<i>Et si on jonglait un peu avec les langues?</i> Construction et gestion des répertoires plurilingues chez les apprenants franco-allemands

Few characteristics of multilingualism have inspired as much academic research as the conceptual notion of plurilingual repertoire and its role and function in language use. Based on a qualitative analysis of oral data, this contribution examines the issue of language contact and focuses on the relationship between social representations of languages and the development of plurilingual repertoire in French-German learners in the school environment of Freiburg (Germany). The working hypothesis developed for this investigation assumes that there is an important place for focusing on the learners’ representations and processing of interactions between languages, namely on the role of <i>discourse strategies</i> in language use. The findings support three themes: the connection between the development of plurilingual repertoire and learners’ awareness of intersections of languages; their strategic skills in combining knowledge across languages; and the school’s ability to leverage such skills.