Cordée de la Réussite "Languages and Cultures of the World"

An educational and cultural program through and between languages

For the past three years, Inalco has been running an educational program for secondary school students, from the fourth to the final year of secondary school, as part of the national Cordées de la Réussite program. Called Langues et Cultures du Monde, the Cordée de l'Inalco offers a whole range of activities where languages and cultures rhyme with knowledge and discovery. Creative and multilingual workshops, surveys on migrant cultures, cultural visits and activities, meetings with researchers, linguistics and creative writing competitions, introductions to languages taught at Inalco... the aim of all these complementary activities is to put languages to work, to support secondary school students, particularly those in priority education zones and urban political neighborhoods, in their academic, personal and civic development. Students who often experience linguistic and cultural diversity on a daily basis, and to whom Inalco offers a space and an approach enabling them to explore this diversity critically, practically, and creatively.

Objectives of the Cordée "Languages and Cultures of the World"

• Enable students to discover their potential and develop their personal skills, particularly in languages, to boost their self-confidence and self-esteem. Make them aware of their ability to learn foreign languages, mastery of which is a determining factor in professional integration, and help them value their first and family languages, which are too often downplayed.
• Foster students' cultural and scientific openness, introduce them to the humanities and social sciences, contribute to the development of their critical thinking, and prepare them for further schooling and higher education.
• Foster students' personal expression, enable them to develop their imagination and assert their individual outlook, their subjectivity, within a group and as part of projects. Help students develop their self-confidence, their ability to say and do things with a critical and sensitive eye.
• Help students overcome certain barriers, notably psychological, cultural and spatial, that prevent them from projecting themselves into an imaginary world of academic and professional success, to enable them to build an ambitious career plan. Introduce them to careers and training related to foreign languages and cultures, as well as to the university environment and the expectations of higher education establishments.

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La Cordée program and actions

La Cordée de l'Inalco is deployed through three types of action:

• Grouping highlights at Inalco, where a variety of activities are offered to roped-in students: language discovery workshops, cultural shows, lectures, discovering the university, meetings with students and researchers, career forums, participation in scientific or cultural meetings organized at Inalco.
• Cycles of thematic workshops in small groups on a variety of themes (creative writing and plurilingual theater, investigation of migration or cultural heritage in migration, languages, linguistics and writing systems, shared cultures, etc.), organized throughout the year.), organized throughout the year in partner schools and complemented by cultural visits and encounters.
• Cross-curricular or school-specific actions, including the "Déchiffreurs de Langues" linguistics competition and the "Æntrelangues" creative writing competition, as well as specific actions designed to support students in their career planning.
   

Gathering highlights at Inalco

Welcome days are organized throughout the year at the Maison de la Recherche as well as at the Pôle des Langues et Civilisations. They provide an opportunity to bring together students from different establishments and introduce them to the Institute, its history, its courses and the career opportunities they offer, thereby opening the door to higher education. They are often extended by guided visits to a partner cultural establishment (Musée du Quai Branly, Institut du Monde Arabe, etc.), by introductory workshops in languages taught at Inalco, or by meetings with students, teachers or alumni.

Closing days are organized at the beginning of June. The program includes cultural visits and workshops in the morning, as well as - and above all - a festive program of cultural and leisure activities in the afternoon, including a team game for secondary school students. The closing ceremony is also designed as a time for feedback: an opportunity for students, especially high-school pupils, to share with their peers what they have been doing and discovering throughout the year. Poster displays, small exhibitions, oral presentations and other creative restitutions punctuate the day.

Linguistic, reflective and creative workshop cycles

Our pedagogical approach

The La Cordées method and approach are inspired by so-called "non-formal" pedagogies and are embodied in a variety of proposals, where discovery and reflection are accompanied by a sensitive, practical and creative approach. The activities on offer have one thing in common: they are designed to help all students succeed. The idea is not to teach students knowledge, but to enable them to make discoveries by themselves, to make them aware of their ability to learn and understand independently. Group work will have its rightful place in these resolutely lively and playful workshops.

Audience and organization

Our workshops are designed for small groups of 8 to 14 student volunteers, to encourage students to speak out and to ensure quality exchanges and listening. No prerequisites or prior knowledge are expected, as la cordée is open to all students, regardless of their academic performance. The only thing that counts is their motivation. We also have speakers who can offer workshops for UPE2A students. While the general spirit remains the same, the emphasis for this group is often on the practice of French as a foreign language.

Our workshops generally take place in partner establishments throughout the year, but we also offer "workshop" formats, outside the school walls (in Paris or at Inalco) during the February and April school vacations. La Cordée thus offers registered students, who take part independently (i.e. without their teachers), a program of visits and workshops that provides a time for breathing and discovery.

Presentation of thematic cycles

The cycles offered as part of La Cordée, lasting around ten to twenty hours, enable visitors to explore unknown languages and writing, to practice the power of the plurilingual verb, both written and spoken, to explore the intricacies of linguistics, or to conduct a little fieldwork. Here, as elsewhere, the emphasis is on decentering, and on linguistic and cultural spaces that are too often neglected in secondary education.

The presentations below (unfold them by clicking on the arrow next to each summary)are brief and open-ended, weaving directions but not directives: the actual content of the cycles depends on the audience, the investment of the teacher-referent, and finally the skills and ideas of the speaker. We therefore build a tailor-made proposal for each roped-off group, in line with La Cordée's objectives and our own pedagogical approach. Quite often, we'll mix and match teaching proposals from several cycles, working together to trace the coherence and progression.

