La signification du plurilinguisme et la voix de jeunes Italo-canadiens

Abstract

In societies and systems of education where multilingualism is becoming the norm, this article explores the impact of language policies in relation to what it means to self-identify as a multilingual and multicultural Canadian through the voices of Italian Canadian youth who are completing a teacher training program in order to become teachers of French (French as a Second Language) in the multicultural, global and urban landscape of Toronto, Canada. This article is based on a two-year interdisciplinary, sociolinguistic ethnography. The data analysis draws upon poststructuralist theories related to the discursive construction of multiple and overlapping identities combined with a discourse analysis. The findings reveal how some of the participants’ social and linguistic practices problematize social categories. They also highlight the multiple voices of the youth and their exercise of agency (i.e. the ability of a social agent to react in a way that is not predetermined in any given interaction). Their discourse likewise reveals the shifting positions of the youth as they manage, negotiate, and challenge discourses of language, power, and representation. These results allow us to rethink our conceptualizations of multilingualism while taking into account the complex dimensions that surround what it means to be and become multilingual, which could possibly lead to the creation of new social categorizations or spaces, without limits or boundaries.