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Any bilingual education program in which two languages (one of them being the child’s mother tongue) are used as languages of instruction must allow for the interplay between social historical and social structural factors, (i.e., intergroup power relations) and the social cultural and social psychological contexts that define bilingual education, namely the status of these languages at the macro level (i.e., the objective social cultural level) as well as the child’s subjective perception at the micro level (i.e., the relative objective social psychological level). The results of bilingual education can only be positive if both community languages are valorized by the environment as well as by the child.

2 The above-quoted statement by J. Hamers and M. Blanc (1983, 344) is the point of departure for this paper.

3 Calandretas are bilingual Occitan-French schools offering an Early Total Immersion program. In this paper, I will first briefly recall the specific framework for intervention in language learning, and then consider how it is put into practice in its underlying social cultural and social psychological contexts. Since the most recurrent language learning situation observed in bilingual practice outside of school is diglossia, this paper will mainly focus on aspects that are likely to impact the perceptions of these students.

4 I will then consider the hypothesis that entering middle school upsets many initial parameters as the students’ social framework changes radically, as does the status of the two languages in contact along with socio-psychological conditions. Early adolescence thus leads to a shift in social and cultural interactions. My contention is that the students' perception of the non-prestige language – thus far nurtured in vitro – evolves significantly in an unprotected environment. In the urban and suburban areas sampled for this study (Toulouse and its southeastern suburbs), students completing Calandreta education go on to middle schools that only provide optional courses in Occitan.

5 Three schools, each with a different status, agreed to participate in this research project: i) a middle school, where the Occitan language is taught as a second language and used as the language of instruction for history and geography (in what the French Ministry of Education calls “bilingual sections”; ii) a middle school, where students can take an optional introductory course in Occitan; and iii) a middle school offering a mandatory one-term introductory course in Occitan in the 6^th grade that becomes optional in the 7^th grade.

6 A study I conducted in the early 2000s reveals that for 6th-grade students in regular classes but introduced to Occitan over an entire term [1], the relationship with the regional language and their response to being introduced to it is much more uncompromising and stereotypical than initially expected [2]:

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• No one speaks it any more – except old people!
• It’s not fun!
• The sounds, the pronunciation – it’s ridiculous. You know, the r’s and all that.
• Anyway, there’s no point.
• We don’t really study in class. All we do is sing and play.

8 My research question builds upon the above remarks. I will attempt to determine the extent to which as a result of contact with the (apparently overwhelmingly negative) perceptions of Occitan by classmates leads to an evolution in the representations of Calandreta students, which are presumed to be positive since they were constructed and nurtured throughout their immersion elementary schooling.

9 Accordingly, I interviewed Calandreta students and teachers, parents of current and former Calendrons, [3] and students attending Calendreta middle schools. The reason why the number of interviewees in each category is limited is that the target population itself is limited. There are four Calandreta schools in the Haute-Garonne district, some of which are too recent to have yet transitioned students to middle school. Another reason is that access to this population was not always easy. For instance, one principal refused to grant me permission to interview students on the grounds that they were already the target of too many studies. In the end, I had to solicit the help of a network of professional acquaintances. [4]

10 Teachers were interviewed on school premises. Children and teenagers were interviewed after I obtained parental approval by contacting them by telephone on the basis of teachers’ recommendations. Some interviews with parents took place in the street after school, which provided a more informal setting.

11 All interviews for this research project were conducted following a set of basic principles. First, the interviewer needs to engage with topics of interest, thus encouraging the interviewees to do so themselves. This is based on the belief that “if the investigator appears distant, so will the person being interviewed. The impression of aloofness invariably triggers a specific response from the interviewee, who then refrains from saying too much – so that the impersonal nature of the questions echoes the impersonal nature of the answers” (Kaufmann 1996, 17). Secondly, maintaining empathy and active listening is also crucial since both qualities are essential to ensuring the relevance of the information collected through an empirical approach. As a consequence, the field of investigation is not so much “a means to verify a pre-established theoretical approach as it is the point of departure of this approach” (Kaufmann 1997, 17).

12 I tried to conduct all interviews in a way that corresponds to what Kaufmann (1997) (following Max Weber) defined as a “comprehensive” method as it is the most appropriate approach for collecting sensitive information about perceptions. The aim was to interview participants about their perceptions as well as their actual language practices relative to ideal practices – or at least practices understood as ideal by actors who are deeply invested and have no critical distance [5] and are thus prone to be in denial. The principal intuition here is that the desire to maintain “political correctness” encourages self-censorship, in parents and students alike, but even more so in young teenagers because teenagers strive to free themselves from parental projections and perceptions. This is why I tried to ensure that interactions in the course of these interviews were both light-hearted and flexible in order to establish an interaction that would lead to a collaborative outcome.

