The AUF supports the teaching of professional French in Ethiopia

At the initiative of and with funding from the French Embassy in Ethiopia and the African Union, the AUF has implemented a program to strengthen the skills of university French teachers in Ethiopia as part of the “Promotion of French in Ethiopia” project.

The initiative primarily consisted of organizing a training-of-trainers workshop in Addis Ababa in May 2026, aimed at strengthening the teaching skills of French for Specific Purposes (FOS) instructors in the tourism and hospitality sectors, as well as to produce a methodological guide for teaching FOS in these two strategic fields for the development of language skills for professional purposes.

The training content, which incorporated digital education and artificial intelligence, was developed based on the needs expressed by Ethiopian universities and refined through a preliminary survey of teachers to identify:

• their current skills;
• their training needs;
• their expectations regarding French for tourism and hospitality.

The training, custom-designed by the expert engaged by the AUF, provided participants with teaching tools tailored to instructing French for Tourism and Hospitality (FOS) in specific professional contexts.

It was supplemented by asynchronous online activities and resulted in the production of a best-practices guide on teaching French for Tourism and Hospitality (FOS) in Ethiopia, intended to support university instructors in their teaching practices.

The entire activity was led by an expert trainer, Stéphane Ahmad Hafez (Lebanon), who was responsible for the pedagogical design, facilitating the training, and supporting the participants.

This initiative represents a significant contribution to promoting high-quality French language teaching and learning that is better aligned with the needs of the professional world and the development priorities of higher education in Ethiopia.

Source: www.auf.org/