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This article is concerned with the conditions and stakes of building competence in multiple languages in learners who, due to their language biographies or the educational system, are studying in prestigious institutional school environments, such as the French-German schools of Buc (Versailles), Freiburg (Breisgau) and Saarbrucken (Saarland). In particular, the research examines the reciprocal interactions between social representations of bi/plurilingualism and contexts of acquisition as the students integrate themselves within these institutional settings. We reviewed the conditions in which the data collected lead us to conclude or to infer changes in learners' representations related to the languages and their language-learning experiences as well as their accumulation of knowledge. First, based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of data elicited in the form of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, we aimed to define the concept of "plurilingual" competence, which is heterogeneous in nature. This competence exists on two levels: first, on the macrolinguistic level, from the perspective of the organisation of curriculum and of individual trajectories of learning and, second, on the microlinguistic level, in its discursive and interactional reality in the learners' plurilingual language practices. With this aim, the study began by investigating the content and the discursive processes of the development of representations by considering the dynamics of their structural and argumentative components. During the next stage, we analysed (using speech analysis tools) discursive practices such as language activities, which are situated in the interaction and contribute to the development and mutual construction of representations of plurilingualism. The study used tools of content and discourse analysis for didactic purposes. We have tried to reveal how the complex plurilingual language repertoire of French-German learners takes shape, through typological profiles and examining the constituent components of representations of identity and plurilingualism. Finally, in an active research mode, we suggest possibilities for future research on the didactics of "plurilingualism" and ways to rethink "multilingualism".

Within the framework of our research on learners' language practices and representations, this contribution explores how their representations about language uses and language learning shape the processes of learning and communication in school settings. More precisely, we will study learners' representations regarding the existence of a "plurilingual asset", defined as plurilinguals' strategic advantage for further language learning and use. Following a discussion of the arguments that support the hypothesis of plurilingualism as a potential facilitator for both learning and verbal interaction, we will address the question of the sociolinguistic conditions that must be met for learners to perceive their plurilingualism as an asset in formal education. Special attention will be paid to the impact of a third language learnt at school on the construction of plurilingual repertoires and on the evolution of learners' representations about languages, language uses and learning as their repertoires widen and diversify. The population under study includes young plurilingual learners in two secondary schools and one university in France and Germany. The analysis of their discourse and underlying representations about the role of prior language knowledge in language behaviour and learning experience will allow us to discuss the role played by the institution in encouraging learners to view their plurilingualism as a strategic resource. (Contains 6 notes and 2 figures.)