Lourdes Frasquet, University Jaume I
Throughout the history of humankind, languages have been used by power elites in order to impose their domination. This mechanism for imposing a culture is even more evident in multicultural societies that are the result of a colonial past, in which a hierarchy between the integrating cultures was established. In this context, the French State is an example in the State-Nation building efforts, in that its political centralism has implied the degradation and elimination of every cultural demonstration other than French in the public sphere. One of the most effective means to achieve this objective has been a free, public and compulsory school system, delivered in French only. This communication aims to determine the extent to which public education is responsible for the current sociolinguistic situation in Reunion Island, a former French colony and a current departmental region of France. In order to achieve this objective, I will conduct a qualitative content analysis of the legislation in the field of linguistic policing in the educational sphere between 1951 and 2013, taking as a reference the LOOM (Loi d’Orientation pour l’Outre Mer), dating from 2000, the first law recognizing institutionally Creole as a regional language.
Keywords: language policy; Reunion; Creole; legislation; qualitative analysis