The result of a fruitful collaboration and a strategic partnership between Hassan 1st University of Settat, a network of Belgian university institutions led by the Haute École de Namur-Liège-Luxembourg (Hénallux), the French Institute of Morocco, and the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, the French Language Fortnight is an essential milestone in the lives of students newly enrolled in their first year at the Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences of Settat.
This international linguistic event is gaining more momentum and substance. It consists of two weeks during which students in the economic and legal departments for the 2014-2015 academic year (more than 1,400 students) will take intensive French language courses, actively participate in linguistic and cultural workshops, and flourish in a completely linguistic and communicative environment to sharpen their talent and consolidate their skills, in order to facilitate their integration into the university environment.
This action is of the utmost importance; it is one of the priorities of the development project of Hassan 1st University, whose strategic pillars are based on the development of the student's skills (knowledge, know-how, and interpersonal skills). This undoubtedly impacts their performance and output. Aware of the linguistic deficiency of high school graduates, the University management has implemented this fortnight to provide a response to an urgent pedagogical requirement, as the public targeted by this action will be exposed to disciplinary content taught in French.
The distribution of students into small groups allows for the implementation of interactive teaching according to advanced language teaching-learning approaches. The mastery of scientific knowledge necessarily requires the development of linguistic competence and lexical and terminological enrichment.
It is a dynamic and interactive training in that the recommended activities skillfully combine intensive courses and interactive workshops, public speaking and collective activities, educational films, comics, and Francophone songs, etc. In short, all media are mobilized to contribute to the awakening of the students' linguistic and communicative competence and to the improvement of their language level.
The pedagogical content that forms the cornerstone of this action is developed by a team bringing together Belgian professors from Hénallux (18 professors) and language and communication professors from Hassan 1st University (8 professors). They are the result of long working sessions and meet international standards for language teaching.
This will make it possible to attract other international institutions to express their interest in contributing to this important event.
As we have understood, beyond the pedagogical and academic objectives assigned to this fortnight, this first-rate linguistic event offers, par excellence, a framework for exchange, dialogue, and cultural and civilizational rapprochement.
