Alexandre Duchêne Université de Fribourg

1. Teaching language and social inequalities: resistance, banalizationand transformation in the university classroom Alexandre Duchêne Université de Fribourg

2. Someassumptions • «Multilingualismis a greatthing, for the individual and for society. Weshouldpromotemultilingualism to forsterequity» • «Linguisticdiversityconstitutes a richness. In Switzerland, we are open to that and I thinkitis good. We are more tolerant» • «We have to explainthatlanguagescansavelifes, itis a useful ressource»

3. Celebratorydiscourse as a challenge in the universityclassroom • Romanticassumptions on languages • Erasure of power relation and social processes • Multilingualism as a new doxa • Multilingualismas capital BUT • Risk of throwing the baby with the bathwater (-> reproducing the classicaldiscourses on monoglothegemonies)

4. Jane H. Hill (1998) Language, Race, and White Public Space, American Anthropologist, 100: 3; 680–689. The problem here, of course, is that such interventions not only neglect the underlying social logic of the stigmatization of African American English, but also neglect the much deeper problem pointed out by James Baldwin: "It is not the Black child's language which is despised: It is his experience" (Baldwin 1979, cited in Lippi-Green 1997) and Baldwin might have added, had he not been writing in the New York Times, "and his body."(p. 681)

5. A: Challenging the celebratorydiscourses

11. Bilingualism brings all kinds of benefits. Being bilingual can enhance your chances of successfully learning other languages. Somehow, the learning of a third language is facilitated by the learning of a second. Bilinguals may also have some advantages in thinking: there is evidence that they make faster progress than monolinguals in certain areas of early cognitive development and are in many ways more creative in their linguistic skills. Bilinguals have the great advantage of being able to communicate with a wider variety of people. Because bilinguals have the opportunity of experiencing two or more cultures in an intimate way, their ability can lead to more sensitivity in communication and a readiness to overcome cultural barriers and to build cultural bridges. There are also important practical issues: bilinguals have a potential economic advantage because a larger number of jobs becomes available to them. It is also increasingly accepted that multilingual companies have a competitive edge over monolingual ones. http://edl.ecml.at/Home/Thecelebrationoflinguisticdiversity/tabid/2972/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

12. A: Challenging the celebratorydiscourses B: Fromlinguistics to social theories and sociolinguistics C: Data analysis of on-goingprojects D: Observations

13. Challengingideological formations – creating new ideological formations? • Resistance: what to do withit? • Transformation: how canweimproveresearchledteaching?

14. A new researchledclass ?