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Dans la langue de l'autre

Dans la langue de l'autre

Se construire en couple mixte plurilingue

Preface by Thérèse Jeanneret

Langages



In the other's language

Why is it that being in a relationship with somebody who speaks another language makes it easier to learn that language? And is this even true?

The product of a strong social constructivist perspective on human development, this book combines applied linguistics with sociology, sociolinguistics and psycho-sociolinguistics to investigate how the acquisition of a new language is affected by an increasingly common form of relationship, both in Switzerland and abroad – the "multilingual" couple.

Aimed at specialists, students and people interested in mixed-language couples and/or language learning, the book deconstructs the couple, seen here as the meeting of two subjectivities in a common project rather than a romantic relationship. It deconstructs language, understood in this research as an inventory of expressive, and obviously multilingual, possibilities. It deconstructs L2 acquisition, more as part and parcel of life than as an aim in itself. It also deconstructs the personal narrative, now the product of a socially anchored self, and projects it into a fully engaged player who is not merely the narrator of his own experience, but also its actor and critic.