Séminaire doctoral – Pratiques langagières – terrains, méthodes, théories

23 septembre 2022 --14h00 - 17h00

Animé par Isabelle Léglise et Valelia Muni Toke (INALCO, 2 rue de Lille, salle L0.01)

Samantha Goodchild (Univ. Oslo) A chronotopic-spatial approach to analysing perceptions of language practices: a case study from Essyl, Senegal

In this presentation, I will demonstrate how different conceptions of space are linked to perceptions of language practices using a case study conducted in the village of Essyl, Senegal, described by some participants and researchers as monolingual. I will show how geographical places remain salient across numerous intertwining understandings of space, encompassing social space (Lefebvre 2000), spatial repertoires (Pennycook & Otsuji 2015), sociolinguistic space (Juillard 2016) and chronotopes (Bakhtin 1981). The complexity of lived time-spaces will be explored, examining participants’ mobility histories and how linguistic repertoires are constituted and evoked in interactions, also with reference to absent times and spaces. The project was carried out using an ethnographic-based methodology with a novel approach to analysis, termed ‘the triangulation of analyses’ and using methods such as linguistic biographies, interviews and analysis of recorded linguistic practices. The study shows that the various conceptions of place and space should all be taken into account in order to understand how the perception of societal monolingualism in Essyl pervades at the same time as individual multilingualism. I will conclude that a chronotopic-spatial approach reveals how perceptions and ideologies of monolingualism and multilingualism are not two fixed oppositions, but rather exist in a constantly evolving dialectical relationship.