Abstract:

The colonial period influenced the development of all spheres of life of the inhabitants of former French colonies. These in majority multilingual and multiethnic countries historically used language policies most often to promote one official language at the expense of regional ones. Although after decolonization process had ended the governments of all former French colonies launched the policy of valorization of regional languages along with the official one. Hence system of education has always served as one of the most crucial fields designed to promote a particular language or a set of languages. Lots of the countries which have been under the question have various language policies aimed to favor or discourage the use of regional and ethnic languages in the field of education. Many countries now have policies meant to protect and promote regional and ethnic languages which are the only spoken ones by the young. In this paper, authors have examined the language situation in French Guiana (in South America) and Burkina Faso (in West Africa). Belonging geographically to different continents and politically to France and Europe, French Guiana and Burkina Faso are of special interest concerning a language situation and language policy in education. The comparative approach used in this study has allowed us to reveal both common and specific principles in the sphere of education of these two countries. Multilingual indigenous people of French Guiana and Burkina Faso face a socialization problem in the society recognizing its inhabitants as citizens of France. Educational language policies in both countries recognise the specificity and identity of the population and adaptation of the training system in favour of multilingualism in education which is supported by the two governments. The different ways these two language policies are conducted to reach a common goal present the main interest for the authors and take the major part of this paper.

Keywords:

Language policy, language situation, comparative analysis, French Guiana, Burkina Faso, multilingualism in education, state language, regional language, France