status in education (Agbefle & Aguessy, 2018; Puren & Maurer, 2019).

Papers will question the actions taken to integrate linguistic diversity into education, on an institutional scale or more locally by social stakeholders ( nonprofit organizations, teachers, etc.) (Anciaux, 2016 ; Boyer, 2006 ; Burban & Lagarde, 2007 ; Colombel & Fillol, 2021 ; Corvaglia & Wolf-Mandroux, 2021 ; Hélot & de Mejía, 2008 ; Mary, Krüger & Young, 2021 ; Tupin & Wharton, 2016 ; Salaün, 2013).

The ideological backgrounds of the multiple appellations - "languages of France" (Colonna, 2020; Vernaudon, 2020), "overseas langages" (Bertile, 2020; Léglise, 2021), "regional languages", "non-territorial languages” (Arlettaz, 2019; Lagarde, 2019; Viaut & Pascaud, 2017), "national languages" (Jourdan, 1982), "native languages" (Bertucci & Corblin, 2007), "immigrant languages" (Deprez, 2021), "cross- and intra-frontal languages" (Djordjević, 2006), " heritage languages" (Peyton et al. , 2001; Polinsky, 2018) and "indigenous languages" (Carter, Angelo & Hudson, 2020; Vaughan & Singer, 2018) - may be examined in relation to the analysis of sociolinguistic and didactic contexts. The colloquium will open up a privileged field of discussion around French sign language (LSF), officially recognized as a "language of France" since the law of February 11, 2005 (article 75). This recognition of signed languages as languages in their own right raises the question of the access to rights that it allows or restricts for speakers of these languages (Kusters & Lucas, 2022; Lucas, 2001; Millet & Kobylanski, 2023).

The symposium will also highlight the glottopolitical resistance at work when it comes to valuing, protecting, documenting and teaching minority languages, as well as the actions - sometimes militant - in their (de)favor (Lebreton, Leconte and Pradeau, 2022). These glottopolitical resistances could be a strong indicator of the relations of domination that contribute to the construction of social inequalities (Heller, 2023). They may be rooted in the approach to languages as problems (Ruiz, 1984), in societies where the multilingualism of pupils is held responsible for the low academic performance and social exclusion of part of the population. Contrary to this approach, languages can also be seen as resources (id.), enabling the construction of a pluralist society and the development of societal multilingualism. Indeed, experiments based on the teaching of first languages show that students who take part in such teaching have better academic results (Cummins, 2000), greater social mobility (Mohanty et al., 2009), more harmonious identity construction (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2007; de Houwer, 2017), more meaningful democratic participation, earlier metalinguistic awareness and pluriliteracy skills (Weth, 2016), increased social and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 2001), improved social justice and equality of opportunity (Grin, 2006) and, more globally, improved human rights (de Varennes, 2016; Skutnabb-Kangas & Philipson, 2022).

Finally, the papers will make an epistemological and methodological contribution to the issues of access to sometimes "sensitive" terrain, will also unravel possibilities offered by collaborative research (Auzanneau, 2020; Miguel Addisu & Thamin, 2020), and will also pinpoint the new challenges posed by the open science movement, which aims for "unfettered dissemination of the results, methods and products of scientific research" (MESRI, 2021: 7).

It is in this global perspective that we are launching this call for papers, around three themes. The symposium invites participants to cross disciplinary approaches, as well as fieldwork observations and terrains of analysis.

Theme 1: Education and training

• Didactics of plurilingualism in the classroom;
• Between norm(s) and linguistic variations in the classroom;
• Institutional prescriptions and observed or declared teaching practices;
• Training courses at university and INSPE: programs and competitive examinations;
• Challenges of language assessment in schools;
• Multi-arts creations;
• Informal education.

Theme 2: Minor(is)ations and inequalities

• Linguistic standardization of minority languages and impact on education;
• Language rights;
• Language vitality and/or language revitalization strategies;
• Family language policies;
• Censuses and statistics on languages and their speakers;
• Language insecurity, language microaggressions and glottophobia.

Theme 3: Language and education policy

• Recognition and legitimacy of minority languages: progress and resistance;
• Glottopolitical approaches "from below" (a bottom up perspective) and their impact on "above" (a top down perspective);
• Who categorizes and names languages, how and why?
• Historicized problematization of linguistic arrangements in multilingual territories: effects on minority languages.

COLOMBEL Claire, FILLOL Véronique, 2021, « Variation et approche polynomique : pour une conception plurielle de la langue à l’école calédonienne », Glottopol, n° 35, en ligne : http://journals.openedition.org/glottopol/286 (consulté le 7/11/23).

HAMBYE Philippe, 2019, « La minorisation linguistique, entre discrimination et domination symbolique. Différences et enjeux de deux lectures des inégalités », Minorités linguistiques et société / Linguistic Minorities and Society, n° 12, p. 15–30, en ligne : https://dial.uclouvain.be/pr/boreal/object/boreal%3A231493/datastream/PDF_01/view (consulté le 7/11/23)

HELLER Monica, 2023 [2002], Eléments d’une sociolinguistique critique, Lyon, ENS éditions.

HÉLOT Christine, de MEJÍA Anne-Marie (dir.), 2008, Forging Multilingual Spaces, Integrated Perspectives on Majority and Minority Bilingual Education, Bristol-Buffalo-Toronto, Multilingual Matters.

MUFWENE Salikoko S., 2008, Language Evolution: Contact, competition and change London; New-York, Continuum.

PUREN Laurent, MAURER Bruno (dir.), 2018, La crise de l’apprentissage en Afrique francophone subsaharienne. Regards croisés sur la didactique des langues et les pratiques enseignantes, Bruxelles [etc.], Peter Lang.

SALAÜN Marie, 2013, Décoloniser l’école ? Hawai'i, Nouvelle-Calédonie, expériences contemporaines, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes.

SKUTNABB-KANGAS Tove, 2007, “Linguistic Human Rights in Education?”, In GARCÍA Ofelia, BAKER Colin (eds.), Bilingual Education. An Introductory Reader, Clevedon, Buffalo & Toronto, Multilingual Matters, p. 137-144.

TUPIN Frédéric, WHARTON Sylvie, 2016, « Le plurilinguisme réunionnais : entre instabilité des politiques linguistiques et inadéquation des approches didactiques », dans HÉLOT Christine et ERFURT Jürgen (dir.), L’éducation bilingue en France : Politiques linguistiques, modèles et pratiques, Limoges, Lambert Lucas, p. 100-107.