This study addresses the question: How do the structural conditions of university organisation modulate subject position, social relations and discourse and therefore shape individual consciousness and activity? The response is informed by an empirical pedagogical problem located at the tertiary level in Japan: What makes acquirers attain higher levels of language mastery in foreign language (Spanish) settings informed by communicative language teaching? The attempted answer is framed within cultural-historical activity theory, the cultural theory of Holland et al. (2001), and Basil Bernstein’s code theory. These theories have been combined using Marxian-Hegelian notions of culture and subject, which allow language development and mastery to be treated as the acquisition by an individual of a cultural tool (semiotic mediation) subject to both individual agency and historical forces. The organisational and pedagogical contexts of three institutions engaged in Spanish language education have been analysed using motive-action/educational task as the unit of analysis that situates the observation in between micro and macro levels of analysis, in combination with the methodologies for ascertaining subject position provided by Bernstein’s code theory and the cultural theory of Holland et al. This procedure made it possible to determine acquirers’ coding orientations (orientations to meaning) and to establish comparisons between organisation and learning settings. The findings indicate that acquirers who have a formal trajectory of language learning and who are able to recognise grammar instructional discourse – i.e., who possess a representational gaze – attain better levels of language mastery (active realisation) than those with informal trajectories (e.g. learning languages overseas in a conversational fashion without following a formal programme) and who do not recognise grammar instructional discourse. Evidence is provided to indicate that there is no way to avoid representational-function programmes. The bottom-up move within Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development is suggested as a feasible intervention without a drastic reshaping of the programmes.

Die „Wege zum Neutschechischen“, die Tat’ána Vykypělová nachverfolgt, haben ebenso innersprachliche wie äußere – gesellschaftliche, politische und im „langen 16. Jahrhundert“ (S. 57) vor allem konfessionelle – Ursachen. Vf. strebt in ihren kenntnisreichen und sprachgeschichtlich weitsichtigen „Studien zur Geschichte der tschechischen Schriftsprache“ deshalb eine neue „synthetische“ Darstellung der Sprachgeschichte an, die äußere und innere Faktoren aufeinander bezieht (S. 19f.). Im Mittelpunkt steht die konfessionelle Markierung sprachlicher Merkmale, deren Standardisierung oder deren Verlust mit eben dieser Markierung in Verbindung zu bringen sei.

Since the school subject Swedish as a second language was established in the Swedish school system in the mid-1990s, the organization of the subject has varied widely across schools, and the outcomes have been poor. This thesis investigates these problems linguistically. The main objective is to explore the school subject Swedish as a second language in relation to the language of students taking the subject. Another aim of this thesis is to illuminate the complex relation between the Swedish language and the use and conception of Swedish as a second language. A critique of the concept of ‘language’ and of language attitudes in the school context is a recurring theme in the thesis. The thesis contains four papers addressing different aspects of the school subject Swedish as a second language. Paper I examines texts and oral presentations from a group of students born in Sweden, analyzing their language from a normative, mainly grammatical, perspective. Paper II develops a model for analyzing text as activity. In Paper III, the model from paper II is applied to analyze students’ narrative texts written as responses to an assignment, focusing on texts that received failing grades. Papers I and III include comparisons with Swedish as a language and as a school subject. Paper IV, finally, analyzes views of language in policy documents. One critical result of the thesis is the identification of a need for a raised awareness about language in schools and society. In the current situation it is hard to establish a discrete boundary dividing the language of students in the subject Swedish as a second language from the language of students in the subject Swedish, but differences can be observed, which in some sense resonates well with the definition of the subject given by the policy documents. Swedish as a second language in schools can be vaguely defined as Swedish with non-Swedish or foreign markers. The vague definition of the subject and the many linguistic conditions built into the subject entail that Swedish as a second language does not seem well-suited for anyone. Employing a combination of a traditional and an alternative view of language, as proposed in this thesis, may be a fruitful way to accommodate all students.

