Abstract
Questioning the transmission of minority or minoritized languages and cultures through the lens of persistence and/or resistance, I will offer an overview of the mechanisms and challenges of teaching so-called regional languages in France, focusing more particularly on the Occitan-speaking area: is the school merely a provider of “orphaned competencies” (Sauzet, 2013), or a creator of new uses? This is why, after contextualizing the teaching of so-called regional languages in France as part of language policy and within the background of monolingualism (Boyer, 1999; 2000), a consequence of a sequence of key factors and significant historical steps, I will examine the strengths, challenges, and limitations of the existing arrangements for teaching Occitan in France. I will approach school unequivocally as a space of practice and transmission, where the presence of Occitan is inversely proportional as its visibility in the public sphere.