The summer training program at the CLA University  Besancon, France.

The IATF (Indian Association of Teachers of French) organized an internship for Indian teachers at CLA (Centre for Applied Linguistics) in Besançon from 1 June 2015 to 12 June 2015 in which one of the teacher of our school  had the chance to participate.  Besançon is a very big and quiet city situated in the east of France and it is the capital of  Franche Comté. The purpose of this training was to improve the knowledge in the French language. There were 16 teachers of French from all parts of India.

This course of 40 hours was based on the teaching of french as a foreign language. There  were four modules: didactics of written didactics of oral, Goals Delf-Dalf (French language exams offered by French embassy) and Sociocultural. The resources shared by our teachers are very rich and useful in our teaching.

The course was well coordinated by Jean-Marie FRISA, incharge of training of the teachers of FLE courses and also by Mme.Amrita Raghunandan, President of the IATF.

We had an advantage to have the accommodation with host families which gave us an opportunity to experience real French culture gastronomy, lifestyle, colloquialisms.  In other words it was simply a bath in the French language.

The CLA also planned sightseeing like boat ride on the Doubs, visit the birthplace of Victor Hugo,  CDN (National Drama Centre) and  the Citadel. We also saw a play and  also participated in a talk show at Radio Campus  ( French Radio Channel) during which we talked about importance of French language in different regions of France.

We also visited Arc et Senans to see the museum and gardens of  Ornans birthplace of Gustave Courbet. ( one of the famous French painter)

As internship project, teachers were asked to prepare notebook astonishment (his own experiences of the city and life in Besançon), a contextual dictionary of learned new words and phrases with their context during the stay. A mini project was presented  on the theme given to us by our teacher.

The last day after the presentations given by the teachers certificates were also received. . The teachers, the administrative staff and host families spent some friendly moments with students over a snack and some Indian dances and songs presented by the trainees. A  prayer in French was presented by AIS teacher.

Our stay in France ended in beauty with four days stay in Paris. We visited Giverny( the gardens of Claude Monet)  and Versailles, ( the royal palace of Louis XIV) the Louvre museum, the Orsay Museum and the wax museum Grevin, the gardens of Luxembourg and Tuileries,  the cathedral of Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe  ( monument) and the heart of Paris the Eiffel Tower.

Finally, This enriching program has given so much to share and with the collegues and children. Hoping that this acquired knowledge would be useful to the children. This trip has given a real picture of France which is very important to know while teaching French language.