Abstract:
This study examines the language and culture contact among Sinhalese children of Sri Lankan
origin residing in France. Its main objective is to draw a sociolinguistic portrait of these
children through their language practices and their linguistic representations. Taking the shape of an empirical and qualitative research, the study focuses on two 7-years- olds and the main method of data collection used was thematic drawing followed by an interview upon the drawing.
Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with family members in order to support the data collected from children. The results uncover a form of “Sinhala-French-English” trilingual speech which illustrates the multilingual skills of our young interviewees. In addition, the study brings to light their social, cognitive and linguistic representations vis-à-vis their bilingual and bicultural context, revealing a sense of imbalance in the face of alterity. The current research encourages other longitudinal or expanded studies to better understand these lesser-known
immigrants in France.
