Des langues inadéquates. Lire la complexité de la constitution du répertoire langagier dans la démarche biographique réflexive

This article argues for the relevance of biographical approaches to the exploration of the linguistic repertoire. Foregrounding a subject perspective which is seen as a necessary complement to the outside perspective of traditional interactional approaches, it accounts for the multidimensional and diachronic constitution of the linguistic repertoire. The analysis of two different biographical productions, a language biography elicited in a research interview and a published literary text, casts light on the fact that a linguistic repertoire is also determined by the linguistic resources one does not have. The final part of the article considers potential implications for second language learning and teaching.