French language
Discover the missions, actions and what the Institut français offers to promote the French language and plurilingualism.
Spoken on five continents, the French language is one of the major languages of international communication. The bearer of a rich cultural, literary and scientific history, it continues to seduce with its ability to adapt, innovate and bring people together. A language of exchange, education, diplomacy and creation, it attracts millions of learners around the world every year.
Our missions
The Institut français works with the French cultural and educational network abroad to promote the French language worldwide by supporting its dissemination, learning and attractiveness. It supports the network's agents in charge of educational and linguistic cooperation through exchanges between professionals, personalized coaching and support programs. The Institut français supports innovation within the network, particularly within the language centers of the Instituts français and Alliances Françaises. Through all these actions, it contributes to making French a living and attractive language, particularly for younger generations.
Key programs
French language seminars
Since 2012, as part of its missions, the Institut français has organized an annual French language seminar bringing together representatives of the French cultural network abroad in charge of educational cooperation and the promotion of French. For two and a half days, participants have the opportunity to share best practices, discuss completed or ongoing projects, and discover what the Institut français and its partners have in store for the network.
In 2024, the French language seminar brings together 50 agents from 47 countries.
Since 2025, the Institut français has organized a regional French language seminar in conjunction with a foreign post. Each year, it takes place in a different geographical area, to contextualize our approaches and strengthen the local dialogue with the network. For these regional seminars, the agents in charge of educational cooperation in the network (ACE/ACPF), come accompanied by representatives of the educational authorities in their country of residence.
The French Language Fund
The French Language Fund aims to support pilot projects designed to promote the French language and make it attractive. These projects must take place within local educational, cultural and economic ecosystems, in conjunction with French-speaking partners. Depending on the post's priorities around the French language and the local context, the projects' target audiences can be learners and future learners of French, teachers and future teachers of French, educational executives and the general public.
In 2025, 61 projects from 60 countries were submitted to the French Language Fund. 35 were selected for support from the Institut français, to the tune of 210,000 euros.
IFprofs
This Institut français platform is aimed at French-speaking teachers and education professionals in France and abroad.
IFprofs brings together more than 79,000 members from over 140 countries and enables French teachers, teachers teaching subjects in French and other professionals in French-speaking education (trainers, pedagogical managers, future student teachers, agents in charge of educational and linguistic cooperation...) to find quality resources, train and exchange.
The platform's main asset lies in the provision of five short MOOCs (3 hours each), specially designed for FLE teachers: Discovering phonetic correction: strategies for FLE, L'art de la fiche pédagogique: méthodes et pratiques, Le potentiel de l'intelligence artificielle (AI) en FLE: par où commencer?, First steps in ANL, and Approche neurolinguistique: notions essentielles pour l'enseignement du FLE. As of April 2025, these training courses total 6,100 registrations on IFprofs.
IFclasse
IFclasse is a platform reserved for teachers and future teachers of French in the DAOI Zone (Africa and Indian Ocean).
Launched in 2020 following the French language and plurilingualism plan, the scheme aims to build teachers' confidence and strengthen their French language skills. IFclasse serves both teachers in their day-to-day classroom practice as well as in their professional environment. The program has already trained over 470 teachers in more than 25 countries.
Support around AI
As part of its support for the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the cultural network, the Institut français launched two complementary training schemes in 2025.
The MOOC "Boosting the use of Artificial Intelligence in the teaching of FLE " is aimed at pedagogical supervisors in language centers to equip them to support their teams in appropriating generative AI and prompting techniques, with a view to developing an establishment strategy around AI.
The "AI at the service of marketing and communication" support course is offered to language centers as well as to network communicators to explore the uses of generative AI in business development and marketing innovation.
Communities of interest
In order to support network agents in charge of promoting and disseminating the French language abroad, the Institut français offers a collaborative work and exchange modality called communities of interest. Led by Institut français sector experts, they are aimed at agents from the cultural network, agents from the supervisory ministries, and in some cases, outside experts or partners who share a sectoral, broad or specific priority or objective.
