Cecile Vigouroux
2021
Vigouroux, Cecile
Tribute: Jan Blommaert, a citizen sociolinguist Journal Article
In: Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2021.
@article{Vigouroux2021,
title = {Tribute: Jan Blommaert, a citizen sociolinguist},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1111/josl.12492},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-06-03},
journal = {Journal of Sociolinguistics},
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2020
Vigouroux, Cecile; Mufwene, Salikoko Sangol
Do Linguists Need Economics and Economists Linguistics? Book Chapter
In: pp. 1-55, Cambridge University Press, 2020, ISBN: 9781108479332.
@inbook{Vigouroux2020,
title = {Do Linguists Need Economics and Economists Linguistics?},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux and Salikoko Sangol Mufwene},
doi = {10.1017/9781108783101.002},
isbn = {9781108479332},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-03-19},
pages = {1-55},
publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
abstract = {In this chapter, we review how economists and linguists have problematized the relationship between economy and language, focusing on their methodologies, theoretical toolboxes, and ideologies. One of the striking differences lies in the ways they conceptualize languages, viz., as strictly denotational for economists but both denotational and indexical for linguists. We show that by approaching them as abstract, asocial, ahistorical, and statistically measurable entities, economists treat languages as resources whose economic consequences for individuals or societies can simply be derived from their intrinsic nature. By contrast, examining languages as practices grounded in their sociohistorical ecologies, linguists have been more interested in the valuation of some languages as capitals that can outweigh others economically or symbolically. Overall, we highlight the interdisciplinary nature of “economy and language” as a research area, showing how complex it is and how productive it should be to build an intellectual bridge between the two disciplines.},
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2019
Vigouroux, Cecile
Language and (in)hospitality: The micropolitics of hosting and guesting Journal Article
In: Language Culture and Society, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 31-58 , 2019.
@article{Vigouroux2019,
title = {Language and (in)hospitality: The micropolitics of hosting and guesting},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1075/lcs.00003.vig},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-04-12},
journal = {Language Culture and Society},
volume = {1},
number = {1},
pages = {31-58 },
abstract = {Based on a long-term ethnography of Sub-Saharan African migrants in Cape Town, South Africa, this article examines how language as ideology and practice shapes the rules of guesting and hosting and helps (re)configure the on-going positionalities of both the nation-state-defined-host and the foreigner-guest, making murky the distinction between the two. The key notion of hospitality developed here is examined as practices rather than as identities. I argue that this theoretical shift makes it possible to unsettle the host and guest positions by not positing them a priori or conceptualizing them as immutable. It likewise makes it possible to deconstruct the categories imposed by the State and by which scholars and policy makers alike abide, such as the dichotomy between migrants and locals . At a broader level, the paper draws attention to the Occidentalism that has plagued academia, particularly in the work done on migration. I show how the South African case challenges many scholarly assumptions on language and migration overwhelmingly based on the examination of South-to-North migrations, which do not adequately represent worldwide migrations.},
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Vigouroux, Cecile; Perez-Milans,; Baquedano-Lopez, Patricia; Percio, A Del; Wei, L
Language, Culture and Society - Editorial Journal Article
In: Language, Culture and Society, 2019.
@article{Vigouroux2019b,
title = {Language, Culture and Society - Editorial},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux and Perez-Milans and Patricia Baquedano-Lopez and A Del Percio and L Wei},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-04-01},
journal = {Language, Culture and Society},
abstract = {Language, Culture and Society provides an international platform for cutting-edge research that advances thinking and understanding of the complex intersections of language, culture and society, with the aim of pushing traditional disciplinary boundaries through theoretical and methodological innovation. Contributors are encouraged to pay close attention to the contextualized forms of semiotic human activity upon which social conventions, categories and indexical meanings are constructed, actualized, negotiated and disputed vis-à-vis wider social, cultural, racial, economic and historical conditions. The journal is open to analysis focusing on different spatio-temporal scales; it also welcomes contributions addressing such issues through the lens of any of the analytical paradigms stemming from the sociolinguistic and anthropological study of language, discourse and communication. Exploration of new communicative contexts and practices is considered particularly valuable, and research that breaks new ground by making connections with other disciplines is highly encouraged. Thinking-aloud pieces, reactions and debates, and other alternative formats of contributions are also welcome.},
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Vigouroux, Cecile; Milans, Miguel Pérez; Baquedano-Lopez, Patricia; Percio, Alfonso Del; Wei, Li
Language, Culture and Society: Inaugural Editorial Journal Article
In: Language Culture and Society, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-7, 2019.
