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This paper is based in Luxembourg where a multilingual programme has been implemented in early childhood education in 2017. The research project examines the language use in daily communication and literacy activities of educators and parents in day care centres, as reported by educators in two online-questionnaires. The findings show that the educators and parents use multiple languages when communicating, singing and reading with children in the centres. In addition to French and Luxembourgish which dominate, they use five other languages. Their reported multilingual practice reflects their beliefs that speaking and reading in several languages promotes language learning. However, while the programme is multilingual, a range of home languages are marginalised. The educators produce a language hierarchy in the centres which the parents reproduce. While collaboration with parents can be effective in bringing home languages into day care centres, educators need to be aware of language hierarchies and ideologies.

Numerous scholars have investigated translanguaging in students with a migration background by examining the deployment of their linguistic repertoire. By contrast, few studies have adopted a social semiotic perspective on translanguaging. Similarly, studies on newcomers in this field are scarce. Newcomers, especially those to the trilingual education system in Luxembourg, face significant language challenges. The present paper explores the ways in which Portuguese-speaking Harry combined the resources of his semiotic repertoire in science and French lessons in Year 4, and discusses different combinations of resources. Findings based on field notes and video-recordings of classroom activities show that the eleven-year-old engaged in learning by activating his prior knowledge and deploying his semiotic repertoire in resourceful ways. He mobilised features of five languages, coordinated linguistic, paralinguistic and extralinguistic resources, and aligned his resources to those of his peers. Furthermore, he reproduced the semiotic combinations of peers as well as the translanguaging practices in class. We show that a newcomer orchestrates his semiotic resources in complex ways to communicate, make meaning and engage in learning processes. Further research into the deployment of the semiotic repertoire at school is needed.

Cross-language transfer in vowel spelling is difficult to detect because the relation between a vowel and its grapheme is often ambiguous within a writing system and the interpretation of transfer complex. This study examined French spelling patterns of German fourth graders with French as Foreign language cross-linguistically by applying a fine-grained measure to the differences in spelling, tested with a dictation. The study differentiated between phonologically and graphematically joint vs. unshared vowel graphemes in French and German and the contribution of each category to transfer. Instead of testing orthographic knowledge as in applying the orthographic norm correctly, it used the model of the ‘graphematic solution space’ [Neef, M. (2015). Writing systems as modular objects: Proposals for theory design in grapholinguistics. Open Linguistics, 1(1), 708–721.] that takes into account spelling that is graphematically licensed within the involved writing system. The analysis distinguished between poor and good German spellers to get insights on the relation of the pupils’ competence in the German and French spelling. Results showed an influence of the phonological and graphematic overlap in the spelling patterns, but also inconsistencies with both writing systems. The findings challenge statistical learning in multilingual contexts as the produced graphotactic patterns are rather French-like than French.

This paper explores the theme of Love Jihad in “true sex crime” novels, French mass-market paperbacks where a journalist or author recounts the temoignage of women who suffered sexual violence at the hands of Muslim men. Semiotic analysis of visual and textual representations shows a melodramatic triangle of female victims, Muslim male perpetrators, and heroic readers. These stories reflect, dramatize, and sexualize broader social constructions of the monstrous Muslim; from Far-Right conspiracies of The Great Replacement to femonationalist debates about veils and republican values. In the final section, the paper explores how visual and verbal tropes from these popular discourses reappear in political speech and media from the National Rally.

This article makes a case for the existence of a minority language hierarchy in New Zealand. Based on an analysis of language ideologies expressed in recent policy documents and interviews with policymakers and representatives of minority language communities, it presents the arguments forwarded in support of the promotion of different types of minority languages in New Zealand, as well as the reactions of representatives of other minority language communities to these arguments. The research suggests that the arguments in favour of minority language promotion are most widely accepted for the Māori language, followed by New Zealand Sign Language, then Pacific languages, and finally community languages. While representatives of groups at the lower levels of the hierarchy often accept arguments advanced in relation to languages nearer the top, this is not the case in the other direction. Recognition of connections between the language communities is scarce, with the group representatives tending to present themselves as operating in isolation from one another, rather than working towards common interests.

This paper presents a comparative ethnographic analysis of two versions of a grassroots text in Mandinka language, one written by a non-formally educated man, the other a respelling by a formally educated urbanite. The analysis points at a crucial difference in spelling practices and inequality in literacy regimes, i.e., between established orthographic English literacy and the more creative, heterographic and emergent local language literacy. It is shown how English orthography affects local ideologies of literacy as well as Mandinka spelling practices itself, in greater or lesser extent, depending on the educational history of the speller.

