International Journal of Bilingual
Education and Bilingualism
Editor: Colin Baker, University of Wales, Bangor
Review Editor: Aneta Pavlenko, Temple University, Philadelpia
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Volume: 6 Number: 3 Page: 202–220
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Talk Around Text: Literacy Practices, Cultural Identity and Authority in a Corsican Bilingual Classroom
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Alexandra Jaffe
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This paper examines literacy practices in a Corsican bilingual classroom, focusing on the way that pedagogical practices attribute authentic and powerful identities to both the minority language and to
learners. This involves meeting two sometimes conflicting goals: (1) fostering an intimate and authentic sense of cultural ownership of the Corsican language among children who are largely French-dominant;
and (2) creating symbolic and functional parity between Corsican and French in the broader context of the Corsican language revitalisation agenda. The analysis of Corsican literacy instruction in a Corsican
bilingual school shows that these dual goals are addressed through practices that involve the collective, collaborative production of texts (intimacy function) which are treated as authoritative in the
class (power/parity function). These micro-level practices are replicated in the overall patterning of literacy work in the two languages of the classroom, where there is virtual parity in the amount of
literacy work done in the two languages, but in which Corsican is the subject of less individual work and rigorous evaluation.
© Multilingual Matters 2003
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