WP285 The lived complexities of language teaching in Belgian superdiversity

This case study digs into the practices and beliefs about multilingualism of two Belgian teachers of French as a foreign language (Fran?ais Langue ?trang?re, FLE), and it approaches this from three angles. First, the classroom is studied as a pool of linguistic resources, with the help of concepts such as repertoire and translanguaging; then, the analysis turns to the FLE space and its related ‘regime of language’; finally, the linguistic experience of one of the FLE teachers is presented with a language portrait. These elements lead into a discussion of the strengths and limitations of both the theoretical frameworks (i.e. translanguaging, repertoire) and the teachers’ beliefs and practices, drawing in the notion of ‘sociolinguistic citizenship’. Overall, alongside other research (e.g. Cooke et al., 2018, 2019), this study points to the need for sociolinguistics to support teachers like these, who are developing inclusive models of linguistic citizenship intuitively, working against the grain of national and elitist European discourse.