IMT Enugu, French Embassy to Improve Study among Mass Comm Students
Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) Enugu said it is to receive resource and logistics support and the cooperation of the Embassy of France, Nigeria, for the teaching of the French course on offer in the department of mass communication. French Government Attaché for Cooperation in education and Deputy Head of Service, Daniel Rignault, announced this during a recent visit to the institute.
Rignault was accompanied on the visit by a high profile delegation of French Embassy, Abuja, and officials from the Centre for French Teaching and Development (CFTD) Enugu, and were received and hosted by Head of Department (HOD), Mass Communication, IMT, Chukwudi Anyianuka, in his office. Rignault and his team emphasized the need at ensuring that students learn and speak French effectively and sought to know the challenges the department was facing in the teaching of the language with a view to forging a relationship for the development and sustenance of mass communication and journalism students’ interest and mastery of the French language.
Responding, Anyianuka explained that his students were at the moment content with just passing the French course, and needed their interest stimulated in the language through exciting modes of teaching as the screening of French films, the reading of French books and newspapers, and through exchange programmes and training of French teachers in capacity building workshops.
The HOD noted that French is a very important international language, particularly in ECOWAS member nations, and a language that is indispensable in international news reporting.
According to him, “The knowledge of French would better prepare journalism graduates for positions in international mass media organizations and help them intersect between two key international languages in the complex highly challenging coverage of international news events.”
Stanley Oko, a French lecturer in the department, observed that the French course, which was previously being offered for four semesters, now runs for just two semesters.
He attributed the decline in interest of students and their inability to adequately speak the language to this factor and urged management to consider returning to the old order.