@article{Vigouroux2019bb,
title = {Language, Culture and Society: Inaugural Editorial},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux and Miguel Pérez Milans and Patricia Baquedano-Lopez and Alfonso Del Percio and Li Wei},
doi = {10.1075/lcs.00001.edi},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-02-15},
journal = {Language Culture and Society},
volume = {1},
number = {1},
pages = {1-7},
abstract = {This is the editorial of the inaugural issue in Language, Culture and Society, to be published in the Spring of 2019.},
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2018
Vigouroux, Cecile; Milans, Miguel Pérez; Baquedano-Lopez, Patricia; Percio, Alfonso Del
Language, Culture and Society: Editorial 1:3 (2021) Journal Article
In: Language Culture and Society, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1-8, 2018.
@article{Vigouroux2018,
title = {Language, Culture and Society: Editorial 1:3 (2021)},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux and Miguel Pérez Milans and Patricia Baquedano-Lopez and Alfonso Del Percio},
doi = {10.1075/lcs.00031.edi},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-06-21},
journal = {Language Culture and Society},
volume = {3},
number = {1},
pages = {1-8},
abstract = {In our previous issues, we have outlined our commitment to strengthen the focus on Society by critically examining the categories on which we build our work as scholars of language […] But so far we have done this without explicitly addressing the very institutional position from which many of us produce knowledge: the University – the big elephant in the room. And it is not always easy to do so. After all, the university is the workplace that structures our knowledge production while at the same time providing the means which ratify the social and intellectual legitimacy of what we do (including having access to editorial positions), even if this is under conditions of increasing precarity and instability. […] The five articles in the present issue offer us, in our view, with avenues for deepening reflection on these matters. Although authors weren’t exactly reacting to a particular call, we read their contributions as speaking to these concerns. We do so with two goals in mind. First, to insist that it is worth keeping an eye on the social relations of inequality that we continue to mystify as knowledge producers who write from within higher education institutions. Second, to sustain venues where we can continue talking about this openly and honestly, in ways that don’t paralyse us but which rather propel us to generate productive forms of transgression and counter-conducts within our universities – not only in the sense envisioned by Foucault (2007) but also in connection with the reactivation of a variety of non-European indigenous systems of knowing (Mbembe, 2003). More specifically, the contributions in this issue help us delve in a critique of the relations of power and inequality that frame and inform our work and that we have shaped. This includes a critique of: (a) our roles as researchers and knowledge producers; (b) the categories we mobilize when doing research; (c) the histories of our own academic disciplines; (d) the learning spaces that we contribute to create as teachers; and (e) our recruitment practices in universities.},
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Vigouroux, Cecile
Toward a Sociolinguistics of Modern Sub-Saharan African South–South Migrations Journal Article
In: 2018.
@article{Vigouroux2018b,
title = {Toward a Sociolinguistics of Modern Sub-Saharan African South–South Migrations},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.235},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-04-26},
abstract = {Despite their large demographic size, intra-continental African migrations have hardly been taken into account in the theorizing on migration in transnational studies and related fields. Research questions have been framed predominantly from a South-to-North perspective on population movements. This may be a consequence of the fact that the extent and complexity of modern population movements and contacts within Africa are hard to assess, owing mainly to lack of reliable data. For sociolinguists the challenge is even greater, partly because of the spotty knowledge of linguistic diversity in the continent and the scarcity of adequate sociolinguistic descriptions of the ways in which Africans manage their language repertoires. Despite these limitations, a sociolinguistics of intracontinental African migrations will contribute significantly to a better understanding of the conditions, nature, and periodicity of population contacts and interactional dynamics. It will help explain why geographic mobility entails reshaping sociocultural practices, including the language repertoires of both the migrants and the people they come in contact with. Moreover, the peculiarity of African economies, which rely heavily on informal noninstitutionalized practices, prompts a rethinking of assumptions regarding the acquisition of the host country’s language(s) as the primary facilitator of the migrants’ socioeconomic inclusion. A sociolinguistic understanding of migrations within Africa can help to formulate new questions and enrich the complex pictures that the study of other parts of the world has already shaped.
},
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2017
Vigouroux, Cecile
The discursive pathway of two centuries of raciolinguistic stereotyping: Africans as incapable of speaking French Journal Article
In: Language in Society, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 5-21, 2017.