Calandreta – qu’es aquo? Origins and Current Status of Calandreta Schools

13 Calandretas are secular schools organized along associative lines (following the framework stipulated by the Association Act of 1901). These schools offer bilingual instruction in Occitan and French from preschool to 5^th grade. In Montpellier, a Calandreta middle school enables bilingual education to continue beyond 5^th grade. The first Calandreta was established in Pau in 1979. Today, there are 37 Calandretas in France, from the Atlantic coast to the Italian border and schooling 1,777 students. These schools are the result of associative efforts aiming to “save and transmit the Occitan language” (URL: sudfr.com/calandretas) and to fill the gaps left by the “inadequacy of public education” (Calandreta Charter). Similar schools have been set up elsewhere in France, including Diwans in Brittany, Bressolas in Catalonia, ABCM Zweisprachigkeit in Alsace, and Ikastolas in the Basque Country. All schools are state-run (under the 1959 Debré law), a status they share with religious schools. However, these schools are currently negotiating for – in their view – a more satisfactory status and aspiring, following the Diwans, which are in the lead in this respect, to work toward integration into public education (even if, in the case of the Diwans, the process is currently on hold, having become the subject of an appeal before the Conseil d’État. [6] These schools jointly formed a “Higher Institute of the Languages of France” (Institut Supérieur des Langues de la République Française) based in Béziers.

Interaction with Languages in Elementary School

The Evolution of Perceptions in Middle School

44 After 5^th grade, Calandreta children have two options: [11]

45 The first option is to attend their neighborhood middle school or an optional introductory course in Occitan, with the responsibility to offer such courses falling to principals since the Deixonne Act of 1951. The second is to attend a school in Toulouse (after obtained an exemption over residence) that offers advanced courses in Occitan and the teaching of history and geography in that language in a bilingual section.

46 When interviewed in both contexts, teenagers tend to be more restrained than adults. Some seem reticent to give their views on the subject. However, if questions are asked indirectly, (e.g., What do your ex-Calandron classmates think of Occitan now that they are in middle school?), none used words expressing shame, unlike adults.

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17. I –– Were you proud to speak Occitan while in Calandreta?
18. C2 –– We weren’t especially proud but it was just, well, something normal!
19. C3 –– I didn’t really think about Occitan since I was in it. It was normal!

48 The students' memories of elementary school are highly positive. If they had to start over, they would still choose to attend a Calandreta, although they strongly argue for the importance of group cohesion, solid friendships, and methods that differ from those of public schools rather reflecting on the language itself.

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20. C1 –– As a group, we were unified. That was cool.
21. C1 –– It didn’t feel like school. It was cool. We were on first-name terms with the teacher. And also, we never had any grades. Getting grades in 6th grade felt very weird!

50 This attitude is similar to that of parents, who also tend to justify their choice by using arguments that do not directly concern the language itself.

51 We should bear in mind, therefore, that an avoidance strategy emerges as soon as the topic of the motivation to learn Occitan is brought up. In practice, that motivation recedes in the students' recollections compared to deep-rooted reminiscence of “that school.” Other avoidance strategies emerge as well. For example, one middle schooler makes no difference between rock climbing and Occitan, eventually admitting that she prefers rock climbing. Another forgot to mention the language in her list of preferred middle school subjects.

52 The students are also relatively cautious when they speak about their schoolmates’ observations about Occitan:

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22. C1 –– They seemed to like it. I told a friend of mine about it, and she said: “That sounds interesting. Can you say something in Occitan?” But that’s it. Most of them haven’t even heard of it. Most of them don’t know anything about it, or they just think: “That’s fun!”

54 Judging by these statements, students maintain a position of honest neutrality. This raises the question of how Calandreta students cope with their schoolmates’ lack of interest, given the emotional involvement they themselves experienced while in elementary school.

55 In any case, the pride they might have felt from attending a Calandreta, the same pride that brought their parents to say that they “go on and on about it,” becomes markedly more discreet when they reach middle school. A 6th-grade student who takes an optional course in Occitan probably has no need to tell her classmates or her teacher that she is fluent since the teacher must be able to guess it from the very outset.

