The subject of multilingualism in institutions has long been a central interest in sociolinguistics, and it is worth asking why. The answer lies in the role of institutions in the modern nation state, a point made over and over again by Michel Foucault. Institutions control access to all the resources a state can distribute; it distributes them…

This paper focusses on the teaching of non-linguistic subject matters in a second or third language through bilingual education. We investigate how this specific educational framework influences the development of linguistic competence as well as disciplinary knowledge. Based on a large-scale corpus of classroom interactions collected in bilingual…

The paper critically discusses key theoretical concepts and definitions attached to the notion of a "plurilingual social actor", and assesses their impact and implications for European language policies and for the development of plurilingualism and citizenship in schools. (Contains 11 notes.)