@article{Vigouroux2017,
title = {The discursive pathway of two centuries of raciolinguistic stereotyping: Africans as incapable of speaking French},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1017/S0047404516000804},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-02-01},
journal = {Language in Society},
volume = {46},
number = {1},
pages = {5-21},
abstract = {This article is about the discursive pathway of grammatical structures such as y'a bon ‘there's good’, documenting how, in Hexagonal France, it has become an ‘enregistered emblem’ for indexing sub-Saharan Africans and, by extension, any African as allegedly incapable of speaking French competently. I argue that tracing pathways makes it possible to unveil the intricacy of the historicities of production, circulation, and interpretations of such racially based linguistic stereotypes. One of the central questions addressed in this article is: What are the sociohistorical conditions of the emergence and maintenance of these linguistic stereotypes? I show that these are grounded in long-standing linguistic ideologies of French as an exceptional language and of African languages and, therefore, their speakers, as primitive. I demonstrate how the rise of first age mass culture in the nineteenth century contributed to both the entextualization and the circulation of these stereotypical representations. (Stereotypes, mediatization, enregisterment, language ideology, France, Africa).},
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Vigouroux, Cecile
Individuals, populations, and timespace Perspectives on the ecology of language revisited Journal Article
In: pp. 75 - 103, 2017.
@article{Vigouroux2017bb,
title = {Individuals, populations, and timespace Perspectives on the ecology of language revisited},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1075/le.1.1.05muf},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-01-29},
pages = {75 - 103},
abstract = {In the present article we distinguish the concept of ECOLOGY OF LANGUAGE as articulated in Mufwene (2001ff) from that of ECOLINGUISTICS developed especially by Mühlhäusler (1996ff) , Fill and Mühlhäusler (2001) , Couto (2009) , and several contributors to Fill and Benz (to appear) . We explain how Mufwene’s ECOLOGY OF LANGUAGE concept, inspired primarily by macroecology, applies to language evolution. We articulate various factors internal and external to a language that bear on how it emerged phylogenetically, underwent particular structural changes, and, in some cases, may have speciated into separate varieties. The external ecology also influences the vitality of languages, rolling the dice on whether they thrive or are endangered. Because these particular phenomena have been elaborately discussed in Mufwene’s earlier publications, we devote more space to explaining how the notion of LANGUAGE ECOLOGY, as others call it, also applies as a useful heuristic tool to qualitative sociolinguistics.},
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Vigouroux, Cecile
Rethinking (un)skilled migrants: Whose skills, what skills, for what, and for whom? Book Chapter
In: pp. 312-329, RoutledgeEditors: Suresh Canagarajah, 2017.
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2016
Vigouroux, Cecile
9. Magic Marketing: Performing Grassroots Literacy: Recombining Spaces, Times and Language Practices Book Chapter
In: vol. 13, no. 2, Engaging Superdiversity, 2016, ISBN: 9781783096800.
@inbook{Vigouroux2016,
title = {9. Magic Marketing: Performing Grassroots Literacy: Recombining Spaces, Times and Language Practices},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.21832/9781783096800-011},
isbn = {9781783096800},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-12-31},
volume = {13},
number = {2},
publisher = {Engaging Superdiversity},
abstract = {This article shows how socially stigmatized ways of writing may be commodified by the scribers themselves in order to reap symbolic and/or economic benefits. I illustrate this point by examining African marabouts’ advertisements in France and the way they are read by the French. These cards promote marabouts’ spiritual powers with promises to bring back unfaithful spouses and, among other things, success in business. I argue that what French readers interpret as grassroots literacy should instead be analyzed as astroturf literacy, i.e. literacy that imitates or fakes popular grassroots ways of writing. I submit that display of seemingly poor literacy is an essential part of marabouts’ doing being African: By performing ‘non-standard’ literacy they become ‘authentic’ Africans, and therefore legitimate clairvoyants, according to the set of fantasized sociocultural stereotypes. Yet, by recycling socio-cultural stereotypes, the marabouts participate in the re-production of the social and moral orders that enable the possibilities of French readers’ meaning-making.},
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Vigouroux, Cecile
Magic marketing: Performing grassroots literacy Book Chapter
In: vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 199-219, Magic Marketing: Performing Grassroots Literacy, 2016, ISSN: 2079-6595.
