La semaine de la langue française

"La semaine de la langue française" is held from march 17th to the 26th of this month. This week will host lectures, conferences, round tables and prizes to promote French language and French policies on language issues. The 20th of march the Journée internationale de la Francophonie will be celebrated by les francophones worldwide. While the festival «Francofffonies ! » will last more than eight months.

Great interest has gained the "concours pour la défense et l'illustration de la langue française". Students are asked to compose texts and poems using a list of ten words: accent, badinage, escale, flamboyant, hôte, kaléidoscope, masque, outre-ciel, soif, tresser. A special version of this prize will be awarded to sign language users (on the web site, sign language equivalents of the ten words).

Read le Rapport au Parlement sur l'emploi de la langue française (1995) where national policies of French language are exposed, simplification of administrative language, natural language processing, the role of French in formal education and usage of French in international organizations.

Henriette Walter gives a comment on recent events regarding French language in Liberation (18 march 2006).