Reading Habits and the Acquisition of French Language Capital: Narratives by Students and Graduates of Top Grandes Écoles

Abstract

This article aims to illustrate how the French elite obtain reading habits enabling to acquire language capital in French. These habits are said to contribute to the formation of the elite in France. We analyze narratives about language capital and reading habits from the life stories given by seven members of the French elite. As a result, it becomes clear that their reading habits were acquired after prompting by parents and relatives. Especially when their parents were teachers, they tended to become strongly conscious of reading. Accordingly, home education conducted with the consciousness of the importanceof reading must affect their reading habits in such a way as to enable them subsequently to acquire language capital.