The thesis focuses on the linguistic integration of newcomers in the context of French as a SecondLanguage in France. It has the following objectives: to describe and understand the languagebehaviour of the group investigated. Both in the research questions and in the methodology, weadopted a micro-sociolinguistic approach. Anchored in sociolinguistics and didactics, our research isarticulated to the theme of immigration and was constructed from an empirical-inductive approach. Tounderstand better the issues related to migration phenomena and the induced integration processes, wehave put the concept of linguistic integration at the centre of this research. The thesis uses alongitudinal and qualitative approach, which reflexivity gives priority to fieldwork. The linguisticintegration process is evolutionary and takes time. The aim was to analyze how this process builds anddevelops through communicative social networks for these young people learning French. Then wehave considered how these instances influence the language uses of the subjects surveyed. The resultsshow a significant presence of the French language in the practices described by the children withinthese networks. Thus, their linguistic integration is initiated. However, these behaviours are not stable.They are much more the result of "adaptation" to social networks and language, than a final andpersonal choice of a language. So these results shall not be taken as the realization of permanentlinguistic practices but as a provisional state in an integration process under way. Some of our findingscould be used to develop curricula and learning programs for French as a second language in a Frenchcontext. Other findings could greatly help teachers’ educators to prepare future and currentlyemployed teachers to integrate newcomers into their "normal" classes better. The presence of thesepupils in the French education system implies urgency in developing a didactics for multilingualism,which would take into account the linguistic realities of newcomer pupils