"Les Déchiffreurs de Langues": an educational linguistics competition

Destined for high school students, the "Déchiffreurs de Langues" competition is designed to enable the discovery of unknown language facts and linguistic systems. Inspired by the Olympiad of Linguistics, the aim is to deduce linguistic facts, grammatical rules or even the workings of an unknown script, by observing short corpora in teams and using logic.

The way in which the topics are thought out (progressive difficulty of questions, clues to which students may or may not have recourse) gives it a pedagogical dimension: all participants should be able to find a certain number of answers on their own, and be amazed at the discoveries they will have made by relying on their thinking and collaborative skills.

The competition is organized in two stages: an initial test during Semaine Nationale des Cordées, on Tuesday February 3, which selects a number of teams per school for the final, which takes place during Semaine des Langues (March 2026). The winners - at least one team per school - are invited to Inalco for the awards ceremony on the morning of May 6, 2026, which will also be a time of discovery and sharing about linguistic diversity.

To find out more and register your school, visit the page dedicated to the Déchiffreurs de Langues Competition.

"Æntrelangues": a multilingual creative writing competition

The "Æntrelangues" competition is a multilingual creative writing contest open to all French-speaking middle and high school students. The aim of the competition is to highlight the diversity of languages that resonate in secondary school classrooms, whether they are called "original", "dialectal" or "small", whether they are well known or literally imaginary...

This plurilingual dimension is the main feature of the competition: the texts will be written in French, but blended, mixed, associated with other languages, in a thousand and one ways. Through the freedom taken in writing and the interplay of languages, this competition aims to give pupils confidence, and enable them to enhance their creativity and showcase their linguistic baggage.

A rich and detailed teaching pack will be sent to registered schools so they can roll out the competition and get their pupils to write in a plurilingual approach. This will include not only varied activities to raise students' awareness of plurilingualism and the diversity of world languages and French, but also turnkey writing proposals, which the competition referents will be able to appropriate.

Competition timetable:registration for the competition is open from September 15 to December 20, 2026, and texts selected for submission to the competition must be returned to Inalco by March 20. Competition results will be sent to participating schools in mid-April. The awards ceremony will take place at Inalco on May 7, 2026.

To find out more and register your school, consult the page dedicated to the Æntrelangues Competition.

Discovering university, research and careers

Meeting with students and alumni

During grouping days, or during specific meetings organized at Inalco, we will endeavor to enable high school students to ask their questions about orientation, studying in higher education, the courses and opportunities that Inalco can offer, and humanities studies at university more generally. We'll be doing all we can to give high-school students, especially those in their final year, the chance to meet Inalco graduates: by sharing their professional and personal experiences, they'll be able to show students that a career and professional orientation are also built through encounters and opportunities. And that with a good university education, it's possible to learn new skills in the field... A way, finally, of inviting students to imagine careers that are open to foreign and international horizons.

Actions to support career guidance

As part of La Cordée, we are offering all high schools the opportunity to have students speak at the career guidance days they organize, giving all students in these establishments, and not just roped-in students, the chance to discover Inalco and its courses. Through our intervention, we will also raise students' awareness of the requirements and methods of studying languages and humanities at university: indeed, their lack of understanding all too often puts new first-year students in difficulty.
Specific support, based on voluntary participation, will be offered to roped high school students during the "Portes Ouvertes" organized by Inalco at the beginning of 2025, in order to best support their orientation project.

Experimentarium program

Initiated at the University of Burgundy, the Experimentarium program will enable roped-up students, both middle and high school, to meet Inalco doctoral students. The aim, in terms of cultural openness and critical thinking, is both to raise students' awareness of what university research is all about, the production of scientific discourse and truth, and to awaken their interest in often little-known humanities disciplines.
PhD students will undergo specific training to enable them to share their research topics in a fun and interactive way, and make science accessible and captivating for all. The workshops on offer are thus designed to be studious but also engaging and dynamic.

Partner establishments in 2025-2026

In 2025-2026, around 600 secondary school students, from twenty-one establishments located in three académies (Ile-de-France, Nouvelle Aquitaine and Orléans-Tours), will take part in the Cordée supported by Inalco.

Find here the interactive map with all our partner establishments for the year 2025-2026.

Organize workshops or training courses in partnership with Inalco

You're a teacher or school manager (school, college or high school, university...), you work in a cultural center, a youth center or cultural establishment, an association or a foundation? You've heard about our pedagogical proposal and our approach, and you'd like to ask us to intervene directly with your audience or organize a training session for your teams?

We invite you to write to us, outlining your project, so that together we can build an action program that's as close as possible to your needs and wishes. As far as schools are concerned, we plan to register Inalco on the PassCulture scheme at the start of the 2024-2025 school year. Our activities will then be bookable directly through the Adage platform.

The Cordée de l'Inalco teaching team

Workshop facilitators and other occasional contributors
The La Cordée team is complemented in the field by facilitators with varied profiles and backgrounds. Some are mediation professionals, others are students with a passion for transmission and their studies. All have undergone specific in-house training and are supported throughout the year. Teacher-researchers, doctoral students, alumni administrative staff, students, members of associations and other external contributors complete the La Cordée team from time to time as the project progresses.