Press Release
During Education Week earlier this month, 16 Grade 12 students from Fort Frances High School and Atikokan High School took the Diplôme d’études en langue française (DELF) exam and the Rainy River District School Board is pleased to announce they all passed.
Five students took the A2 exam and 11 took the B2 exam at Confederation College on May 8-10.
An internationally-recognized test, the DELF exam evaluates students’ ability to use French in real-life situations.
Like the EQAO, this exam has strict guidelines on who administers the exam, as well as when it is written.
The DELF exam includes an oral, written, and reading comprehension component.
The oral component begins with the students giving a brief three- to five-minute speech about themselves, followed by a spontaneous interaction exercise, and finally, they talk about a given situation.
For this last exercise, each student is given time to prepare for their discours with the “correcteurs,” the teachers who have been certified in Thunder Bay to administer the exam.
At the Rainy River District School Board, there are five correcteurs who are certified to administer to the B2 exam and two who are certified to administer up to the A2 exam.
“A B2 level is what is required to be considered bilingual,” said Superintendent of Education Andrew Harris.
“This will open up many opportunities for the students,” he added.
“We are very proud of the extra effort they put forth to earn this certification.”
The successful students will receive a DELF diploma from France’s Ministry of National Education.
The diploma is recognized around the world and is valid for life.
