This paper takes an epistemological perspective on differences in language teaching research in English and French as evidenced in a small collection of key terms in L2 studies and la didactique des langues. For each term, the paper briefly retraces historical differences and suggests ways of bridging the gaps.
This paper takes an epistemological perspective on differences in foreign and second language (L2) teaching research in English and French. L2 studies, long a central subfield of applied linguistics in the English-speaking world, is divided over two distinct domains in French-language research in Europe: a) a psycholinguistic approach to second language acquisition, and b) language didactics, a theoretical approach to how teaching leads to learning. Following the foundation of AILA in 1964, the disciplinarisation and institutionalisation of applied linguistics in the UK and the US was very different from France. Where English-language research since Corder (1967) and Selinker (1972) has concentrated on learner language, particularly as compared to native-speaker competence (Firth & Wagner 1997), French language didacticians have focused on the target language and culture, and on the role of the language teacher (Galisson & Coste 1976). Another point of crystallisation for these opposing research cultures has been the CEFR, which has been resisted by European researchers working in English on psycholinguistic grounds (e.g., Hulstijn 2011), and by French didacticians for pedagogical and perhaps ethical reasons (Huver 2017). Theoretical and terminological divergences across French and English writing are of course damaging to our collective research enterprise as several numerous recent writers note (Kramsch 2009; Carton, Narcy-Combes & Toffoli, 2015). The time therefore seems ripe to revisit a small collection of key terms in the L2 studies and language didactics literature in French and English which typify differences in research cultures but where intersections in interpretation also exist. For each term, the paper briefly retraces historical differences in French and English usage and shows how recent research suggests ways of bridging the gaps. The paper concludes with implications for future L2 studies/language didactics research but also emerging domains of application such as LSP didactics and higher education pedagogy.