@inbook{Vigouroux2016b,
title = {Magic marketing: Performing grassroots literacy},
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volume = {13},
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publisher = {Magic Marketing: Performing Grassroots Literacy},
abstract = {This article shows how socially stigmatized ways of writing may be commodified by the scribers themselves in order to reap symbolic and/or economic benefits. I illustrate this point by examining African marabouts’ advertisements in France and the way they are read by the French. These cards promote marabouts’ spiritual powers with promises to bring back unfaithful spouses and, among other things, success in business. I argue that what French readers interpret as grassroots literacy should instead be analyzed as astroturf literacy, i.e. literacy that imitates or fakes popular grassroots ways of writing. I submit that display of seemingly poor literacy is an essential part of marabouts’ doing being African: By performing ‘non-standard’ literacy they become ‘authentic’ Africans, and therefore legitimate clairvoyants, according to the set of fantasized sociocultural stereotypes. Yet, by recycling socio-cultural stereotypes, the marabouts participate in the re-production of the social and moral orders that enable the possibilities of French readers’ meaning-making.},
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2015
Vigouroux, Cecile
Genre, heteroglossic performances, and new identity: Stand-up comedy in modern French society Journal Article
In: Language in Society, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 243-272, 2015.
@article{Vigouroux2015,
title = {Genre, heteroglossic performances, and new identity: Stand-up comedy in modern French society},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1017/S0047404515000068},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-04-01},
journal = {Language in Society},
volume = {44},
number = {2},
pages = {243-272},
abstract = {This article analyses the ways in which stand-up comedy has been taken up by French comics of North and sub-Saharan African origins as a space of visibility and hearability. Following Bakhtin (1986), who argues that a genre reflects the social changes taking place in a society, I argue that such an appropriation should be considered as an important sociolinguistic fact that gives us privileged access to Hexagonal France's contemporary sociopolitical dynamics. I show that through their display of heteroglossic repertoires (viz. Maghrebi Arabic, several varieties of vernacular French, Hexagonal standard French, mesolectal African French, stylized chunks of English) comics challenge, at least symbolically, France's monoglot and highly centralized linguistic ideology. They also contribute to unsettling France's Republican model, which is marked by the institutional denial of the social and cultural diversity of the French population. The comics use heteroglossic resources to align with and disalign from multiple chronotopes associated with different social personae. From this emerges a new identity, urban, which both encompasses and transcends racial and ethnic categories. By contrast, I show that this identity is constructed through and received by the nonratified audience with ambivalence. (France, stand-up comedy, genre, urban, identity, chronotope, intertextuality.},
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Vigouroux, Cecile; Jaffe, Alexandra; Koven, Michele; Perrino, Sabina
Introduction: Heteroglossia, performance, power, and participation Journal Article
In: Language in Society 44(02): DOI:, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 135-139, 2015.
@article{Vigouroux2015b,
title = {Introduction: Heteroglossia, performance, power, and participation},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux and Alexandra Jaffe and Michele Koven and Sabina Perrino
},
doi = {10.1017/S0047404515000019},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-04-01},
journal = {Language in Society 44(02): DOI:},
volume = {44},
number = {2},
pages = {135-139},
abstract = {In this special issue, we build on Bauman's seminal observation about performance, that ‘the act of expression is put on display, objectified, marked out to a degree from its discursive surrounding and opened up to interpretive scrutiny and evaluation by an audience’ (2000:1). More recently, scholars have moved to examining the performative role of heteroglossia, that is, the use of multiply sourced, semiotic (verbal and nonverbal) forms. In particular, this line of research has shown how attention to heteroglossic performances and their local interpretations can illuminate the subtle politics of dominant and nondominant identities in different ethnographic contexts. This is particularly true of what Coupland (2007) calls ‘high performances’, which, as Bell & Gibson (2011:558) write, are privileged sites for allowing participants to indexically associate expressive forms with social personae. Thus, while all performances are inherently reflexive, heteroglossic performances particularly amplify that reflexivity with respect to their multiple frames, voices, and stances that they presuppose and establish},
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2013
Vigouroux, Cecile
In: pp. 296- 328, Bristol: Multilingual Matter, 2013, ISBN: 9781783091010.
