Book Description

This book represents the proceedings of an international seminar held at the University of La Reunion in November 2014, the outcome of a pluridisciplinary project bringing together a number of research centres, including the Federation of Research Centers Observatoire Scientifique de Océan Indien, CALTS Hyderabad, and AUSTRALEX Adelaide. Offering a reflection on scholarship and plural identity constructions, with a specific focus on the Indian Ocean area, the book provides an in-depth discussion of the concepts of “heritage and exchanges” in Indian Ocean countries. The volume is divided into two parts, with the first section, focusing on the concept of heritage, examining intercultural and multilingual legacies which influence the construction and evolution of identity at the level of the individual. The second section deals with the notion and dynamics of exchange, regarding both educational policies in multilingual and intercultural contexts and multilingual and intercultural language learning processes. The heritage and exchanges explored throughout the volume attest to cultural and linguistic pluralities which are part of languages and cultures in contact, but which also reveal a plural yet partitioned world, influenced by subjective representations. This volume is particularly unique given its intense focus on a relatively unexplored geographical area, the Indian Ocean, home to several English and French speaking countries and endowed with a diverse educational and cultural colonial legacy. Furthermore, as a result of its interdisciplinary nature and topics, this bilingual book will appeal to a wide and international readership interested in questions pertaining to multilingualism and interculturalism in learning, teaching and training contexts, and will represent an invaluable source of information for academics, students, and educationalists wishing to specialize in the theory and practice of education.