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This paper will focus on the discursive choices made by researchers as they play a dual role regarding social designation, promoting the dominant choices whilst also contesting their main effects. “Vitality” and “allophone” are two concepts that have become imperative when it comes to linguistic minorities in Canada and in France. “Vitality” has progressively imposed itself in language studies within Canada to the point that it is becoming a quasi-paradigm. As for the concept of “allophone”, it has travelled from Québec to France, with the question of the effects of such an importation. When in turn, researchers use the notions “vitality” and “allophone”, what impact can that have on society? What about the potential (de)valorisation of multilingual and multicultural experiences?