Dans le contexte d’incertitude actuel entourant la problématique de l’exposition au bitume dans les travaux de revêtement routier, la thèse vise l’élaboration de principes généraux et de méthodes d’action pour des solutions préventives nouvelles permettant d’enrichir les dispositifs de prévention existants. Dans cette perspective, nous avons développé une démarche centrée sur l’association des travailleurs de tout niveau hiérarchique (opérateurs, encadrement de proximité, préventeurs et décideurs) autour « d’objets intermédiaires de prévention » afin de soutenir un débat collectif. Ce débat collectif est envisagé comme une pratique réflexive sur l’activité de travail, elle-même considérée comme la condition d’un langage commun, permettant de changer des choix initiaux et constituant une ressource pour les apprentissages mutuels entre acteurs. Pour cela, nous avons développé, repris et enrichi la notion de représentation des risques qui favorise la mise en visibilité et la reconnaissance des savoirs construits, développés et portés par les travailleurs sur leur activité et sur les façons de se protéger des dangers. Ces représentations du risque et ces savoir-faire sont un élément déterminant de la prévention car ils s’exercent à la fois dans des modes normaux et dégradés de l’activité et sont issus de l’expérience et d’une construction sociale. Nous avons développé une connaissance précise de l’activité des opérateurs de mise en oeuvre d’enrobés dans deux agences de travaux publics, qui a mis en évidence que les acteurs de terrain possèdent des connaissances fines sur les risques chimiques. Ces représentations, essentiellement permises par l’expérience du corps et des sens, ne sont pas toujours convocables pour mettre en oeuvre des activités de protection dans l’activité de travail. Elles seraient empêchées voire « enkystées » quand il semble impossible aux travailleurs de faire autrement avec la nécessité de gérer aléas, variabilités et autres dangers présents et quand leur pouvoir d’agir leur apparait comme inexistant. Pourtant, nous montrons qu’elles deviennent accessibles à partir de références à la sphère intime et domestique dans des activités réflexives qui mobilisent à la fois des données d’observations, de mesures et des verbalisations. Dans une perspective de recherche en prévention, l’objet de la thèse est alors d’établir un dialogue entre différents mondes, institutionnels et de l’entreprise, afin de permettre aux acteurs de s’investir et de mobiliser leurs ressources individuelles, collectives et organisationnelles pour proposer des solutions de prévention. Cet « espace intermédiaire de dialogue » est rendu possible par la co-construction d’objets intermédiaires en capacité 1- de produire et soutenir un débat autour des pratiques effectives des opérateurs et de leurs représentations au regard des dispositifs de sécurité existants et 2- d’être support aux dialogues et aux apprentissages mutuels. Ces objets intermédiaires de prévention sont in fine des entités circulantes pour la coproduction d’un savoir pour l’action : produire des connaissances et générer collectivement des solutions innovantes de prévention. / In the context of current uncertainty surrounding the problem of exposure to bitumen in road surfacing (coating), the aim of the thesis is to set up general principles and methods of action for new preventive solutions that will enrich the existing measures. In this perspective, we have developed an approach centred on the association of workers at all hierarchical levels (operators, proximity managers, prevention workers and decision-makers) around "intermediary objects of prevention" in order to support a collective debate. This collective debate is seen as a reflective practice on work activity, which is itself seen as the condition of a common language, allowing for initial choices to be changed and a resource for mutual learning between actors. To this end, we have developed, reworked and enriched the notion of risk representation, which promotes the visibility and recognition of the knowledge built, developed and carried by workers on their activities and on ways to protect themselves from dangers or hazards. These representations of risk and the know-hows are a decisive element of prevention because they are applied in both normal and degraded modes of the activity and are derived from experience and social construction. We have developed a fine and precise knowledge of the activity of asphalt processing operators in two public works agencies, which highlighted that the players in the field have a detailed knowledge of chemical risks. These representations, which were essentially made possible by the experience of the body and the senses, cannot always been called up with a view to setting up protective measures in the work activity. They would be prevented or even "encysted" when it seems impossible for workers to do otherwise with the need to manage the hazards, variability and other dangers present and when their power to act seems to them to be non existent. And yet, we show that they become accessible from references to the intimate and domestic sphere in reflexive activities that mobilize both data from observations, measurements and verbalizations. From a preventive research perspective, the aim of the thesis is to establish a dialogue between different institutional and corporate worlds so as to enable the actors to get involved and mobilize their individual, collective and organizational resources to propose prevention solutions. This "intermediate space for dialogue" is made possible by the coconstruction of intermediate objects capable of 1- producing and supporting a debate about the current practices of the operators and their representations with regard to the existing safety devices and 2- supporting dialogues and mutual learning. These intermediate prevention objects are ultimately circulating entities for the co-production of knowledge for action: to generate knowledge and to collectively generate innovative prevention solutions.