Enjeux de la double médiation du plurilinguisme dans le milieu académique multilingue. Internationalisation ou diversité dans l’enseignement supérieur ?

Abstract

Currently, the process of internationalization of training and research has accelerated the development and the promotion of English as an international language for science and teaching/learning. The question developed in this article is less concerned with the linguistic imperialism of English in the globalized academic environment than it is with the perception of the language use by those who employ it. Who uses it with whom, for what reason, in what context, at which particular moment time and in what way? How is each choice framed, supported, managed, (de)valorized, instrumented, mediated or remedied? How does a university put in place its language policy so as to find a fair balance between English «Lingua Academica» and other languages, with the aim of ensuring a convergence between the internationalization of the education and the maintenance of diversity at both the individual and institutional levels, in terms of complementarity and integration? The goal of this contribution is to confront the social representations that the social actors have regarding internationalization in multilingual institutional linguistic policies, to explore the meaning of plurilingual scientific and academic practices, and also to identify a possible convergence or divergence between scientific knowledge and the sensitivity of the actors towards theories on plurilingualism. Our interest focuses particularly on language issues in the process of knowledge internationalization, including the role of (re-)mediation of the language and the functions of languages such as reported by students of different disciplines.

Keywords

• multilingualism
• higher education
• internationalization
• academic diversity
• (re-)mediation