[Interrogating language practices during clinical interviews: A therapeutic tool].

Abstract

Talking about languages means talking about oneself, one's life path and family history. Thus, exploring a person's relationship with his or her languages is invaluable for initiating an encounter. Similarly, within a multilingual family, the way in which language exchanges are structured has an impact on its overall dynamics, and on the links of inclusion and exclusion that are forged. Questioning a family's language practices during an interview helps us to better understand the context and history of a child's life, while at the same time offering the opportunity to reconstruct, through the telling of stories, a continuity between places, languages, periods and eventual ordeals.