Les débats autour du statut d’auteure cristallisent actuellement les tensions; en témoignent notamment la vive polémique autour du substantif féminin auteure. Ces interrogations quant au statut des créatrices apparaissent d’autant plus fortes et virulentes quand elles s’attachent aux femmes appartenant aux littératures de langue française. Les accointances entre la situation des femmes et celles des auteurs de langue française sont nombreuses et se retrouvent notamment autour de la question de la légitimité. Sur une scène littéraire majoritairement dominée par des écrivains, hommes donc, blancs et occidentaux, écrire en français en tant que femmes étrangères relève d’une double gageure et entraîne un besoin de justification. Pour la présente réflexion, nous nous attacherons à l’oeuvre d’Assia Djebar, première écrivaine de langue française à avoir rejoint l’Académie française en 2005. Polymorphe, son oeuvre, tant littéraire que filmique, tend à revenir sans cesse, tel un leitmotiv, sur son auctorialité, construisant ainsi sa propre représentation et l’image de soi (AMOSSY, 2010). C’est en cela que l’ethos de l’écrivaine participe d’une mise en scène tout à fait particulière, qui relève à la fois de la littérature féminine et de la littérature postcoloniale. *** Construir-se como autora de língua francesa. O exemplo de Assia Djebar ***Os debates que envolvem o status de autora atualmente cristalizam as tensões, o que testemunha em particular a polêmica viva em torno do substantivo feminino autora. Essas questões sobre o status das mulheres criadoras parecem ainda mais fortes e mais ativas quando se trata de mulheres pertencentes às literaturas em língua francesa. As conexões entre a situação das mulheres e as dos autores francófonos são numerosas e concentram-se particularmente no que diz respeito à questão da legitimidade. Numa cena literária predominantemente dominada por escritores, homens, sobretudo brancos e ocidentais, escrever em francês como mulheres estrangeiras constitui um duplo desafio e implica uma necessidade de justificação. Para a presente reflexão, nos concentraremos no trabalho de Assia Djebar, primeira escritora de língua francesa a ingressar na Academia Francesa em 2005. Polimorfa, sua obra, tanto literária quanto fílmica, tende a retornar incessantemente, como um leitmotiv, por sua autoria, construindo assim sua própria representação e imagem de si (AMOSSY, 2010). É nisto que o ethos de escritora participa de uma encenação muito particular, que é ao mesmo tempo da literatura feminina e da literatura pós-colonial.Palavras-chave: Assia Djebar; literatura pós-colonial; escrita feminina; comprometimento; voz.

With active language planning policies in force since its independence as a na- tion, the linguistic situation in Singapore has received a substantial amount of scholarly attention. Yet, the focus has traditionally been on Singapore English, with issues regarding maintenance and shift of the other official languages of the republic attracting much less interest. Malay Singaporeans have often been enviously described as guardians of their ethnic language, apparently resisting the push and pull factors of English more successfully. This study aims to inves- tigate to which degree the Malays are indeed still maintaining their community language. In this study a total of 233 participants from 12 to 72 years of age were asked to report on their language use across different domains, topics and inter- locutors in semi-structured interviews. The results indicate that for Singaporean Malays the age of interlocutor is the most important factor when deciding on the language(s) of interaction. While Malay is still unrivaled in interactions with senior members of the community, English is making inroads everywhere else. The influence of English is particularly strong for young adults (18–24 years), young women and people of high socio-economic and educational status. This leads to the conclusion that domains that were traditionally considered safe havens for Malay in Singapore are slowly being eroded.

When trainers or teachers in the field of initial vocational education explain abstract notions, refer to technical objects or emphasize the specificities of technical skills, they often call forth concepts and practices different from those that are directly salient in the training situations in which they engage. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the empirical realities associated with such phenomena by promoting a discursive and interactional approach of what we propose to term “analogical discourse”. Considering that analogies are performed and shared trough language and speech, we propose that concepts and methodological tools borrowed from the field of linguistics can be profitably applied to the analysis of analogical discourse. Not only can they reveal the dynamic and collective nature of analogies as they are performed, disseminated and sometimes negotiated amongst participants, but they can also help reflect about the complexities of vocational learning as it takes place in specific material, practical and socio-cultural environments. From that standpoint, the paper proposes to see analogies not only as related to conceptual development and cognitive dimensions of learning, but as a substantial contribution to the social, cultural and relational dimensions of it.

Albanian immigration to Greece started in the beginning of the 1990s and the second generation of Albanian immigrants is a recent phenomenon. This paper presents the findings of research investigating language maintenance/shift among second generation Albanian immigrants in Athens using as main informants adolescents of Albanian origin. Quantitative and qualitative data on children’s language competence and on patterns of language use within Albanian households indicate that the Albanian ethnolinguistic group is undergoing rapid language shift. For the social psychological dimension of the study, data were gathered by utilising the concept of ethnolinguistic vitality and some items of the subjective vitality questionnaire (SVQ). The SVQ data indicate low vitality perceptions among second generation Albanian immigrants. Finally, while Albanian parents express positive attitudes to language maintenance, in practice many do not take the necessary measures for intergenerational language transmission.

The attitudes and behaviours of majority language speakers have an important impact on minority languages, and it has been claimed that the long-term success of minority language initiatives may only be achievable if some degree of favourable opinion, or ‘tolerability’, of these initiatives is secured among majority language speakers (May 2000a). Once the problem of tolerability has been recognised in a minority language situation, however, how can language planners address it? The literature has tended to concentrate on the theoretical arguments that need to be conveyed to majority language speakers in order to improve the tolerability of minority languages. In contrast there has been little consideration of what practical language policy approaches can be used to ‘plan for tolerability’. An analysis of recent language regeneration policy in New Zealand, Wales and Catalonia reveals that planning for tolerability is in fact currently occurring in all of these language situations. This article examines the various approaches taken, focusing on five features of planning for tolerability: recognising the problem; defining the target audience; developing messages and desired behaviours; selecting policy techniques; and evaluating success. Given this growing policy activity, the article concludes that planning for tolerability deserves more attention from researchers and policymakers than it has received to date.

This paper contributes to a debate on linguistic identity and social participation in France by providing a critical reading of language policy and practice. It challenges the notion that France is a linguistically homogenous nation where a standardised French language is universally practiced and, rather, seeks to reframe linguistic diversity and heterogeneity as fundamental and legitimate constitutive features of French society. In exploring diversity from this critical perspective, the paper looks to the ways in which a number of artists and language activists are deliberately and consciously transgressing normative notions of French to affirm the legitimacy of their alterity and difference. The paper does not make an argument against the legitimacy or social value of standard French, but rather argues in favour of a more critical and inclusive approach to cultural and linguistic difference in France.