Success for all DELF students

NEWS RELEASE
ALGOMA DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD
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This is an exciting time of year as students in the Algoma District School Board (ADSB) prepare for graduation. The ADSB Class of 2018 includes Grade 12 French Immersion students who are also celebrating their successful completion of the DELF examination.

Twenty-seven ADSB students, many of them in the French Immersion program at Superior Heights and a few others in the International Baccalaureate at Korah Collegiate, took the DELF exam this past May and all twenty-seven students were successful in passing the Level B1 or Level B2 language proficiency exam.

This is the second year that Grade 12 students in the Algoma District School Board could participate in the DELF exam. The DELF (Diplôme d’études en langue française) is recognized internationally as an official certification of second-language proficiency and tests the ability of students to use skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing in French in real-life situations.

ADSB Director Reece shared: “We are very proud of our students and staff who work hard to prepare students for the DELF exam. Achieving a one hundred percent success rate for the second consecutive year is exciting, but more importantly, it is what our young people can do with this skill set, in real life situations, that is even more exciting. Being proficient in conversational French will set these young people apart, as the DELF rating is recognized by Universities and employers worldwide. An employer, looking at a student who has achieved a Level B1 on the DELF, can know, with confidence, the defined skill set and proficiency the student has achieved.”

Algoma District School Board’s French as a Second Language (FSL) System Administrator Nancy Rancourt, and FSL K-12 Special Assignment Teacher Aurélia Pécheux shared their thoughts about the students’ accomplishments.

“We congratulate all students on their journey of learning a second language throughout their elementary and secondary careers with ADSB. We applaud our confident learners who took the added challenge of preparing for the DELF exam. Thank you also to the ADSB educators who helped support our students in their DELF preparation.’’

The DELF exam is offered by the Centre International d’Études Pédagogiques (CIEP) to assess language skills of people whose first language is not French. Testing is based on the six reference levels identified in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

The CEFR provides a comprehensive overview of competencies that French language learners need to develop in order to communicate and interact effectively.

It is the backbone to the revised French Second Language (FSL) curriculum in Ontario and has now become accepted as a way of benchmarking language ability all over the world. Only trained educators can administer and score the DELF exam.

ADSB is very proud to have over 30 educators who took the intensive 4-day training session in past summers, thereby certifying them to administer and score the DELF examinations.

Denis Cousineau, one of Canada’s leading experts in the CEFR and a well-known, Provincial leader, trainer and scorer, facilitated past training. The Algoma District School Board is delighted to welcome Denis back again this summer as it hosts a Regional Summer Institute for DELF Correcteur-Examinateur training in August.

Educators from North Bay, Sudbury and Timmins regions also have the opportunity to join the upcoming training session. For further information, please contact [email protected].

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