Hierarchies of Authenticity in Study Abroad: French From Canada Versus French From France?
Keywords:
L2 teacher professional development, L2 teacher identity construction, language ideologies, teacher study abroadAbstract
Abstract
For many decades, Francophone regions in Canada have provided language study exchanges for French as a second language (FSL) learners within their own country. At the same time, FSL students and teachers in Canada continue to orient to a native speaker standard associated with European French. This Eurocentric orientation manifested itself in a recent study examining conceptions of authentic language among Canadian FSL teachers on professional study abroad in France. Taking an interactional perspective (De Fina & Georgakopoulou, 2012), this article examines how the teachers negotiated discourses of language subordination (Lippi-Green, 1997) that construct Canadian French as less authentic than French from France. Findings show some teachers drawing on this hierarchization of French to “authenticate” (Coupland, 2010) an identity as French language expert, either by contrasting European and Canadian varieties of French or by projecting France as the locus of French language and culture as exclusively representative of authentic “Frenchness.”
Résumé
Depuis des décennies, les régions francophones au Canada ont offert aux apprenants de français langue seconde (FLS) des programmes d’échange linguistique dans leur propre pays. Toutefois, les étudiants et les enseignants de FLS au Canada ont tendance à toujours se référer à la norme standard du locuteur natif parlant le français européen. Cette orientation eurocentrique a été relevée récemment dans une enquête examinant la notion d’authenticité linguistique auprès d’un groupe d’enseignants de FLS à la suite d’un stage de formation en France. S’appuyant sur une perspective interactionnelle (De Fina et Georgakopoulou, 2012), cet article examine la façon dont les enseignants font face aux discours de subordination linguistique (Lippi-Green, 1997) qui contribuent à renforcer l’idée que le Canadien français est moins authentique que le français de France. L’analyse montre que certains enseignants utilisaient cette hiérarchie du français pour se justifier comme experts linguistiques en français dans leur processus d’authentification (Coupland, 2010) en contrastant les variétés canadiennes et européennes du français ou en privilégiant le français et la culture de la France comme seule variété authentique.
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