UNICAEN extends its efforts to support the teaching of French in The Gambia and Nigeria

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UNICAEN extends its efforts to support the teaching of French in The Gambia and Nigeria

  • Post last modified:16/07/2024

Since 2018, UNICAEN has been actively supporting the French-speaking communities in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing initially on Ghana and Mauritania, and recently  expanding its collaboration to include Gambia and Nigeria.

In this context, the Carré international, in collaboration with the INSPÉ Caen Normandie and the Cirnef, arranged and conducted two face-to-face summer courses. These included a training module focusing on didactics and French for Specific Purposes (FOS)/FLE, supported by the Solidarity Fund for Innovative Projects (FSPI) in collaboration with The Gambia, and the Fonds Equipe France (FEF) programme overseen by the French Embassy in Nigeria.

For a fortnight, fifteen trainees from The Gambia and ten from Nigeria, who are teachers and trainers of French, had the opportunity to exchange ideas, enhance their skills, and participate in training sessions together.

FACILITATING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF INTER-REGIONAL PROJECTS

For Magali Jeannin, Senior Lecturer at INSPé and coordinator of the project, this summer school “marks our initial face-to-face contact with our Nigerian partners and allows us to assess mutual expectations, contextualise, and explore avenues for collaboration with them. On the Gambian side, it has enabled us to reinforce existing connections and to progress in scientific and training collaborations”. These collaborations encompass joint research projects and the establishment of an online French as a Foreign Language (FLE) degree programme at the University of The Gambia.

She concludes that the summer school “enabled potential partners to meet each other and highlighted the points of convergence between the various institutions with the aim of submitting an inter-regional FEF in autumn 2024”.

Gwenaëlle Ledot, a doctor of general and comparative literature and director of FLE studies at the Carré international, also participated in these summer modules: “Welcoming our colleagues from Gambia and Nigeria to Carré international was a wonderful opportunity for us to meet and exchange ideas. The course allowed us to reflect together, in a warm and constructive atmosphere, on our teaching and training practices. It was a very enriching and instructive experience for everyone!

NEXT STEPS

The Nigerian training module has enabled the start of an audit of the French Village in Nigeria, the training centre for future Nigerian teachers. Two trainers from UNICAEN will visit Nigeria in autumn. A mission is also scheduled in The Gambia during the same period.

At the same time, doctoral and post-doctoral internship grants awarded in 2023 have enabled several Gambian professors to complete their degrees. As a result, five of them will enrol in doctoral programmes at the beginning of the 2024 academic year (4 at UNICAEN and 1 at the University of Rennes), and one will be a candidate for a Research Management Degree (HDR).

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