Communities of interest are accessible, to members of the French cultural network abroad, from the Espace réseau. These thematic spaces are led by Institut français sector experts.
These communities bring together professionals from the network, institutional partners and experts in the field. They facilitate the sharing of experience, the creation of joint projects and the development of shared expertise.
Join the Institut français communities of interest
Support and methodological guides to help language centers innovate
- Deployment of software environments to manage course center activity
The Institut français has offered methodological support to course centers for the deployment of adapted digital environments, in response to the need for sustainable digital transformation, taking into account the changing uses of the public. This guide is a summary of the training cycle dedicated to course center software environments, which consisted of a series of webinars and training workshops dedicated to the deployment of course management (ERP-type) and customer relationship management (CRM) tools for the constitution of an optimal and adapted software environment.
- ArchiFLE guide: Comodality and space planning
With a view to supporting pedagogical innovation within establishments, the appendix "Comodality and space planning" was added to the ArchiFLE guide in 2023. Produced as part of a support program for four pilot establishments, this appendix aims to guide establishments in the implementation of comodal teaching, particularly in order to attract and welcome new audiences, innovate and boost course offerings, and improve course profitability.
Le numérique responsable
A booklet of recommendations for the deployment of a Responsible Digital
Consulter le livret (accès réservé aux membres du réseau culturel français à l'étranger)
A white paper entitled Le Numérique Responsable: un levier pour l'apprentissage du français? marked by testimonials from Responsible Digital experts and members of the cultural network.
Consulter le document(access reserved for members of the French cultural network abroad)
The educational digital
Atraining course around the uses of AI in marketing and communication, designed in two formats: a synchronous training cycle (5 workshops and a final webinar), complemented by a self-training path with modules to reactivate the notions acquired during the synchronous cycle, examples of best practices, as well as complementary documents and resources - which will, from the end of April, be made available to all network agents.
The Essential guide to the digital transformation of language centers. Created in 2023, the l'Essentiel de la transformation numérique des centers de langue guide has been designed as a strategic steering tool to support the digitalization of learning and the development of language centers. It aims to equip language centers in their digitalization process, and to capitalize on the resources produced by the cultural network for tailored support.
The The Essential Guide to Digital Transformation for Language Centers serves innovation more broadly. Since 2024, it has included 3 new sections:
Online course offerings: help in defining establishments' course offerings, adapting to the needs and changing expectations of audiences;
Artificial intelligence: supporting establishments in setting up an AI watch to encourage their use of these technologies in the teaching of FLE in view of the accelerated democratization of AI and AGI;
Responsible Digital: supporting language centers in adopting an ethical and responsible posture when it comes to educational digital.
Consult the guide(Access restricted to network members)
These resources, the fruit of valuable collaborative work, are intended to be distributed within the network with a view to encouraging the implementation of an ethical and responsible approach to digital matters within establishments.
Key figures
590 000
French learners in the language centers of the French cultural network abroad.
+ More than 80,000
French teachers from 140 countries registered on the IFprofs collaborative training platform.
40 French language and youth projects supported every year in 40 different countries.
Our partners
The Institut français works closely with many players in the field of teaching French as a foreign language: universities, training centers, publishers, professional associations, language centers, public and private operators. These partnerships enable us to pool our expertise, support ongoing teacher training and offer learners up-to-date, attractive learning of the French language.
Each year, based on priority themes, the Institut français joins forces with French partners to offer the network turnkey schemes promoting the links between language and culture.
The French Institute relies on innovations from the French EdTech ecosystem to enhance the attractiveness of the French language. By fostering collaborations with start-ups, learning platforms, digital publishers and research laboratories, it contributes to the experimentation and dissemination of innovative pedagogical solutions. These tools facilitate distance or hybrid learning of French, enrich teachers' practices, and offer learners more personalized, interactive and motivating pathways.
The Institut français regularly organizes meetings with FLE and cultural and educational cooperation students to strengthen the links between university training and the professional world. By fostering dialogue with Institut français experts and field workers, these meetings help to professionalize students, prepare them for the realities of the working world and stimulate their commitment to the dissemination and promotion of French internationally.
