French language

With fifty years of experience in the field of French as a foreign language, CIEP plays a role in government policy, and in the international dissemination and promotion of French. In France it supports the schooling and professional integration of new arrivals.

It is active on three main fronts:

• Training for professionals in the French-language field: teachers, managers, quality assurance auditors, course directors, pedagogic consultants. In this regard CIEP organises winter and summer schools for French-language professionals (BELC), recognised at universities and leading to qualifications (Master II). It also responds to specific requests from local authorities, private organisations and French diplomatic missions. It provides PRO FLE distance training, together with the National Centre for Distance Education (CNED) and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.
• Standardisation and quality: Professional frameworks for teachers and trainers, school programmes, training development. It also designs quality assurance mechanisms and manages the system whereby language centres based in France are designated as “Quality Providers of French as a foreign language”.
• Innovations in teaching (for schools and higher education): the application of research findings in the classroom, support for language policy (through seminars and conferences) and for digital policy in French teaching, the development of websites for French teachers worldwide (Franc-parler.org and Le fil du bilingue).

Its activities also include leading audit and assessment missions in France and internationally, as part of projects or responses to invitations to tender.

Evaluation and certifications

On behalf of the French Ministries of Education and Higher Education and Research, CIEP undertakes the pedagogic and administrative management of qualifications for non-French-speaking foreigners, (DILF, DELF and DALF) and of the TCF (the French competency test) which has four versions.

It provides a range of qualifications for all learners, irrespective of age or level: the DILF (Initial Certificate in French Language), designed for beginners and learners newly arrived in France, age 16+; the DELF (Certificate in French Studies) and its elementary and secondary education and vocational versions (“DELF Prim”, “DELF Junior Version”, “DELF PRO”); and the DALF (Advanced Certificate of French Proficiency).

These internationally-recognised qualifications meet both individual needs and those of larger groups, as a tool for international language policy.

The organisation also provides expertise in the pedagogic and psychometric fields (support for the design or modernisation of foreign qualifications, for the building of item banks, audits and accreditations), and responds to European invitations to tender.

Languages and mobility

CIEP contributes to the formation of policy for foreign language teaching in France, in its international dimension, and to the promotion of multilingualism and mobility.

On behalf of the Ministry of Education, it manages various mobility programmes, foreign language assistant exchanges, language courses, vocational training courses, and bilateral cooperation programmes, and also runs two websites in support of primary school language education: PrimLangues and, for European and oriental language sections, Emilangues.

It organises seminars on language teacher training (Semlang summer school), languages in primary schools, literature for young learners and language teaching, and implements study visits.

It undertakes the administration of Ministry of Education international qualifications. AbiBac, and the International Option Baccalaureate (OIB).

It responds to invitations to tender, along with other European and French organisations, and provides expertise to the Council of Europe and the European Commission.