56 Moreover, the “small and close-knit group” (20. C1) that was encouraged in Calandretas instead becomes an inconvenience once in middle school:

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23. C2 –– We were only a small group in Occitan classes and, the thing is, sometimes it got kind of boring.

58 Course content is also criticized as a comparison with other language teaching downplays the method used for Occitan:

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24. C2 –– In class, I don’t know. It’s not like we were really studying. I couldn’t tell you what we studied in Occitan in 8th grade! We just did nothing!
25. I –– And are you looking forward to continue in 9th grade this year?
26. C2 –– Well, we only just begun. And I got an exemption so I could be in this school because of Occitan, so…
27. C1 –– Spanish. Now that’s different. It’s really “interactive,” as they say. But we really learn, you know. It’s really awesome. It’s my favorite language now.

60 In practice, the system strives to contain that lack of motivation through the use of sweeteners.

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28. C1 –– In 6th grade, they promised us we’d go to Greece if we took Occitan… But we never did, in the end. But this year, they did go. It worked out, eventually.
29. I –– So it was like they dangled a carrot in front of your nose?
30. C1 –– Yeah, yeah! That’s it! A carrot! [laughs]

62 The fact that Occitan is an optional subject that “doesn't count” and that “resorts to tricks” and in which content is designed to please and thus kept light directly influences representations of the language.

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31. C1 –– Most of the time, we do games, discussions, mostly oral stuff, and at the beginning, that was cool, but then the boys started goofing around as if they were there as tourists, so we did the same thing….
32. C2 –– Every year, there are some who quit because they don't like it any more, I think.
The parents' attitude comes through, albeit reading between the lines:
34. C1 – I think the parents [of those who quit] become more distant [?] toward Occitan.

64 In fact, the family’s enthusiasm seems to abate with time. To simplify, in preschool bilingualism is seen positively as “it can't hurt” to study the regional language.” The main concern in elementary school is to ascertain that it does not restrict the learning of other subjects. In 6^th grade, the choice must be pragmatic. Given the basic motivations I previously cited, this erosion is hardly surprising.

65 Occitan teachers also find themselves in an uncomfortable situation. While the initiation to English is rigorously organized (with workbooks, lesson 1, lesson 2...) and with students being less inclined to pursue Occitan, a different, more play-oriented approach is attempted, as a consequence of which students perceive the subject as “not serious and not important.” The approach is also highly scholarly (with 6th-grade students being made to read an excerpt from Encarta Encyclopaedia on Occitan and the area where it is spoken, a document that, given the terminology it employs (“palatization of the 'r' sound,” “a language with only remote Celtic roots,” “ethnic identity,” “linguistic repertoire”) is clearly meant for linguists, or at least adults. Finally, the approach is made more attractive, even folklore-oriented, as trips and museum visits are offered.

66 This is the logic behind this approach, and the initiative it reflects for the remediation of regional language teaching echo issues caused by falling enrollment currently experienced by teachers of some subjects (for instance, German). Clearly, there is growing awareness that action must be taken at the level of motivation. Yet the appropriate method of action is not easily identifiable.

Conclusion

67 This study has corroborated the hypothesis formulated initially, namely that the valorization of both French and Occitan, in itself a complex issue, as the first part of this paper demonstrated, changes along with the transition undergone by adolescents. However, the specific reasons for this shift are more diversified than first hypothesized.

68 Calandreta students seem to be relatively unaffected by the discovery of the negative perceptions among their classmates of the minority language as Occitan is seldom a topic of conversation among them. Yet this discretion (or reticence) on their part in displaying their bilingual aptitude soon emerges in middle school. Already, they seem to have mentally accepted that others have no interest in the language and to have made that their point of departure. For them, bilingualism in Occitan is a non-issue in the sense that they realize that Occitan becomes a lesser language in this new context, just as it was the moment the school day was over in elementary school. In addition, it is not essential that peers express their views explicitly for group identity to come into play. Teenagers are at an age where they have reached a “critical period” during which their identity is both deconstructed and reconstructed. Likewise, adolescence is the age when their classmates born of immigrant parents differentiate and strongly mark their manner of speech in an effort to fit into the group. In their analysis of diglossic bilingualism, Hamers and Blanc (1983, 227) identify a “process of differentiation specific to each generation,” agreeing with the conclusions articulated by Gumperz and Hernandez, who observe that during adolescence, Mexican Americans tend to choose the dominant language, in this case English, while Spanish is reintroduced in adulthood, “once married.”

