Overview
Why do the French defend their language so passionately? Can a world language like French really be in crisis? By tracing the long history of language defence in France and by examining the multiplicity of official and non-official defensive activities and attitudes, the book aims to answer these and other related questions. It looks at changing government policy, particularly the recent paradoxical shift from monolingualism to plurilingualism, and at what has motivated it. It analyses the work of the powerful government agencies and of the small but very vocal private defensive groups. The importance of the Internet is highlighted both by its extensive use in the research for the book and by an examination of its use by the language defenders. A European context is provided by comparisons with Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Finally, a look at various contemporary problems leads to a thought-provoking prognosis for this most strongly-defended of European languages.
Full Product Details
Author: Robin Adamson
Publisher: Channel View Publications Ltd
Imprint: Multilingual Matters
Dimensions:
Width: 14.80cm
, Height: 1.80cm
, Length: 21.00cm
Weight: 0.404kg
ISBN: 9781853599491
ISBN 10: 1853599492
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 12 March 2007
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.
Language: French
Reviews
This book is a unique and fascinating contribution to the field of French language studies and French language policy in particular. In a compelling and eminently readable style, it unravels the complexities of the interplay between politics, power, language and identity played out in the name of the defence of French. It is a richly textured, probing and wide-ranging investigation into the state of French, its past, present and possible future. Linda M. Hartley, University of Dundee, UK
Author Information
Robin Adamson is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, working on contemporary French language. For many years she was Director of the Centre for Applied Language Studies at the University of Dundee, where she worked mainly in the fields of second language acquisition, communicative language teaching and discourse analysis, and also contributed extensively to the new generation of university textbooks such as Le francais en faculte. She became an officier in the Ordre des palmes academiques in 1989. Her interest in the defence of French springs from a lifelong passion for the language and the discovery that among her Scottish ancestors are several who died defending France.