@inbook{Vigouroux2013,
title = {10. Informal Economy and Language Practice in the Context of Migrations: A Critical Sociolinguistic Perspective on Institutions and Work},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.21832/9781783091010-011},
isbn = {9781783091010},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-12-31},
pages = {296- 328},
publisher = {Bristol: Multilingual Matter},
abstract = {When I started my research on French-speaking African migrants in Cape Town in 1997,
I often got in answer to my question what kind of job do you do here the recurrent answer I don’t
work. In such cases I ventured a follow-up question about how the person earns money to sustain
their basic needs such as food and accommodation; and I got surprised when I heard I am a
security (‘a security guard’) or a car watcher. I realized then that there was a clear discrepancy
between what I was defining as work, ‘a way to make money in order to sustain oneself’, and
what my interlocutors were considering as work. Actually, I don’t know exactly how they
constructed the category WORK since I never asked them. I can just infer from the answers I
received that the activity of earning money they were referring to was typically low-paid, at the
bottom of the socioeconomic ladder and not clearly defined institutionally. Such a discrepancy
between the researcher’s categories and those of his/her subjects is not new; it has been amply
documented in the literature. Yet, it calls for an investigation of how categories are constructed in
the social environment in which they emerge and where they are discursively articulated in order
to understand, on the one hand, how the subject positions himself/herself and, on the other, how
the categorization lends meaning to her own and others’ social practices. },
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I often got in answer to my question what kind of job do you do here the recurrent answer I don’t
work. In such cases I ventured a follow-up question about how the person earns money to sustain
their basic needs such as food and accommodation; and I got surprised when I heard I am a
security (‘a security guard’) or a car watcher. I realized then that there was a clear discrepancy
between what I was defining as work, ‘a way to make money in order to sustain oneself’, and
what my interlocutors were considering as work. Actually, I don’t know exactly how they
constructed the category WORK since I never asked them. I can just infer from the answers I
received that the activity of earning money they were referring to was typically low-paid, at the
bottom of the socioeconomic ladder and not clearly defined institutionally. Such a discrepancy
between the researcher’s categories and those of his/her subjects is not new; it has been amply
documented in the literature. Yet, it calls for an investigation of how categories are constructed in
the social environment in which they emerge and where they are discursively articulated in order
to understand, on the one hand, how the subject positions himself/herself and, on the other, how
the categorization lends meaning to her own and others’ social practices.
Vigouroux, Cecile
Informal economy and language practice in the context of migrations Book Chapter
In: pp. 225-247, Multilingual Matters, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-78309-099-0.
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2012
Vigouroux, Cecile
Francophonie Journal Article
In: Annual Review of Anthropology , vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 379-397, 2012.
@article{Vigouroux2012,
title = {Francophonie},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145804},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-09-26},
journal = {Annual Review of Anthropology },
volume = {42},
number = {1},
pages = {379-397},
abstract = {This review unravels different facets of la Francophonie, both as an international institution dedicated to the defense of French and as a group of people who speak or are united by French. Having been highly ideological since its beginnings and its association with France's colonial history, the very idea of la Francophonie has aroused passionate debates both within and without. Although it was officially launched as a cultural community seeking to develop economic partnership, it has evolved into a political organization promoting human rights and democracy and defending cultural diversity against Anglo-American hegemony. From a linguistic point of view, la Francophonie is approached in light of the centuries-long ideology of French as a universal language whose vitality is threatened by other languages. This review also shows that the political discourse of the institutional Francophonie has not always been in tune with that of its main agents, the Francophones.},
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Vigouroux, Cecile; Mufwene, Salikoko Sangol
Individuals, Populations, and Timespace: Perspectives on the Ecology of Language Journal Article
In: Language Ecology, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 75 - 103, 2012.
@article{Vigouroux2012b,
title = {Individuals, Populations, and Timespace: Perspectives on the Ecology of Language},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux and Salikoko Sangol Mufwene
},
doi = {10.1075/le.1.1.05muf},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-01-01},
journal = {Language Ecology},
volume = {38},
number = {2},
pages = {75 - 103},
abstract = {In the present article we distinguish the concept of ecology of language as developed in Mufwene (2001ff) from that of ecolinguistics developed especially in Fill & Mühlhäusler (eds., 2001). We explain how the ecology of language concept, inspired primarily by macroecology, applies to language evolution by articulating various factors internal to language ("internal ecology") and external to it ("external ecology") that bear on how it emerged phylogenetically and on how specific languages change structurally and may speciate into separate varieties, as well as on their vitality. Because these phenomena have been elaborately discussed elsewhere, we devote more space to explaining how the notion of language ecology also applies as a useful heuristic tool to sociolinguistics, more specifically to the ethnography of communication.},
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2011
Vigouroux, Cecile
Bridges and barriers: language in African education and development Journal Article
In: Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 600-602, 2011.
@article{Vigouroux2011,
title = {Bridges and barriers: language in African education and development},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1080/01434632.2011.580108},
year = {2011},
date = {2011-11-01},
journal = {Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development},
volume = {32},
number = {6},
pages = {600-602},
abstract = {Recent decades have seen sub-Saharan Africa decline in both economic and human terms. The rich North has responded with a barrage of well-publicized initiatives, from pop concerts to international commitments on debt relief, aid, trade and good governance. Among the complex of factors necessary to sustain economic and human development, education receives little media coverage, although it is crucial. However, education must be effective.
