CCH student advances to French language nationals

A Lethbridge student will be heading to Ottawa next month, representing Alberta in a national French-language competition.

Victoria Digout-Ford was named winner of the early immersion event at the annual Concours d’art oratoire competition, presented by the Alberta branch of the Canadian Parents for French organization.

The group will send Digout-Ford, a student at Catholic Central High, to the national finals June 2 in Ottawa.

At the provincial event in Edmonton, students presented original speeches and narratives they had prepared in French. For most of them, French was learned as a second language.

Then the judges asked questions, to be responded to in French.

Michael Tryon, Alberta’s executive director for Canadian Parents for French, explains the importance of competitions like this.

“In order for students to be successful and life-long French speakers, we must provide them with forums outside of the classroom that both challenge and reward their bilingualism,” he said in a release.

“It is successes such as these that help students further master the French language, and contributes to a sense of pride in terms of that bilingualism.”

The organization has about 25,000 members across Canada, about 3,000 of them in Alberta.