“The lockdown is such a chance to learn and improve their language skills in order to be ready for the future and look for job opportunities. French language will add value to a resume in a context where competition is becoming higher and higher!”
As ed-tech enables more learners to upskill from home, especially in the absence of face-to-face lessons, Indo-French cultural centre Alliance Française (AF) has taken its classrooms online during lockdown by enabling as many as 30,000 people to learn French online from home, and turn a crisis into a promising opportunity.
Receiving a significantly high number of queries from youngsters between 16 and 25 years of age, that forms the majority of AF enrolments, the French learning centre describes the digital mode more convenient in terms of time management and multitasking, as learners are able to receive lessons from home.
With the use of a modern LMS (learning management system) and developing a 100% effective pedagogy, the Alliance Française network was able to recreate its links with old and new language learners through distance learning, just one day after it closed physical classes in March due to the nationwide lockdown.
‘Mon Alliance’, their platform which follows some social network principles, is used to share assignments, post comments, store documents and practice through self-corrected exercises. Integrated into their teaching process three years ago, a video conference tool today allows the centres to contain the effects of the crisis in a softer way.
In view of the gravity of the global health condition, this unique situation has to be taken as an opportunity to experiment new ways of teaching and learning in the sought-after language.
“What can you do during a lockdown? Well, you could complain about the Coronavirus. Or, you could think of it as a chance to learn something new. One must always learn something in difficult times. Learning French is a good way to tide over these times,” Guillaume Grangeon, Academic Director, Alliance Française de Delhi said in a personal message in Hindi on the centre’s social media.