This book argues that in 'Anglophone' Africa, education is not effective because of the use of English, rather than children's first languages, both as the medium of instruction, and also as the language in which children are first taught to read. Research is presented from Malawi and Zambia, countries with contrasting language policies, using evidence from tests in English and African languages, small-group discussions and classroom observation. The findings show that English-medium policies in Africa do not give students any advantage in English over first-language policies, while the use of English discriminates against girls and rural children.
The book concludes that much education in Africa is a barrier rather than a bridge to learning because of the prevailing language ideology, which has resulted in massive over-estimation of the value of English. While appropriate language policies alone will not solve education and development difficulties in Africa, they do have a positive contribution to make. The evidence presented here suggests they are failing to make that contribution.},
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This book argues that in 'Anglophone' Africa, education is not effective because of the use of English, rather than children's first languages, both as the medium of instruction, and also as the language in which children are first taught to read. Research is presented from Malawi and Zambia, countries with contrasting language policies, using evidence from tests in English and African languages, small-group discussions and classroom observation. The findings show that English-medium policies in Africa do not give students any advantage in English over first-language policies, while the use of English discriminates against girls and rural children.
The book concludes that much education in Africa is a barrier rather than a bridge to learning because of the prevailing language ideology, which has resulted in massive over-estimation of the value of English. While appropriate language policies alone will not solve education and development difficulties in Africa, they do have a positive contribution to make. The evidence presented here suggests they are failing to make that contribution.
2010
Vigouroux, Cecile
Double‐mouthed discourse: Interpreting, framing, and participant roles1 Journal Article
In: Journal of Sociolinguistics 14(3): DOI:, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 341 - 369, 2010.
@article{Vigouroux2010,
title = {Double‐mouthed discourse: Interpreting, framing, and participant roles1},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1111/j.1467-9841.2010.00448.x},
year = {2010},
date = {2010-06-02},
journal = {Journal of Sociolinguistics 14(3): DOI:},
volume = {14},
number = {3},
pages = {341 - 369},
abstract = {In this article I examine multilingual displays in a Congolese Pentecostal church in Cape Town, South Africa. I focus on the simultaneous interpreting of the pastor's French sermon into English. I argue that the interpreting activity performed at church is used as a powerful interactional device to dramatize and shape the pastor's sermon. A close examination of participant roles shows that although these may appear to be predetermined by the interpretee-interpreter format of the sermon, speaking roles are actually fluid and negotiated. I submit that an important role of the church interpreter is to convey the pastor's inspiration from the Holy Spirit and reach out to the potential audience absent from the here and now of the service. His high emotional engagement helps convey this inspiration prospectively to the audience and retroactively to the pastor himself.},
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pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
2009
Vigouroux, Cecile
The making of a scription: A case study on authority and authorship Journal Article
In: Text & Talk - TEXT TALK, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 615-637, 2009.
@article{Vigouroux2009,
title = {The making of a scription: A case study on authority and authorship},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1515/TEXT.2009.032},
year = {2009},
date = {2009-09-01},
journal = {Text & Talk - TEXT TALK},
volume = {29},
number = {5},
pages = {615-637},
abstract = {In this article I examine a collaborative transcription activity between an American linguistic anthropologist and her two French consultants. Transcription is analyzed here as a discursive process between the three co-transcribers that shapes a locally and interactionally produced document: the scription. Instead of examining the transcription as a product, the tradition in the literature, I focus on the process that produces the scription as text. I show how the co-transcribers' verbalizations of their choices enable us to understand how a scription is constructed from and around layers of authorships and conflictive authorities. I argue that a transcription process should be conceived of as a chain of embedded activities (viz., listening, reading, video watching, and writing). I show how these activities unfold sequentially, each of them providing a (re)contextualizing frame for the next. I submit that a transcription is a complex process of entextualizations spread over several points in time, whereas a scription mediates further entextualizations through its own circulation.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
2008
Vigouroux, Cecile
“The smuggling of La Francophonie”: Francophone Africans in Anglophone Cape Town (South Africa) Journal Article
In: Language in Society, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 415 - 434, 2008.
