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October 18-20: International conference on multilingual schooling in the Pacific communities, Nouméa, New Caledonia.
This conference aims to assess the situation of Oceanic languages at school and early bilingualism.
First let’s remind that the Pacific is home to around two thousand languages, ca. one third of the languages spoken across the world. The Oceanians remain attached to their native languages, yet the official languages and those of education are still the languages of the colonization, English and/or French. Nevertheless, following the emergence of sovereigntist discourses in the 70s, the legislations of these various countries have decided to include native languages in the schooling system.
So the schools in these communities see an efficient balance between the integration of international education standards and the transmission of local languages and cultures.
The Nouméa conference will be a chance to compare native language-based education plans in the different countries and communities of the Pacific (French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, Australia, New Zeland, Fidji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa, Niue, Palau), thanks to the participation of around twenty local field specialists and researchers invited to take part in the event.
The conference will also assess the progress of the École plurilingue Outremer research program, evaluating local language education plans in New Caledonia, French Polynesia, and French Guiana.
One of the key questions tackled over these two days will be that of the teaching of French in coordination with the teaching of local languages within a full and coherent multilingual project.
Full program of the conference is available here
Organized by the University of New Caledonia, the ALK, the Agora-SHS network, the Australian National University and the IRD (“Institut de Recherche pour le développement”), the conference will be held:
– on October 18 and 19 at the IRD auditorium, 101, promenade Roger Laroque, Anse Vata, Nouméa
– on October 20 and 21 at the Nouville campus theater, University of New Caledonia, 145, avenue James Cook, Nouméa.
A restitution of the conference will take place in Lifou on October 25, and in Koohnê on October 27.