While the status of English as a lingua franca has been widely established, individuals engage
in diverse multilingual experiences across various contexts (professional, academic, relational,
leisure, online or face-to-face). These experiences underscore the inherently multilingual
nature of communication in today's world (Kalaja & Melo-Pfeifer, 2024).

Different university curricula offer optional language learning courses as interdisciplinary or
elective courses that students can opt for to explore new languages or cultures. This can be a
chance to continue a language learnt in secondary school, while for many, this can be an
opportunity to start learning languages they have never encountered before. In some
programs, such as French as a Foreign Language (FLE) didactics, this opportunity takes the
form of a hands-on experience with a reflective mindset, often involving writing learning diaries
(Cadet, 2007). Since the early 1980s, there has been an interest in “the experience of an
individual within the classroom, whether in the role of the teacher or the learner” (Cicurel, 2015:
38). In a broader sense, the linguistic diversity of university language programs – both in
language centers and in foreign language and civilisation departments – supports personalised
learning, hence fostering diverse learning experiences.

At the core of our research focus at ALADUN, Lidilem Lab, lies the teaching and learning of
beginner languages, and their use, which we propose to explore at the conference through the
lens of lived experience.

The importance of the experiential dimension may have been overshadowed at one point by
the utilitarian character associated with the competences described and promoted in the CEFR
(Longuet & Springer, 2021); however, recent publications have reintroduced this aspect, in
particular the place of lived experience in existing didactic models (Puren, 2022), and
emphasised that “the paradigm of experience is now unavoidable in language didactics”
(Rivière, 2019: 106).

The language experience is linked to the learners’ lived experiences, through different forms
that Puren (2022) describes as “notional components”, citing among others the authentic, the
spontaneous, the affective, the emotional, the pleasurable, the relational, the interactive, or
through pedagogical approaches that mobilise an imaginative or artistic dimension. These
dimensions echo research on the imaginaries associated with language teaching and learning
(Muller, 2021), on the place and role of the body and emotions (Eschenauer et al., 2022) and
on the contribution of artistic practices (Aden, 2008). This also includes biographical
approaches (Molinié, 2013) that shed light on the lived experiences of the subject.

Finally, the linguistic experience, understood as repeated use that makes it possible to achieve
a certain intimacy with the language learned, can also be seen as a means and an opportunity
to consider the language-object other than through formal or conceptual descriptions, that is,
by placing emphasis on the affective, familiar and expressive dimension of language
(Saussure, 2024). Language practice contributes to the constitution of an “imaginary” and to
the development of familiarity with the language-culture, and it can give rise to emotions
(positive or negative) which constitute the language experience and the learning experience
as well (OR which are part of the language experience and also of the learning experience)
(Guedat-Bittighoffer & Dewaele, 2024).

One might think that experiences of situated learning – mobility experiences, for example,
rarely concern beginning learners, and that the possibilities of contact with speakers or
language resources available outside the classroom for languages other than English are
rarely mentioned in research on informal activities. However, contact with speakers or cultural
elements of the target language can also be considered lived experiences, regardless of the
level of competence acquired. The conference will offer the opportunity to highlight
experiences related to the use of the new language in university learning contexts, in
circumstances or situations that go beyond the classroom setting.

While lived experience is often learner-centered, the teachers’ perspectives cannot be
overlooked, as they too may have a particular teaching experience with a group of beginner
learners. This prompts reflections on their representations, the pedagogical stances they
adopt, their instructional design strategies and applied teaching practices.

This conference will thus focus on understanding the initial stages of the new language learning
process and the discovery of a language-culture, from the perspective of experience, by
exploring its different facets, that can be made both by learners and teachers. This can be
compiled through various corpora (interviews, questionnaires, learning journals, teacher logs,
feedback, filmed lesson sequences, etc.).

From the learner's point of view, lived experience can concern:
- initial expectations and representations versus the reality of the experience gained,
- the place given to prior-learning or usage experiences (in relation to the language
learned or other languages),
- the materiality of the language and its physical, sensory and/or emotional experience,
- the perception of proximity or distance in relation to a system of references forged by
L1 or by languages already known, besides spatial, sociocultural or affective elements,
- the links that can be made with experiences lived outside the classroom (through more

informal activities or through opportunities to encounter or use the learned language-
culture).

