En se référant au titre de ce volume, et à l’argumentation qui en découle, on peut constater de prime abord que le fil conducteur, bien qu’il soit présent dans certains articles, l’est de manière très mitigée dans d’autres. En effet, ce volume aborde deux préoccupations majeures : 1) le développement et l’enseignement des langues nationales. 2) le multilinguisme dans un contexte multiculturel. Étant donné que ces deux préoccupations, dans le contexte africain, se présentent comme deux faces d'une même pièce, donc inévitablement inséparables, il devient difficile de les isoler, d'où le chevauchement inévitable des contributions. Referring to the title of this volume and the ensuing argumentation, one can initially observe that the common thread, while present in some articles, is rather uneven in others. Indeed, this volume addresses two major concerns: 1) The development and teaching of national languages. 2) Multilingualism in a multicultural context. Given that these two concerns, in the African context, appear as two sides of the same coin, inevitably inseparable, it becomes challenging to isolate them, hence the unavoidable overlap in contributions.

Built around the concept of linguistic and cultural plurality, this book defines language as an instrument of action and symbolic power. Plurality is conceived here as : a complex array of voices, perspectives and approaches that seeks to preserve the complexity of the multilingual and multicultural enterprise, including language learning and teaching ; a coherent system of relationships among various languages, research traditions and research sites that informs qualitative methods of inquiry into multilingualism and its uses in everyday life ; a view of language as structured sociohistorical object, observable from several simultaneous spatiotemporal standpoints, such as that of daily interactions or that which sustains the symbolic power of institutions. This book is addressed to teacher trainers, young researchers, decision makers, teachers concerned with the role of languages in the evolution of societies and educational systems. It aims to elicit discussion by articulating practices, field observations and analyses based on a multidisciplinary conceptual framework.

This book is interdisciplinary, drawing on the sociology and politics of language, African linguistics, African history and social history in general. It focuses on the various issues related to multilingualism in West Africa, but is also relevant to multilingual situations in Third World countries generally. Although the book is aimed at the educated general reader, it should also be of interest to language specialists and students of Third World politics.

Written by one of Quebec's leading public intellectuals and the co-chair of the Bouchard-Taylor Commission on reasonable accommodation,Interculturalism is the first clear and comprehensive statement in English of the intercultural approach to managing diversity.