Department of French Holds International Multidisciplinary Colloquium
The Department of French has held a multidisciplinary international colloquium on Education, Linguistics, Cultures and Language Didactics.
The colloquium was held at the Maison Française, on the University Of Ghana Campus, Legon and took place from 11th to 13th February. It was under the theme ‘The Contexts of Teaching/Learning French: Realities, Obstacles and Prospects’, and was intended to establish the nexus between four major research areas: Education, Linguistics, Culture and the Didactics of languages and therefore engaged researchers in these and related fields.
The French language was acknowledged in Ghana long before independence; hence the introduction of the French language into our educational curriculum since 1948 at Achimota College (Ayi-Adzimah: 2010). This long history of the language in Ghana culminated in Ghana becoming an “affiliate member of francophone nations” at the 2006 Bucharest summit, though the status of affiliate member is reserved for States and governments for whom French is a language “used habitually and routinely and who share the values of the francophone world”. It is on the strength of this background that Department of French organized this international colloquium to commemorate Ghana’s 10th anniversary as an affiliate member to the comity of francophone countries, while highlighting the progress chalked by the language in the country.
A cross-section of government representatives and foreign participants at the colloquium
The colloquium brought together diverse categories of stakeholders and professional teachers and trainers to update and advance the current state of knowledge on the contexts of learning/teaching of French. The colloquium attracted about fifty papers from researchers who were drawn from Universities in Africa and Europe. In all, eleven (11) countries were represented at the colloquium. They were Ghana, Togo, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Egypt, Nigeria, Syria, Cameroon and France. The colloquium was attended by about 200 participants.
In attendance were Professor Ernest Aryeetey, Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana Madame Jane Fournier, a representative of the French Embassy to Ghana, Professor Samuel Adjei-Mensah, Provost of the College of Humanities and Dr. Josephine Dzahene-Quarshie, Head, Department of Modern Languages. Also present were students and faculty of the French and Modern Languages Departments, foreign participants and academics who presented papers. Also present as a special guest was the Director of the West Africa Regional Office for Francophonie (BRAO/OIF), Mr. T. Urayenez, and several diplomatic representatives from France, Switzerland and Côte d’Ivoire.
From left to right, Professor Ernest Aryeetey, Vice Chancellor, University of Ghana Madame Jane Fournier, , a representative of the French Embassy to Ghana, Professor Samuel Adjei-Mensah, Provost, College of Humanities and Dr. Josephine Dzahene-Quarshie, Head, Department of Modern Languages
The major thrusts of the multi-disciplinary colloquium included teaching conditions in Africa and world-wide, teaching of Languages in the digital era and Francophonie in Ghana, among others.There was an excursion for foreign participants after the colloquium ended, from 14th to 17th February to discover the city of Accra.
A cross-section of participants
