Navigating a triple challenge: linguistic, academic, and sociocultural integration of students in refugee-like situations

Abstract

According to the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), since 2016 many French universities have set up French language teaching programmes for refugees and people with subsidiary protection to respond to their need of linguistic support in French before starting or resuming their higher education studies. Welcoming such students however requires taking into consideration a wide range of complex situations for which the French higher education system is not designed. The universities concerned have therefore to face the same issue: what kind of programme can be set up to support the integration of such students and respond to their linguistic insecurity without altering standards? In 2017, the AUF launched AIMES (Accueil et Intégration des Migrants dans l’Enseignement Supérieur), a programme initiated to support universities willing to develop the appropriate learning structures needed to obtain the accreditation for the University Diploma Passerelle (DU Passerelle), an integrated university diploma aiming to enable students with an atypical background to acquire a B2 level in French, B2 being the language level required to continue their studies at a French university. In this chapter, I will first introduce the CIEF (Centre International d’Études Françaises) of the University of Lyon 2 which is one the language centres involved in this programme. I will then present the CIEF curriculum for the DU Passerelle and finally, develop the teaching methods set in place to respond to the specific needs of the students in refugee-like situations, introducing the notions of glottophobia and bientraitance linguistique as theoretical tools helping to analyse their linguistic environment.