Un autre manere de parler: The pedagogy of the Manières de langage

The Manières de langage are a group of dialogues composed to teach French in England at the turn of the fifteenth century. They survive in 10 different manuscripts and contain many model conversations from a diverse range of social encounters. The Manières have been subject to both historical treatment and linguistic editorial commentary and they are often afforded a mention in overviews of French-language pedagogy in medieval England. However, a full treatment of the Manières as texts that deploy a wide range of pedagogical tools has not been undertaken until now. Furthermore, the dialogues have never been examined with a sustained focus on the learners’ L1: Middle English. The chapters of the present thesis consider pragmatic features of the dialogues in a broader Anglo-Norman and Middle English context, with a view to understanding how a Middle English speaker would encounter them as a learner of French. However, the major claim of my thesis is that the Manières may be viewed as texts that are invested in cultivating both linguistic and social competence. Not only did the Manières seek to aid learners to produce sophisticated utterances, they likely used many pedagogical devices to impart this knowledge. I argue that they are texts that demonstrate an interest in many types of oral exchange, but also in encouraging and maintaining certain behavioural standards.