Multilingualism Everywhere, "Linguistic Rights" Nowhere? Education and Monolingual Ideology in French Guiana, in a comparison with Wallis (South Pacific)

• Main Authors: Léglise, Isabelle, Muni Toke, Valelia
• Other Authors: Structure et Dynamique des Langues (SeDyL), Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco)-Institut de recherche pour le développement IRD : UR135-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2014
• Subjects: multilingualism; language rights; bilingual education; French overseas territories; language policy; multilinguism; droits linguistiques; éducation bilingue; outre-mer; politique linguistique; scipo; hist; Norway; Pacific; Tromso
• Online Access: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00990856

International audience This paper deals with the representations of linguistic diversity underlying language policy in the educational system in French overseas territories, both at the level of policy making (constitutional and official documents) and of its implementation (teachers' and parents' discourse). We focus on the case of French Guiana, where multilingualism is widespread. We present some examples of the integration of minority languages in the French Guianese educational system and show that they are paradoxically the product of a monolingual perspective. Therefore, we examine the mismatch between the actual multilingual practices and the monolingual models of society involved in the current educational policies. While French Guiana is thought of as a "mosaic" of linguistic and cultural communities, another French overseas territory, Wallis (South Pacific), is on the contrary described as a homogeneous block. We show that these representations, far from being opposite, are in fact both the product of monolingual ideology - i.e. representations of society in which monolingualism is the norm, both at collective and individual level. We will discuss this situation in the light of current debates about the notion of "language rights" in linguistics. A partir du cas de la Guyane, où le multilinguisme sociétal et le plurilinguisme individuel sont généralisés, nous interrogerons les représentations de la diversité linguistique qui sous-tendent les politiques linguistiques éducatives de la France en cours dans l'outremer français - tant du côté de leur production (cadre constitutionnel et textes officiels) que de leur mise en œuvre (enseignants, parents d'élèves). Nous présenterons quelques exemples des dispositifs possibles d'intégration des langues minoritaires sur le sol guyanais, et montrerons qu'ils relèvent d'un traitement monolingue de la question. Nous interrogerons donc cette inadéquation entre les pratiques langagières observées, plurilingues, et les modèles de société impliqués par le cadre ...