Education

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS - SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2019 9 Innovative approaches to education continue to evolve at Université de Saint-Boniface. The long-standing institution's Continuing Education Division offers language training, French personal and professional development courses for adults, as well as French programs for youth. One new offering is the intensive French- language program called Franséjour, which is slated to run from Feb. 3 to 6, 2020. Previous incarnations of the program required participants to attend full days for a week, as well as evening activities. "This is the new iteration of our immersion program. We were seeing that employer demand on employees was increasing. It was getting more and more difficult to take the full week off and then participate in cultural activities in the evening," said Aileen Clark, director of the Continuing Education Division. "People had so many different obligations, so we took some time to assess what formula would work." They came up with the idea for an intensive program that would run from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. over a four-day period from Monday to Thursday. "We have to offer some sort of balance to employees that need to get back to the office at the end of the day to check in and see what's been going on while they were away," Clark said. "So we've let go of the activities in the evening and they're going to be integrated into the immersion program. It's a bit like a boot camp for people who are looking for a jump start to their French training or for those who haven't spoken in a while and would like to jog their memory." The Université de Saint-Boniface also takes pride in producing its own educational materials, including new handbooks specially created for its Spanish program. "Most of our courses use our in-house course material we've created. It's designed lesson by lesson with a learner's handbook to accompany the course," Clark said. "That's a big advantage for us with Français oral and we continue to renew approximately one level per year. On the Spanish side, we wanted to follow in the same footsteps." Prior to 2018, they had been using an external source for Spanish course material. Then the team at Université de Saint-Boniface opted to develop their own course material that is specifically tailored to meet the needs of their adult learners. The came up with a collection called Exploramos juntos, which means "let's explore together." "So far, we've completed the first three levels of our Spanish program, the learner's handbook, as well as the instructor's guide. We're piloting that right now and we're working on putting together the graphic design, so hopefully we'll have our first booklet published in the fall," Clark said. "It's material that really focuses on the communication aspect, so it's not just learning the grammar." The Exploramos juntos collection also has a web component that accompanies the classroom work, so learners taking the class can practise with some additional exercises at home. The Spanish course is offered in 11-week sessions that start in the fall, winter and spring. Throughout the session, the class meets once per week for a three-hour lesson. "We've been offering the Spanish courses for many years, but the course material is new. We also offer the Français oral program four times per year," Clark said. "What makes the Université de Saint-Boniface unique is that you have the college side, the university side and Continuing Education all under one roof. Because of our small size, there's really a collaborative approach to try to maximize opportunities for anyone who wants to learn." For more information, visit ustboniface.ca/ educationplus ❚ The Continuing Education Division at Université de Saint-Boniface offers language training, French personal and professional development courses for adults, as well as French programs for youth. Université de Saint-Boniface photos UNIVERSITÉ DE SAINT-BONIFACE INNOVATIVE LEARNING AT UNIVERSITÉ DE SAINT-BONIFACE By Jennifer McFee for the Free Press Université de Saint-Boniface takes pride in producing its own educational materials, including new handbooks specially created for its Spanish program.

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