About the AF FRAMES and the MERLIN projects at AFSF

The Alliance Française of San Francisco (AFSF) is one of seven Alliance chapters in the U.S. participating in a pilot program known as “AF FRAMES.”  This project seeks to establish common educational standards and harmonize teaching practices among Alliance Française chapters. Funded by the Délégation Générale de l’Alliance Française USA, the project was designed and implemented by Pascal Saura (Deputy General Delegate, Délégation générale de l'Alliance Française de Paris aux Etats-Unis) and Katharine Branning (Media Library Director, FIAF de New York). The Alliance Française chapters taking part in the project are Atlanta, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco and Washington.

AF FRAME stands for Alliance Française French American Educational Standards. Learn more about AF FRAMES.

Learning levels and evaluation standards at the Alliance Française are based on The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for Languages. This framework defines the common standards to be attained at successive stages of language learning, in order to facilitate comparable evaluation. Learn more about The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR standards).

CECR
The CECR (Le Cadre Européen Commun de Référence) is used to determine proficiency levels and learning outcomes. CECR levels (les niveaux du cadre européen commun de référence) include:

• BASIC USER A1 (beginner, level 1)
• BASIC USER A2 (beginner, level 2)
• INDEPENDENT USER B1 (intermediate, level 1)
• INDEPENDENT USER B2 (intermediate, level 2)
• PROFICIENT USER C1 (advanced, level 1)
• PROFICIENT USER C2 (advanced, level 2)

To promote a more standardized and up-to-date approach to teaching the French language, seven Alliance chapters participating in the AF Frame pilot program were given a collection of 100 “essential titles” which were originally assembled by the FIAF in New York City in the context of the language-learning project called « MERLIN » (MEdia
Resources for Language INstruction). These “100 Titles for Learners of French” are listed and described in an online database that allows students and teachers to choose appropriate pedagogical resources. 

The San Francisco “100 Titles” collection varies slightly (in terms of scope, editions) from the original FIAF collection whose database is posted by alliance-us.org on its own MERLIN 100 Titles Web page.

San Francisco MERLIN database
To access the San Francisco MERLIN database, including the call numbers and detailed descriptions of each title, please consult the “100 Titles for Learners of French ” (MERLIN collection at AFSF). This pedagogical collection will be expanded locally on an on-going basis and listed under New AFSF Titles>Pedagogy (Monthly update).

AFSF teachers who evaluated and wrote detailed descriptions of the San Francisco “100 titles” include: Attila Albert, Françoise Blusseau, Leila Chair, Stephan de Gery and Stephane Gros. Sylvia Bingham contributed to the final editing.

Physical access to the 100 Titles collection enables FLE Learners to complete the “Guided Courseworks/ Missions Virtuelles ”available on the Activities page of the MERLIN alliance-us.org website.   

A MERLIN collection of “300 Titles for the Teacher” will be made available to the AFSF faculty in the future.

MERLIN creates a link between the AF courses and the AF Media Libraries. It is designed to meet the needs of FLE Learners, Teachers and Librarians. The official MERLIN website provides access to bibliographies, online activities, pedagogical contents and other information about French language learning. For more information on current or anticipated MERLIN collections, consult the MERLIN Bibliographies page posted by alliance-us.org.

• Search 100 Titles for Learners of French (MERLIN collection at AFSF)
• Search Guided Coursework – Missions Virtuelles

Learn more about MERLIN
on alliance-us.org here.