Arts de dire et formes de contrôle en situations de plurilinguisme

In the "Switching between languages and linguistic legitimacies" sociological problems concerning are approached by observation of the conditions of circulation between languages, bilingualism and diglossia being the most obvious forms. The phenomena can be analysed as expressions of social relationships, which involve global issues around legitimacy and norms and not only questions relating to the degree of mastery of the languages. Code switching is one of the striking phenomena associated with these social relationships. To get a better grasp of the constraints and resources, the socio-anthropological models invite us to consider that these switches from one language to another take on all their meaning in a linguistic marketplace which confers differentiated values upon linguistic practices, where the languages in contact are unequally adjusted to the situations in which people use them. Understanding how people can in turn be subjected to the constraints of rigid and formal frameworks of linguistic interaction, and then escape from them by means of tactical skills, means understanding how code switching, far from being a symptom of a linguistic deficiency, is more often a sign of social competency. The level of recognition of the contact languages and their degree of patrimonial appropriation nevertheless weighs on this competency since they offer users only very unequal political devices for assuming the legitimacy of their switching between languages.

Linguistic ecology in educational settings is dealt with through schools in Luxembourg as multilingual institutions, where, thanks to a very heterogeneous school population, a multitude of individual plurilingualism situations are played out. The ecolinguistic approach aims to take into pupil's linguistic repertoires into account as a whole and in a movement through different communication and socialisation contexts with the aim of creating an explicit link between practices at school and in the family. The analysis of interaction in plurilingual schools is compared to the study of contact languages. Creoles, pidgins or jargons represent natural strategies which have succeeded in creating bridges between different cultures. An example of a joint language policy implemented between members of different communities enriches the debate on innovation and the place of languages in today's school, with the aim of achieving greater social cohesion.

The third part of La Grande Leçon is entitled "Multilingual practices in universities: a contrastive approach". This final part concerns the contribution of language policies and the different branches of linguistics to the topic. It takes as its main subjects language policies at European, national and regional as providing a framework for all any activities in language teaching/learning. In addition, it also focuses on the basic notions of contrastive, pragmatic and variational linguistics before tacking the definitions of pluri-/multilingualism, especially with regard to language teaching/learning. Intercomprehension as a learning tool and a form of plurilingual communication is also a subject for reflection, as are the different academic traditions. Based on examples of the practices in a cross-border seminar and participants' accounts, the underlying theoretical questions as well as multiple phenomena in plurilingualism are addressed.

Supplementary documents with explanations and annotations, key notions and concepts discussed in the experts' talks are available to users, e.g. slides and written materials such as themed bibliographies, summaries, etc.