The Digital Factory of Multilingualism meets two objectives:

• Capturing learners of French as a foreign language through new offers of innovative services and content.
• Fostering the development of international cooperation in the fields of innovation and language teaching by promoting local and French expertise.

There is not just one but a number of Digital Factories of Multilingualism.Each local version is intended to be a laboratory for experimentation and production dedicated to learning languages through new technologies.

Launched by the Institut français of Tunisia, Yallab is the first Factory supported by the cultural network. This pilot experiment, currently in progress, takes the form of a laboratory for the production and experimentation of innovative language learning offers. It is supported by cross-disciplinary Franco-Tunisian teams bringing together digital entrepreneurs, experts and researchers from the cognitive sciences, education and French as a foreign language.

Three innovative projects were selected as part of a call for proposals; they are currently in the prototyping phase and from the beginning of 2021 will be tested in six classes in Tunisia before being deployed more widely.

These new learning solutions are aimed at remote learners and offer an accessible, innovative and fun approach to language learning that combines French with local languages, strengthening multilingualism and multiculturalism and offering learners new professional opportunities.

DCX – MEETING IN CARTHAGE

Digital Cultural eXperience(DCX) is a Tunisian startup that works to support and promote heritage and culture through new technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

DCX offers a cultural and educational experience in virtual reality and in the French language lasting seven to 10 minutes for learners aged seven to 15, in the reconstructed world of Carthage in 2200 BC. The project will also serve as an educational experiment to explain the function and impact of VR technology in an initiative dedicated to learning the French language, especially the spoken language, in Tunisia.

It will thus rely on the collaboration of DCX experts and a training team throughout the process. Learners will also be involved during and after the experience in the development, application and evaluation of an educational and cultural concept, which offers experiential learning of the French language through immersion.

ENVAST – CLASS QUIZ

Launched by two young Tunisian engineers, Sabrine Ibrahim and Achref Daouahi, ENVAST brings together young developers and creative designers, as well as experienced teachers, to develop innovative learning tools.

ENVAST is thus developing “CLASS QUIZ”, a web and mobile educational platform for classrooms, which offers a variety of lessons in the form of videos and interactive exercises for modules taught at primary school. These lessons are prepared by teaching experts and comply with the Tunisian primary school curriculum.

TICONTENT – TALES AR CRAFT

Specialising in mobile development and the production of digital content, TiContent seeks to balance the use of digital media and paper in a world where children spend more than six hours a day in front of their screens and are gradually moving away from paper. TiContent therefore undertakes to provide children with immersive content that meets a dual objective of raising awareness of SDGs (sustainable development goals) and language learning. TalesARcraft, a new solution targeting children between four and 10 years old, takes the form of an e-book, offering augmented reality interactions with 3D paper figures for the children to make, perfecting their learning of French through several educational scenarios.