@article{Vigouroux2008,
title = {“The smuggling of La Francophonie”: Francophone Africans in Anglophone Cape Town (South Africa)},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1017/S0047404508080561},
year = {2008},
date = {2008-07-01},
journal = {Language in Society},
volume = {37},
number = {3},
pages = {415 - 434},
abstract = {Focusing on Black Francophone migrants in Cape Town, it is argued that a locally based Francophone identity has emerged in South Africa that questions the institutional discourse of La Francophonie as the organization of French-speaking states. The new identity has little to do with the organization's ideology of a transnational community of people united by a common language and culture. This is shown by deconstructing the category of passeurs de Francophonie (literally ‘smugglers of la Francophonie’ as practice) to which the organization assigns migrants in non-Francophone countries who allegedly spread the French language and Francophone culture. It is argued that the notion of “Francophone” must be grounded empirically and approached in relation to the social environment of the relevant speakers. The post-apartheid South African setting assigns it a meaning different from what it has in Francophone states.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Vigouroux, Cecile; Mufwene, Salikoko Sangol
Colonization, Globalization and Language Vitality in Africa: An Introduction Journal Article
In: Globalization and Language Vitality: Perspectives from Africa, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 1-48, 2008, ISSN: 1564-4901.
@article{Vigouroux2008b,
title = {Colonization, Globalization and Language Vitality in Africa: An Introduction},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux and Salikoko Sangol Mufwene},
issn = {1564-4901},
year = {2008},
date = {2008-01-01},
journal = {Globalization and Language Vitality: Perspectives from Africa},
volume = {4},
number = {2},
pages = {1-48},
abstract = {The typical academic discourse on language endangerment has presented languages as anthropomorphic organisms with lives independent of their speakers and capable of negotiating on their own the terms of their coexistence. Not surprisingly it has become commonplace to read about killer languages in the same vein as language wars, language murders and linguicides. I argue below that languages are parasitic species whose vitality depends on the communicative behaviours of their speakers, who in turn respond adaptively to changes in their socio-economic ecologies. Language shift, attrition, endangerment and death are all consequences of these adaptations. We must develop a better understanding of the ways in which one ecology differs from another and how these dissimilarities can account for variation in the vitality of individual languages. Globalisation is discussed as part of the relevant language ecology. I submit that only local globalisation has endangered or driven. This article has largely developed from my contribution to a debate with Professor Claude Hagège, under the title Quel avenir pour les langues?, at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 19 September 2001 (part of the series Entretiens sur le XXIe siècle). The original French title was Colonisation, mondialisation, globalisation et l’avenir des langues au XXIe
siècle, from which mondialisation has now been omitted, for reasons that soon become obvious in the text. The essay has also benefited from lectures I gave on 7 November and 3 December 2001
at, respectively, the National University of Singapore and Hong Kong University entitled “Colonization, globalization, and language endangerment”. I am equally indebted to Michel DeGraff, Claude Hagège, Alison Irvine, Paul Newman and my anonymous referees for comments on earlier drafts of this publication.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
siècle, from which mondialisation has now been omitted, for reasons that soon become obvious in the text. The essay has also benefited from lectures I gave on 7 November and 3 December 2001
at, respectively, the National University of Singapore and Hong Kong University entitled “Colonization, globalization, and language endangerment”. I am equally indebted to Michel DeGraff, Claude Hagège, Alison Irvine, Paul Newman and my anonymous referees for comments on earlier drafts of this publication.
2007
Vigouroux, Cecile
Trans-scription as a social activityAn ethnographic approach Journal Article
In: Ethnography, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 61-97 , 2007.
@article{Vigouroux2007,
title = {Trans-scription as a social activityAn ethnographic approach},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1177/1466138107076137},
year = {2007},
date = {2007-03-01},
journal = {Ethnography},
volume = {8},
number = {1},
pages = {61-97 },
abstract = {Of all the tasks performed by linguists, transcription is certainly one of the most closely scrutinized activities on the data construction chain. Paradoxically it is the least well understood. Despite their diversity, all the approaches to transcription have in common the fact of examining it from the point of view of its outcome: the scription. My point of departure is different: in order to deconstruct scription, I move upstream and investigate the activity that produces it, thus focusing on the trans process. The data on which this analysis rests are videotaped transcription activity performed collaboratively by a linguistic anthropologist and her two consultants. My analysis demonstrates how scription is constructed in a perpetual tension between authority and authorship},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Vigouroux, Cecile
Anna De Fina, Identity in narrative: A study of immigrant discourse Journal Article
In: Language in Society 36(01) DOI:, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 127 - 131, 2007.
@article{Vigouroux2007b,
title = {Anna De Fina, Identity in narrative: A study of immigrant discourse},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1017/S0047404507280054},
year = {2007},
date = {2007-01-26},
journal = {Language in Society 36(01) DOI:},
volume = {36},
number = {1},
pages = {127 - 131},
abstract = {Anna De Fina, Identity in narrative: A study of immigrant discourse. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2003. Pp. xiv, 251. Hb $102.00.
