“They Don’t Hear my Tongue Dance in Arabic”

Granite island pearls: 'Unaccompanied foreign minors' in a Corsican FLE class

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Abstract

This article explores the intersection between globalization and language learning, as experienced by 'unaccompanied foreign minors' in a French as a Second Language class on Corsica. The analysis of linguistic-ethnographic data makes use of an extended metaphor, pearls, to develop multilayered conceptualizations of phenomena such as liminal multilingualism, mobility and (im)migration, and the post-national economy. Linguistic ethnography and metaphor prove useful for operationalizing a complexity approach in sociolinguistics (Blommaert 2016: 247), while the context under analysis allows for the investigation of globalizing surges (Ramanathan 2013a: 9-10; 2013b: 254) and peripheral multilingualism (Pietikäinen et al. 2017: ix, 225) among a vulnerable population. The case of these students offers an opportunity to look at the consequences of globalization on (im)migrant youth.

How to Cite:

Mendes, A., (2018) “Granite island pearls: 'Unaccompanied foreign minors' in a Corsican FLE class”, Critical Multilingualism Studies 6(1), 190–214.