The first day of young researchers in the history of teaching French as a foreign and second language.

The rise of language teaching and learning issues in France, within applied linguistics in the 1960s (Chevalier & Encrevé, 2006), and subsequently in language and culture pedagogy in the 1980s (Chiss, 2016), is characterized by an ambivalent relationship with history. Resolutely focused on the present and the future, major research trends, led by flagship institutions (such as CREDIF or BELC), concentrate their efforts on developing methodological configurations conceived as unprecedented (Spaëth, 2021). This involves both marking a methodological break from various traditions in teaching and learning French and positioning France as the center for reference methodological development (Burrows, 2018). The founding act of French as a foreign language didactics therefore durably orients the discipline towards studies centered on the present and oriented towards the future (Besse, 1980; Porcher, 1984; Reboullet, 1987; Coste, 1990; Besse, 2026; Debono, 2016).

However, the establishment of French as a Foreign Language (FLE) academic programs in France during the 1980s did give historical dimensions a place in teachers' initial training, notably under the impetus of Louis Porcher (1986). Nevertheless, over time, these training programs tended to convey a specific history of Language Didactics and Language Teaching (LLC): the history of methodologies (Puren, 1988), omnipresent in training programs (Burrows & Cros, 2021; panel "Past, present and potential status and roles of history in language teacher education," SIHFLES conference 2023, Faro). It presents a universal perspective that seems to overshadow practices such as the diversity of teacher training contexts for French and academic material production. This reductionist perspective is continuously nuanced by the work of the International Society for the History of French as a Foreign and Second Language (SIHFLES), a scholarly society created at the initiative of André Reboullet to respond to a "need for history" [1], aiming to counterbalance the "taboo of history" (Coste, 1990) and the "suspicious aggressiveness" towards the past (Besse, 1980) that seems to characterize FFL, setting the stage for a form of temporal acceleration of innovations in the field of teaching French to non-native speakers.

As the academic year 2023 begins, marking the 40th anniversary of the university-level training of French language teachers for non-native speakers in the French academic sphere, it seems legitimate to revisit the question of the place of history in FFL. Therefore, SIHFLES, in collaboration with the research teams DILTEC (Sorbonne Nouvelle) and DYNADIV (Tours), invite young researchers interested in historical aspects in their research to reflect on their motivations. Why delve into the history of language teaching and learning in the 21st century? Why do some researchers in training, identifying with language and culture didactics, develop or return to historical inquiries? What are the epistemological challenges compelling these researchers in training to consider the long-term and historicity as relevant aspects for teaching French as a foreign language? Are there specific grounds that particularly motivate researchers in training to engage in this research? What conceptual horizons do these researchers in training claim and towards which disciplinary insertions do they tend?

This seminar invites all young researchers (master's students, doctoral candidates, recent PhD graduates) dealing with historical questions to present the status and challenges of their research, aiming to collectively identify the reasons for undertaking research on the history of teaching French as a foreign and second language.

Bibliographical references of the call

Besse, H. (1980). « La question fonctionnelle », in Besse H. et Galisson R. Polémiques en didactique. Du renouveau en question. Paris : CLE International, DLE.

Besse, H. (2016). « Cinq questions sur l’étude historique des “innovations pédagogiques” en didactique des langues étrangères ou secondes (L2) », Documents pour l’histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde, n°57, pp. 11-31.

Burrows, A., Cros, I. (2021). « L’enseignement de l’histoire du FLE : une patrimonialisation au service de quels enjeux ? ». in Spaëth, V. (dir.), Didactique du français langue étrangère et seconde : histoire et historicités. Langue Française.

Burrows, A. (2018). L’Alliance française de Buenos Aires de 1914 à 1983 : étude des conditions de circulation linguistique. Thèse de doctorat, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle : Paris.

Chevalier J.-C., Encrevé P. (2006). Combats pour la linguistique, de Martinet à Kristeva, ENS Editions : Paris.

Chiss, J.-L. (2016). De la pédagogie du français à la didactique des langues : les disciplines, la linguistique et l'histoire. Les éditions de l'école polytechnique : Paris.

Coste, D. (1990), « Pour ne plus se raconter d’histoires », Études de linguistique appliquée/ELA, n°78, pp. 5-17.

Debono, M. (2016). « Que fait l’innovation à la didactique des langues ? Éléments d’histoire notionnelle pour une réflexion (très) actuelle », Documents pour l'Histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde, nº 57, pp. 29-51. URL : https://journals.openedition.org/dhfles/4366

Porcher, L. (1984). « Didactique historique », in Coste, D. (dir.). Aspects d’une politique de diffusion du français langue étrangère depuis 1945. Matériaux pour une histoire, Paris : Hatier, pp. 250-254.

Porcher, L. (1986). « Un statut pour l’enseignement du FLE en France – extrait du « rapport Auba » - Etudes de linguistique appliquée n° 64, 103-115.

Puren, C. (1988). Histoire des méthodologies de l’enseignement des langues, Paris, CLE International.

Reboullet, A. (1987). « Pour une histoire de l'enseignement du FLE », Le français dans le monde, n° 208, pp. 56-60.

Spaëth, V. (2021). Une histoire de la notion de français langue étrangère (FLE) : des pratiques à une discipline. Armand Colin : Paris.

Spaëth, V. (2014). « Pour l'histoire en didactique du FLES ». in Aguilar, J., Brudermann, C.,  Leclère M. (dir.), Langues, cultures et pratiques en contextes : interrogations didactiques, Riveneuve éditions : Paris.

^[1] https://www.sihfles.org/association/