Le français langue seconde en milieu scolaire français: le projet CECA en France by Fatima Chnane-Davin, Christine Félix, Marie-Noëlle Roubaud (review)

in Cameroun. Feussi claims that there is a need for fresh frameworks in sociolinguistics , given the increased interactions among the different ethnic groups and the trend of urbanization in Cameroun. The impact of the researcher’s gender is explored in Kahina Djerroud’s essay. She analyses the advantage of being a female researcher doing fieldwork in Belouizdad, also called Belcourt, a lowerclass neighborhood in Algiers. Given the spatial division between men and women in Algeria, she notes that it was easier for her as a female researcher to conduct fieldwork; she was welcomed into homes, and women were not reluctant for her to interview them. Carole de Féral addresses French in Africa in her essay. Like Feussi, she criticizes assumptions made by linguists about French in Africa, as they often reduce differences to the term variété, revealing a facile categorization and stigmatization. Féral notes that linguists often do not notice similarities —for instance, the use of negation or the omission of the anaphoric direct object found both in the French spoken in France and Cameroonian French—as linguists suffer from what she ironically calls a “surdité normative” (46). Tirvassen echoes de Féral’s argument against categorization in his article on Mauritian Creole, in which he advocates a standardized written form of Mauritian Creole to reduce issues caused by the diglossia between French and Mauritian Creole in the schools. Pascal Ottavi tackles the question of polynomie in reference to the varieties of the Corsican language. Six schoolteachers of Corsican were interviewed about their perceptions of polynomie. Ottavi shows that varieties of Corsican are acceptable among these teachers, who usually teach their own native variety and often include borrowings due to language contact. This book provides enriching and critical views of the systematic structures and existing methodologies in the field of sociolinguistics. The prose in some of the articles, however, is often too theoretical, with lengthy sentences and jargon weakening, if not losing entirely, the main points of the authors’ arguments. With respect to the editing, the reader may wonder why one essay’s summary and list of keywords are in French and German, while the rest are in French and English. In addition, it is odd that there is only one book review included in the volume. Despite these flaws, this volume brings up important issues and provides valuable critical insights into research in the field of sociolinguistics today. Manhattan College (NY) Samira Hassa Methods and Materials edited by Sarah Jourdain CHNANE-DAVIN, FATIMA, CHRISTINE FÉLIX, et MARIE-NOËLLE ROUBAUD. Le français langue seconde en milieu scolaire français: le projet CECA en France. Grenoble: PU de Grenoble, 2011. ISBN 978-2-7061-1702-2. Pp. 212. 30 a. One of six volumes in the series Langue française, diversité culturelle et linguistique : culture d’enseignement, culture apprentissage, this work explores the current state of teaching and learning French as a second language in French elementary and middle schools. Chnane-Davin, Félix, and Roubaud adopt a critical stance regarding the initiation of immigrant students into the French education system. Reviews 1013 Their choice of the term “second” instead of “foreign” illustrates their additive philosophy. French is considered complementary to the first language, rather than a replacement thereof, since the students’ point of reference in life and their construction of knowledge largely rely on the linguistic and cultural identities of their families and home countries. The data, including filmed classes, questionnaires , pre- and post-session student and teacher interviews, and an analysis of learning materials, were collected in the third arrondissement of Marseille, focusing on newly-arrived students from various European and African countries, and their teachers. Despite its diversity, the small corpus offers an informative, however narrow, snapshot of French as a second language instruction in France. The schools participate in national initiatives, la classe d’initiation (CLIN) for elementary, and la classe d’accueil (CLA) or le dispositif d’accueil et d’intégration (DAI) for secondary, which first provide individually-tailored programs in French as a foreign language , moving to an interdisciplinary classroom setting in French as a second language, with an ultimate objective of mainstreaming students to the regular classroom...