Languages in the French higher education: A small-scale study of the relationship between family language policy and French students’ attitudes towards English and minority languages

Abstract

Puristic attitudes of the French and their attitudes towards English have been widely discussed (e.g., Ager, 1999; Walsh, 2014; 2016), and may be related to what Thomas (1991) terms as ‘external linguistic purims’. The basic goal of this research is to investigate French students’ attitudes towards English and minority languages in the French higher education, as well as to establish correlations between such attitudes and three key components of family language policy. The key components of family language policy, as identified by Spolsky (2004; 2009), are: language practices, language ideology, and language management. The methodology of the research includes the administration of a questionnaire among the students of the University Côte d’Azur (Nice, France), who are divided into two groups - those from monolingual families and those from bilingual families. There are three hypotheses that the research is expected to confirm:

1. The participants will evaluate the knowledge and learning of English as more relevant than the knowledge and
   learning of other (minority) languages;
2. The participants from bilingual families will assign greater value to multilingualism and the use of minority languages
   and will believe that minority languages should be present to a greater extent in the French higher education (as courses
   and media of instruction) than the participants from monolingual families;
3. The participants from bilingual families whose parents insisted on maintaining their minority languages will assign
   greater value to multilingualism and the use of minority languages and will believe that minority languages should be
   present to a greater extent in the French higher education (as courses and media of instruction) than the participants
   from bilingual families whose parents did not insist on maintaining their minority languages.