Language, Learning and Cohesion. Reflections on a singular method: the Foreign Legion
Speaker
- Colonel Jean-Pierre Royet, Chief of Staff of the Foreign Legion
Discussant
- Georges Kostakiotis (CREE, Inalco)
Argumentaire de la manifestation scientifique
This meeting, organized by the ELAN research group (Enseigner les Langues : Innovative Approaches) research group at CREE, in collaboration with Inalco student-officers, is devoted to an unusual method of learning French: the "képi blanc method", developed within the Foreign Legion.
The ELAN research group is committed to studying the conditions of language teaching and acquisition in a variety of cultural, institutional and geopolitical contexts. As such, this conference offers a rare opportunity: to explore an intensive language device, aimed at multilingual adults from all backgrounds, in a highly constrained setting.
A unique institution in the world, the Foreign Legion is singular in many ways. Created in 1831 to serve outside metropolitan France, it has been an integral part of the French army ever since. What sets it apart is that it recruits only foreigners, under the command of French officers. A second-chance school for many, a school of life for all, it recruits without any means test, diploma or prior knowledge of French, for an initial five-year commitment. Open to men from all over the world between the ages of 17 and 39 (subject to certain legal conditions), it brings together over 150 nationalities. Yet the working language is exclusively French.
How, then, can such a heterogeneous community be welded together, the values of the institution transmitted and the profession of arms taught to volunteers from such diverse backgrounds? How can such a composite troop quickly become operational? How can recruits learn 500 words of civil and military vocabulary in French in just a few months, and understand increasingly technical instructions?
This conference will be led by Colonel Royet, Chief of Staff of the French Foreign Legion, who has devoted most of his career to this institution, in positions as varied as instructor, company commander or corps commander of a regiment in French Guiana. He will be accompanied by legionnaires who have learned French using the "képi blanc method" and come to share their experience.
Organization
- CREE's ELAN research group (teaching languages: innovative approaches)
- Military officers from Inalco's Russian Studies Department