Cultural interest French courses

spotlight
Cultural interest
French courses
Combining French language learning with instruction in a cultural activity, such
as cooking, wine tasting or exploring French literature, seems to be a growth
market and the range of courses available in this field continues to expand.
T
here are a number of different French and cultural activity courses now available in the marketplace, as our guide below shows,
but for many language schools in France they are a relatively recent addition to the brochure. Schools that offer these types of courses report that they initially started offering them in an effort to be innovative and appeal to a wider range of students.
Eleri Maitland from Inlingua Rouen – which has offered courses
in French and cuisine, Gourmet French, and French bread and cakes
since it began in 1995 – says that they decided to offer the courses
because “we had a lot of requests from agents and students alike
to do something a bit different and we thought that French had to be
sold in a way to differentiate it from English and to differentiate ourselves from other schools in France”.
Responding to a perceived demand for French language
courses with a difference was also why IS Aix-en-Provence decided to introduce cultural activity courses
to their portfolio seven years ago, says Anna Clare
Sainte-Rose. “We were already more or
less specialised in the ‘mature’ clientele and had felt the demand for this
kind of course,” she says.
Dominique Waag
from Alliance Française
Rouen has seen demand for French and
cultural activity courses rapidly increase in
three years. “[In] the
first year only three
students joined [our]
cultural programme,”
she says. “Forty-sev-
en joined for one of [the previous] season’s
[specialist] programmes.”
Generally speaking, French and cultural activity courses appeal mostly to the
older, recreational end of the student market, although with such a wide range of programmes to choose from, their appeal can
span a wide range of age groups and interests. Jérôme Serrat from Ecole de Language
Française pour Etrangers (ELFE) in Paris believes that cultural activities play an important
role in language learning for any student.
“We are convinced that language learning goes hand in hand with discovering the
culture of a country and it is for this reason
that we attach great importance to the development of high quality, unique cultural programmes,” he says.
ELFE offers courses in French cooking,
wine tasting, French civilisation and recently
introduced a course that focuses on French
etiquette. Serrat asserts that language courses with a cultural component “provide a good
chance [for students] to practise French in a
real-life situation, a less formal environment
than French language lessons”, and adds,
“Language learning is more pleasurable if it
is also an enriching experience.”
The fact that many cultural activity courses are open to native French speakers is an
added appeal for language students, who can
practise their French in a non-formal setting.
Selection of programmes available
Location
Name of school
Min.
Courses length
offered stay*
Name of school
Min.
Courses length
offered stay*
No.
start
dates
IS Aix-en-Provence
11
Paris
Executive Language Services
a,ar,c,h,l,ph,t
Aix-en-Provence
University of Provence
ah,f,h,l,w 13 year round
Paris
ILCF
a,f,g,h,l,p
– year round
Angers Uni. Catholique de l’Ouest Angers
ah,m,t,w 1s year round
Paris
Institut de Langue Française
h,l
4 year round
Antibes
Centre International Antibes
2
Location
Aix-en-Provence
Avignon
a,c,w
No.
start
dates
a,c,w
2
9
Périgueux
Assoc. Périgord Ling. et Culturel
Jardin des Cult. d’Europe, CEILA a,c,d,f,l,m,t,w
2
18
Provence
CREA-Langues
a,c,t,w
w
1
2
Rouen
Alliance Française Rouen
a,h
Bordeaux Alliance Française Bordeaux Aquitaine
1 year round
h,w 1.5 year round
2
9
2 year round
Bouglon
Valorme
a
1
1
Rouen
Educasia Int. - French Studies
c
Cannes
Institut Grand Bleu
a
1 year round
Rouen
Inlingua Rouen
a,c,l
1 year round
2
Dijon
Université de Bourgogne
h
Loupian
Domitia-France
a,c,h,w
1 year round
6
Nice
Alliance Française Nice
a,c,h,l,m
1 year round
Paris
Accord
a,ah
2
Paris
Ecole Perl
Paris
ELFE
Sancerre
1
9
Coeur de France
c,w
1 year round
Centre D’Etude des Langues
c
1 year round
various
BLS
c,w
1
10
2
various
CIFEL
c,ph,w
2
10
a,c,t
1 year round
Verneuil sur Siene
FM Sport et Langues
d,t
1 year round
c,e,h,w
1 year round
Vichy
Cavilam
c,h,l,w
1 year round
St Jouan-des-Guérêts
a art/painting ah art history ar architecture c cookery d dance e etiquette f film g geography h history l literature m music p philosophy ph photography s semester t theatre w wine tasting * in weeks
Language Travel Magazine 33