This presentation investigates the different layers of cultural and intercultural mediation through a comparative case study of two prestigious institutions (Inalco in Paris and Soas in London). Through in depth interviews of teachers, our study seeks to relate the two institutional contexts to the individual profiles of their language teachers.
In language teaching and learning, the notion of mediation has been used intensively for the last 20 years and has lost any substance. Technologies have been understood as mediating tools, tasks and portfolios designed by teachers and learners have been described as mediating supports to enhance teaching and learning practices, then learning environments have been discussed as mediating sets to develop collaborative and telecollaborative practices. Language is also viewed as a mediating practice to conduct knowledge and know how in communication. However the cultural and intercultural dimensions in language learning and teaching are still set aside as well as their mediating processes. This presentation will investigate the different layers of cultural and intercultural mediation through a comparative case study : Two institutions - Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO), first created in Paris in 1669, then re-established in 1795, and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, founded in 1916) in London - were set up to serve geopolitical and economic interests of each country (France and the United-Kingdom). They have also had as principal goals the advancement of knowledge and the learning of "Oriental languages". Due to their respective backgrounds, both European institutions have acquired a prestigious name for the variety of languages taught not only as “international” languages but also as “Languages of the Wider World”. Our study seeks to relate the two institutional contexts to the individual profiles of their language teachers. Data collected from semi-directive interviews conducted with teachers from the departments of Arabic studies, African studies and Japanese studies of SOAS and INALCO were analysed thematically. They present a cross-cultural narrative of identity conceived as a habitus (see Bourdieu). Personal and professional trajectories help define profiles that tend to reveal two possible types of teachers: the “ambassador” and the “mediator” models.
