ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the language training for adults remained reasonably free from the discussions and conflicts until recently, when it became caught up in angry polemics. The history of pedagogical concerns in language training for adults is closely linked to the way migration and French society has evolved. Despite the discussions, the field of language training for adult migrants has slowly but surely taken shape and now has operational institutional and pedagogical networks. The history of language training for adult migrants in France started in the 1960s, with evening classes led by primary school teachers and volunteers. The main trends in the evolution of language training correspond to several notable features: first, the growing role and intervention of the State, in a field occupied by charities; spread of professionalisation. A multiculturalist approach, which favours respect for diversity and the plurality of languages as against a potentially coercive monolingualism, encounters strong reactions in French society and the political arena.