Narrative has now won its spurs within the social sciences, as evidenced by the number of publications, by the diversity of disciplinary approaches (e.g., linguistic, sociological, and psychological), and by the wide range of theoretical frameworks applied to its study. Similar remarks apply to studies of identity issues focused on the individual or a group, as shown by the range of foci such as social, ethnic, gender, national, racial, and institutional identity. Anna De Fina's Identity in narrative appears to be a useful resource for students of these topics and, more specifically, for anyone interested in the study of immigration.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Narrative has now won its spurs within the social sciences, as evidenced by the number of publications, by the diversity of disciplinary approaches (e.g., linguistic, sociological, and psychological), and by the wide range of theoretical frameworks applied to its study. Similar remarks apply to studies of identity issues focused on the individual or a group, as shown by the range of foci such as social, ethnic, gender, national, racial, and institutional identity. Anna De Fina's Identity in narrative appears to be a useful resource for students of these topics and, more specifically, for anyone interested in the study of immigration.
2005
Vigouroux, Cecile
‘There are no Whites in Africa’: Territoriality, language, and identity among Francophone Africans in Cape Town Journal Article
In: Language & Communication , vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 237-255, 2005.
@article{Vigouroux2005,
title = {‘There are no Whites in Africa’: Territoriality, language, and identity among Francophone Africans in Cape Town},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1016/j.langcom.2005.03.002},
year = {2005},
date = {2005-07-01},
journal = {Language & Communication },
volume = {25},
number = {3},
pages = {237-255},
abstract = {In this paper, I discuss identity display among Francophone Black Africans in Cape Town. I focus on language practice and attitudes, both approached in relation to space, which is conceived of multidimensionally. I argue that the physical environment, symbolic meaning, and social practice are interrelated in shaping, together and separately, language practice and attitudes. I propose an interactional and dynamic model of analysis based on territoriality which helps us understand the relationship between space and language, and the way speakers give meaning to and appropriate their multilayered space.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
2004
Vigouroux, Cecile
Rencontre(s) d’un autre type Journal Article
In: Lidil, 2004.
@article{Vigouroux2004,
title = {Rencontre(s) d’un autre type},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
year = {2004},
date = {2004-07-01},
urldate = {2004-07-01},
journal = {Lidil},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Vigouroux, Cecile
Ploog, Katja, Le Français à Abidjan. Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard. Paris: CNRS Editions, 2002, 326 pp. 2 271 05968 2 Journal Article
In: Journal of French Language Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 80 - 82, 2004.
@article{Vigouroux2004b,
title = { Ploog, Katja, Le Français à Abidjan. Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard. Paris: CNRS Editions, 2002, 326 pp. 2 271 05968 2},
author = {Cecile Vigouroux},
doi = {10.1017/S0959269504311580},
year = {2004},
date = {2004-03-01},
journal = {Journal of French Language Studies},
volume = {14},
number = {1},
pages = {80 - 82},
abstract = {ard
Journal of French Language Studies, sponsored by the Association for French Language Studies, encourages and promotes theoretical, descriptive and applied studies of all aspects of the French language. The journal brings together research from the English- and French-speaking traditions, publishing significant work on French phonology, morphology, syntax, lexis and semantics, sociolinguistics and variation studies. Most work is synchronic in orientation, but historical and comparative items are also included. Studies of the acquisition of the French language, where these take due account of current theory in linguistics and applied linguistics, are also published. Issues include survey articles reviewing the state of the art in a major field, as well as squibs on modern usage in French and a major book review section. As from 2004, one issue in three will be thematic and devoted to broad topics such as the acquisition of French, discourse or corpus-based descriptions of the French language.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Journal of French Language Studies, sponsored by the Association for French Language Studies, encourages and promotes theoretical, descriptive and applied studies of all aspects of the French language. The journal brings together research from the English- and French-speaking traditions, publishing significant work on French phonology, morphology, syntax, lexis and semantics, sociolinguistics and variation studies. Most work is synchronic in orientation, but historical and comparative items are also included. Studies of the acquisition of the French language, where these take due account of current theory in linguistics and applied linguistics, are also published. Issues include survey articles reviewing the state of the art in a major field, as well as squibs on modern usage in French and a major book review section. As from 2004, one issue in three will be thematic and devoted to broad topics such as the acquisition of French, discourse or corpus-based descriptions of the French language.