Multilingual primary education initiative in French Polynesia

International audienceMultilingual education is receiving remarkable attention in language policy planning efforts of many countries, and aiming at providing culturally responsive education. French Polynesia, which is an overseas territory of France, represents a fine example for its efforts towards maintaining and revaluing multilingual education. The foreign and local language teaching initiative in French Polynesian primary education is the extension of the early childhood foreign and regional language education policy started in the 2000s in France. The first part of this paper describes the French Polynesian educational context and the second part provides a succinct review of the research activities conducted on multilingual practices at French Polynesian elementary schools. The final part discusses the forthcoming research activities and further directions in multilingual education projects in French Polynesia