The notion of a nascent Arabic public sphere vis-à-vis the region s transnational news networks has been at the centre of much debate. However, this debate is met with little empirical grounding as well as a conceptual limitation to discussing political publics. This thesis seeks to contribute to and inform current debates by means of an empirical exploration of Arabic public spheres across the mediated-political realm of news media as well as the performative-cultural sphere of interactive theatre. The Jordanian parliamentary elections of November 2007 offer a framework for the research which is made up of two case studies. The first case study examines the portrayal and representation of Jordanian citizens in the news coverage of the parliamentary elections. Four transnational broadcasters (al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, al-Hurra and JTV) were monitored during the lead up to and post the elections (over a month s duration) and different modes of participation were identified in the coverage. The second case study explores the ways in which Jordanian citizens participated in interactive theatre performances about the elections across Jordan. The performances were specifically developed to ellicit responses from audiences in the form of discussion as well as role playing (in which the audiences assume the roles of citizens in a town hall meeting). Results from the two case studies revealed significant differences in the ways in which citizens participated, or were portrayed as participating, across the political and cultural spheres. The transnational media portrayed citizens largely as observers of the political process and, less frequently, as commentators on issues of public concern. The mediated public sphere was also found to be gendered and afforded Jordanian women less presence and access to participate. On the other hand, the cultural public sphere afforded citizens spaces to discuss issues of public concern as well as contest dominant and exclusionary narratives within their societies. Jordanian women were also found to negotiate change through the reinterpretation of the symbolic. These findings demonstrate that confining our understanding of Arabic public spheres to the political-mediated marginalises the diverse ways in which citizens do participate, particularly so in the case of women.

Ce travail doctoral porte sur l’enseignement/apprentissage (E/A) du FLE avec un manuel de français langue étrangère (FLE) en Jordanie où le français a le statut de discipline scolaire, de deuxième langue étrangère après l’anglais. Faute d’avoir des manuels conçus pour ce public arabophone apprenant le FLE langue 3, cet E/A se fait avec des manuels de langue importés.Notre recherche doctorale s’est intéressée à leur réception auprès d’un public majoritairement bilingue (arabophone et anglophone). Dans le cas de la Jordanie, comme mentionné par Blanchet , cela ne peut se faire sans prendre en compte la culture pédagogique et éducative jordanienne (arabo-musulmane) mais également les dynamiques sociolinguistiques locales, le rapport à l’écrit et à l’image, les représentations dont le français et son enseignement obligatoire ou facultative font l’objet, la formation préalable des enseignants, etc. Grâce à ce travail d’enquête sur le terrain et les rétroactions des apprenants et des enseignants concernant l’ E / A du FLE avec ces manuels, ce travail propose des pistes sur comment intervenir dans l’acte d’ E/A du FLE. Seule une contextualisation de l’intervention didactique peut répondre aux insuffisances communément admises des « placages » de dispositifs comme les manuels et leurs contenus sur des contextes pour lesquels ils n’ont pas été conçus (Blanchet, op.cit.). / This Phd work has focused on the process of teaching/learning of French as a foreign language using a French textbook for this purpose in Jordan where French is taught in schools as a second foreign language after English. Actually, there is a lack of textbooks teaching French as a foreign made especially for Arabic speaking public, this is why the process of teaching/learning is done by using imported textbooks from other languages speakers. And our research examined the way of learning and getting the information from these textbooks when most of the public is bilingual (English and Arabic).In the case of Jordan, as mentioned by Blanchet, this cannot be done without taking in consideration not only the Jordanian educational culture (Arab-Muslim) but also the local sociolinguistic dynamics, the link between writing and its represented image, the representations of subjects - mandatory and optional - of French and its teaching, and the previous training of teachers, etc.Because this work is a kind of a field work and a survey based on the feedback of teachers and learners of these textbooks, it suggests ways to deal and to act in the process of teaching/learning of French as a foreign language. Only contextualization of educational process can meet the commonly accepted shortcomings of positioning things such as manuals and their contents depending on the contexts in which they were not designed (Blanchet, op.cit.).