Dictée Éric-Fournier

Committed to promoting the French language among teachers

In August 2007, five students in the faculty of education at UQÀM set up the Dictée Éric-Fournier, an innovative project aimed at helping teachers improve their knowledge of the French language and acquire a taste for perfecting their writing skills. And they named the project in honour of Éric Fournier, a friend who died accidentally in early 2007.

“Many students in teacher education fail the French exam, a prerequisite for obtaining their teaching licence. Many of them are ashamed of the mistakes they make in their written French and this discomfort sometimes even prevents them from seeking help or participating in upgrading workshops,” explains Jean-Guillaume Dumont, founder of the Dictée Éric Fournier.

“Thanks to online dictations accompanied by detailed answer books, even those with the greatest complexes can work and improve in the comfort and privacy of their own home. This is the very idea that got the project started,” he goes on to say.

It was in September 2007, that they launched the www.dictee.ca website and the first dictations began being published on a weekly basis. “What makes this site truly innovative compared to other similar sites is the fact that it is the only one to provide a detailed answer for each trick question. To be able to do this, we obtained the right to reproduce the content of the Antidote software so as to offer reliable, top quality answers. We provide Internet users with a new dictation every week, 52 weeks a year,” Jean-Guillaume points out.

“The Dictée Éric-Fournier site is a valuable resource for education students who want to perfect their writing skills. We are impressed by the site’s professionalism. Its attention to detail and polished graphics have definitely helped establish the organization’s credibility within the university community,” asserts François Papik Bélanger, director of operations for Druide informatique, which publishes the Antidote reference tool for writing French.

In March 2008, the founding team went one step further by organizing the first edition of La Grande Dictée Éric-Fournier in which over 100 students from the faculty of education at UQÀM took part. “The project was an opportunity for participants to leave the protected environment of the classroom and be publicly put to the test with all that this entails in terms of effort, preparation and the will to surpass themselves,” points out dean of the faculty Marc Turgeon.

“It was through rigour, attention to detail, professionalism and commitment that the student group succeeded in organizing an event that was a triumphant success from the outset,” says France Turbide, director of welcoming services and student projects at UQÀM. The second edition, presented in March 2009, was just as successful, with more than 140 participants from the education program at UQÀM, TÉLUQ and school boards in the greater Montréal area.

“Unfortunately we are unable to scientifically evaluate the cause-effect relationship between the Dictée Éric-Fournier and the improvement in the participants’ writing skills. However, the feedback and statistics reveal that we have succeeded in giving many people a taste for improving their writing skills,” Jean-Guillaume proudly asserts.

Dictée Éric-Fournier