From the teacher's perspective, the experience can also be explored through:
- the way in which teachers experience teaching beginners and adapt their activities to
this audience,
- the way in which teachers shape or seek to shape the experience of beginner learners,
- the teacher's conception of learning or of language at a beginner level (in relation to
other levels of competence),

- pedagogical approaches designed to elicit an experience, including corporeal

engagement,
- tools that provide learners with digital experiences (immersive devices,
telecollaboration, serious games, etc.),
- the use of different resources to anchor learning in a creative, literary or intercultural
experience,
- the impact of teachers' experiences, including their training, on their teaching
approaches and practices in the context of early learning.

Proposals may address one or more of the themes mentioned above, and this list is not
exhaustive. The conference aims to serve as a forum for reflection and discussion on research
rooted in field-based and practice-oriented studies. In this view, contributions drawing on
participatory or collaborative approaches (Miguel Addisu & Thamin, 2020) are encouraged.

Proposals for oral presentations can address any language taught or learned at university. We
accept abstracts written in the following languages: English, French, Italian, Portuguese and
Spanish. Oral presentations should be delivered in one of the above languages, and slides
should be in French.

References

Aden, J. (dir.). (2008). Apprentissage des langues et pratiques artistiques. Créativité,
expérience esthétique et imaginaire. Paris : Éditions Le Manuscrit.
Cadet, L. (2007). La genèse des « journaux de bord d’apprentissage ». Le français aujourd’hui,
n° 159(4), 39-46. https://doi.org/10.3917/lfa.159.0039
Cicurel, F. (2015). De l’interaction à la réflexivité : inventivité des pratiques et ressources pour
l’action. In Defays, J.-M. (dir.). Faits et gestes de la didactique du français langue étrangère
et seconde de 1995 à 2015. (pp. 37-52). Louvain-la-Neuve: EME éditions.
Eschenauer, S., Tellier, M., & Zappa, A. (2022). Encorporer les langues vivantes : Reconnaître
la place du corps pour enseigner et pour apprendre. TIPA. Travaux interdisciplinaires sur la
parole et le langage, (38). https://doi.org/10.4000/tipa.4790
Guedat-Bittighoffer, D. & Dewaele, J.-M. (2024). Fluctuations des émotions éprouvées par des
apprenants débutants dans cinq cours de Français Langue Étrangère : Une étude de cas
multiples. Language, Interaction, and Acquisition, 14 (2), 279-305.
Longuet, F. & Springer, C. (2021). Autour du CECR - Volume complémentaire (2018) :
médiation et collaboration. Une didactique de la relation écologique et sociosémiotique. Paris
: Éditions des Archives Contemporaines.
Kalaja, P. & Melo-Pfeifer, S. (dir.) (2024). Visualising Language Students and Teachers as
Multilinguals: Advancing Social Justice in Education. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.20558241
Miguel Addisu, V. & Thamin, N. (dir.) (2020). Recherches collaboratives en didactique des
langues. Enjeux, savoirs, méthodes. Recherches en didactique des langues et des cultures,
17(2). https://doi.org/10.4000/rdlc.7272
Molinié, M. (2013). Une didactique des langues à l’épreuve de l’expérience mobilitaire,
plurilingue, (trans)formative. Habilitation à diriger des recherches. Paris : Université Sorbonne
Nouvelle. https://hal.science/tel-02561109
Muller, C. (2021). Imaginaire et pratiques d’enseignement/apprentissage des langues. Pourune focalisation sur l’expérience intersubjective. Habilitation à diriger des recherches. Paris :Université Sorbonne Nouvelle. https://theses.hal.science/LIDILEM/tel-04691413v1

Puren, C. (2022). L’ « expérientiel » en didactique des langues-cultures. Essai de modélisation.
[En ligne] <https://www.christianpuren.com/mes-travaux/2021c>
Rivière, V. (2019). Le champ de l’interaction en didactique des langues : discours, pratiques,
formation. Explicitation d’un cadre d’analyse et illustration par une recherche-formation.
Habilitation à diriger des recherches. Cergy : Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
https://hal.science/tel-02411358
Saussure, L. D. (2024). Aimer une langue : de l’expérience linguistique à l’attachement. Études
de lettres, (323), 21-42.

The conference will be in-person only. 

Abstracts (500 words maximum with a limit of 5 bibliographic references) must be submitted
online at https://aladun2025.sciencesconf.org/