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November 14-17, 2011: Conference on plurilingual schooling in overseas France, Papeete, Tahiti
2011 in France is the year of the overseas French territories, which will give way to a summit on multilingualism held in Cayenne, French Guiana, from December 14 to 18.
Another date to save before that is a conference on plurilingual schooling held in Tahiti from November 14 to 17, subheaded “Learning different languages, different languages for learning“.
Indeed most children in the French overseas regions and departments are born and raised within social and family environments where people speak at least one indigenous or migration language. Yet French remains the only official language and the main language of education, which brings about a few issues: the students’ native languages are often undervalued in society, with possible consequences on their motivation, self-esteem, and chances of success at school.
This will all be addressed along the Tahiti conference, where will be presented the outcomes of the ECOLPOM experience (Ecole Plurilingue en Outre-mer: “Plurilingual Schooling in Overseas France”), and various innovations such as the “two teachers, two languages” principle, or the Bb-Lecture program (see our video with Marie-Adèle Jorédié) in New Caledonia. Also on schedule, among others, will be writing system issues, education content, didactic practices, teacher training, family/school relationships, cross-cultural representations in plurilingual and pluricultural environments, etc.
The conference is open to researchers, lecturers, public and private education professionals, language academies, families, and professionals of the publishing world, public or private.
Featuring guests will include several researchers well-known from Sorosoro followers: Odile Lescure, who directs our work in French Guiana, Jacques Vernaudon, for his article on Kanak languages at school in New Caledonia, Weniko Ihage, director of the Kanak Languages Academy, Gérard Lavigne, for his article titled Counting in one’s own language to count better in the other, and Michel Launey, Sorosoro Scientific Boardmember and author of Mother tongue-based education in Overseas France.
Full program available here.