69 In the context under focus here, one structural factor remains critical to accounting for the above-mentioned varying attitudes toward Occitan, namely the changing perceptions of its status among teenagers. Although Occitan is first implemented as the exclusive medium of communication, it becomes not only just a subject, but an optional one at that. In the middle school in which a bilingual approach uses Occitan to teach history and geography, the approach seems to satisfy the students' expectations. By contrast, they dislike their Occitan language classes. In the middle schools that offer Occitan as an option without differentiating between fluent speakers and beginners and where teachers are not always sufficiently trained, dwindling motivation is to be expected.

70 Furthermore, students do not cope easily with being split off from their group to attend Occitan classes. This situation echoes the issues associated with the teaching of minority languages as attending a separate class in a discipline that has no prestige in the eyes of their classmates makes students feel different, even marginalized.

71 This subsequent lack of interest in Occitan may also directly stem from efforts to valorize both languages in elementary school. As a result, the manner in which this is implemented should be reconsidered thoroughly for the simple reason that it leads to “dual diglossia,” a combination that negatively impacts the use of Occitan outside of school alongside another diglossia affecting the use of French in school. Over time, this binary pattern could trigger an even more radical reversal when students go on to middle school. Other approaches to bilingual education based instead on the alternate use of both languages, which are offered jointly as mediums of instruction, should be considered, at least partially. Parity in terms of instructional time, which is preferred by the French Ministry of Education, [12] is a model based on equal status for both languages. Following Coste (2000), “integrative” models that would “not replace one language with another over the entire length of the curriculum but instead make use of both languages through which to teach other subjects are currently being envisaged.” In fact, an alternative model can be found in bilingual schools in the [French and Italian-speaking] Val d’Aoste, where two languages (or even three when Provençal is also part of the curriculum) are used for the acquisition of knowledge on an alternating basis, to the benefit of cognitive economy (Cavalli 2002). [13] Hence, the key issue is the importance of each language in Calandreta schools, with the so-called “Canadian” model being re-contextualized and adapted to the current setting.

72 Clearly, adolescents are not about to deny their elementary school experience, which nurtured a strong emotional attachment to Occitan. In addition, they also sense that parental commitment is a determining factor. As a result, their experience is one of double bind, which explains their reticence as well as their use of avoidance strategies. Once in middle school, however, students no longer experience a true bilingual education, except in a limited number of cases where Occitan is used as the medium of instruction for non-linguistic subjects. Hence, the issue at stake differs from the formulation originally offered. Rather than promoting “the positive effects of bilingual education” (Hamers and Blanc 1983, 344), any future strategy must determine how the negative effects of faulty contact with the minority language (Billiez 2000) can be prevented. As the interviews reported in this study show, maintaining a negative relationship with the non-prestige language for the entire duration of schooling will, if anything, be more hazardous than doing nothing since the learning of the lesser language will take place entirely out of context. This justifies the questions raised and the observations made as regards minority language teaching. [14] From the moment Occitan appears on the middle school curriculum – apart from its optional or mandatory nature, which constitutes a major difference in itself – equal status relative to modern European languages, unfavorable conditions for student motivation are in effect put in place because “the teaching of a minority – and especially of a non-prestige – language cannot be inspired by the teaching methods used for socially valorized languages” (Billiez 2000, 29). What this study has demonstrated is the rejection of the obviously inadequate teaching methods used for Occitan. However, this rejection does not constitute a rejection of the language itself, which would be a different phenomenon altogether, despite the fact that I am unable to evaluate this dimension without a more fine-grained analysis of the interviews reported in this paper. The risk is that this circular incoherence may negatively impact perceptions of a language now weakened by being placed in a new context that deprives it of its earlier function. [15]

73 As a result of the fact that adequate language teaching cannot be provided, the best solution might be to abandon the teaching of Occitan in middle school, allow ex-Calandrons to preserve fond memories of full immersion while in elementary school, and hope for a renewal of interest later on. In fact, other diglossic situations, such as the Mexican-American community in the U.S., have shown this to be true. In the Val d’Aoste, a preference for the non-prestige language – that is, French – is currently observed in bilingual individuals at undergraduate level despite suffering from low motivation in middle school.

74 Occitan speakers are still at pains to justify the usefulness and legitimacy of their language once elementary school is completed since neither domestic nor sociocultural environments permit it to be used extensively in the geographic areas under study here [16] – a problem that Mexican-Americans or Val d’Aoste natives are unfamiliar with.

75 To conclude, language socialization – a determining factor for the survival of Occitan – remains the principal issue in the varied contexts outside of the immediate school environment.