Recognizing the importance and diversity of francophone culture

The Journée internationale de la Francophonie is an annual celebration that takes place March 20 where people around the world celebrate the richness and diversity of French language and culture. Moreover, the 2020-2021 theme is “Femmes francophones, femmes résilientes,” which means that this year it is celebrating the importance of francophone women, their strength, their resilience, and the many ways in which they bring life into these vibrant linguistic landscapes we share.

There are 300 million francophones in the world who live on five continents, most of them currently residing in Africa. Sixty per cent of the francophones in the world are younger than 30 years old. Across Canada, you will also find energetic francophone communities celebrating their love for this beautiful language, as well as some Métis multilingual communities who have French as part of their rich heritage.

There are innumerable benefits to learning a second language, and more specifically, French. First of all, it provides an opportunity to learn about new cultures and ideas, and in doing so, it can actually help you to understand your own language better.

It also gives a specific professional edge. Many sectors, for example government and education, often prefer to hire bilingual candidates. Many visiting students pursuing a teaching career in immersion come to our programs to complete courses. Learning to speak French is a skill that can help increase confidence and resilience in terms of navigating and communicating effectively in both personal and professional situations.

Most of all, being multilingual opens one’s mind to the subtleties of diverse discourses, refines one’s knowledge of the multiplicity of our globalized world, and gives an increased cultural awareness.

We offer individual undergraduate French courses as well as a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in French with three- and four-year degree programs and a University Certificate in French Language Proficiency certificate that allows students to obtain a credential by taking only French courses.

Courses taken towards completion of the certificate may be transferred to the BA French Major or the BA French Concentration. These programs promote strong language skills and provide the opportunity to learn about French literature and culture.

French is a popular department at Athabasca University, especially at the beginner and intermediate levels. We also receive many visiting students as our courses are accepted for transfer credits in most major university programs across Canada, for instance in social sciences, education, and arts and culture. Many students complete their language courses in a shorter period than their contract stipulates, which is another advantage of our courses.

One challenge with learning a language in a distance-learning context is that because students are not in a traditional classroom environment, they do not have traditional opportunities to practise speaking the language with their peers. However, we do have many pronunciation resources and audio and video components in our courses, as well as oral evaluations.

Initially, some students may think that oral evaluations are intimidating, but our students soon discover that it is an efficient and even fun way to “mimic” the conversion skills required in “real” life. Moreover, most students enjoy having these regular conversations with their tutor about the topics studied and the films watched. They appreciate having the opportunity to express their understanding and opinions related to these interesting themes.

Our French courses are specially designed to enhance the learning process of language from a distance. As mentioned, students have access to textbooks, online materials, numerous audio files and online tools, as well as regular conversations with their tutor via telephone, Skype, or Teams. This allows students to receive specific one-on-one attention and feedback that they may not necessarily get in a traditional classroom environment.

Because learning a language requires a great deal of practice, it is recommended that students spend several hours per week working through the material. Spending some time each day studying French is an effective way to learn.

We also recommend that students follow their own interests to discover more about French and francophone literature and culture. They can do this by listening to French songs or podcasts to familiarize themselves with the pronunciations and sonorities, or by watching movies or documentaries in French with the subtitles to help them identify and recognize sounds and spelling, etc.

The greatest advantage of French courses at AU is that the distance-education model lets students complete courses without having to attend formal classes. This allows students to have more control over their schedules. Students can work from anywhere, at their own pace, while receiving support from a specialized tutor via phone or email.

The other major advantage is that our core language courses cover all the main grammar and linguistic skills you need to improve and strengthen your French in a progressive and logical fashion—for instance with FREN100/FREN101 (French for Beginners), FREN200/FREN201 (First Year University French), and FREN362 (Second Year University French). We also incorporate interesting cultural and literary components in all our language courses.

Moreover, we offer a wide variety of courses from language to linguistic, translation, and literature courses, such as core literature courses from FREN305 (Children’s Literature), FREN358 (French Literature), and FREN374 (Québécois Literature). This then leads to advanced 400-level literature courses on poetry, theatre, etc.

The French program would not be as successful as it is without the dedication and hard work of our tutors and Associate Professor and Coordinator Vina Tirven-Gadum, who has reached her 17th anniversary with AU. We have a wonderful and experienced team that loves the French culture and language profoundly. Our team members are doing their best to offer incredible service to their students, even in these difficult and challenging times.

We would like to mention that this is also a real dream team of “Femmes francophones, femmes résilientes,” and take this opportunity to sincerely thank them: Vina, Erika, Nicole, Gosia, Jocelyne, Rose, and Jenny. Merci infiniment!