Our mission: to promote French learning and teaching
RFI does more than just speak French on its airwaves, it teaches it too: to help listeners keep up a language they don’t use every day, or improve knowledge of a language they regularly need in their work, or simply for people who love French and the values it conveys. RFI uses the radio to promote and teach the French language with a team of French teaching specialists and broadcast professionals.
Programmes for learning and perfecting French
For people keen to improve their French or get to grips with current events, the “Journal en français facile” is a real news bulletin that uses simple vocabulary to explain the latest news.
For those who want to familiarise themselves with French, RFI produces bilingual series in its foreign language programmes designed to raise awareness of and perfect the French language. All of these series are based on original concepts that skilfully combine teaching with the constraints of radio. The series are broadcast in RFI’s foreign language programmes and by partner radios. They are available at no charge for online learning.
For dedicated francophones and anyone who wants to perfect their French, “Les mots de l’actualité” takes a look at a word or expression in the day’s news.
Digital material to learn and teach
Over one million people use our website for learning or teaching with authentic sounds in French lessons. Every week on "Le français facile avec RFI", our French language team posts new sound resources, along with teaching tools and comprehension aids. These include quizzes and comprehension exercises to improve listening and make it easier to understand the news. French teachers will find ready-to-use lesson plans, packs for doing radio in the French class, and practical method sheets for using radio during French lessons.
Training and international cooperation to teach and broadcast French
As the leading international French language radio, providing a crucial tool for spreading and sustaining French language and culture around the world, RFI works with public and private partners to make its broadcasting and educational expertise available to a global audience.
Promoting our language starts in schools all over the world. We run teacher training courses called “Teaching with RFI”. Whether the target is learning about the media or improving oral comprehension of spoken French, the professionals of our French language service can help you understand the radio and the language it uses.
Lastly, to promote French through local or educational airwaves round the world, as part of international partnerships, RFI lets foreign radio stations re-broadcast its bilingual series devised for familiarisation and perfection of the French language. To go one step further, local operators can integrate the radio production component into their local educational projects. Whatever the format and radio programme, our series can all be adapted to match listeners’ languages and requirements for local, educational, national or association radio stations.