Elisabeth Lefort

Born in France, I have been living with my family in Ethiopia since 1999. My husband, Leo Lefort  - high school art teacher at ICS - and myself have a four year old son: Tom, currently enjoying EC4B, and Eden, a cute three month baby girl.

I earned a BA in French Modern Literature and Teaching French as a Foreign Language from the University of Rennes (France) and another BA in "Management of Cultural and Artistic Events" from the University of Bordeaux. I received my MA in Teaching French as a Foreign Language from the University of Grenoble. Since my arrival in Ethiopia I have enjoyed teaching at the Institute of Language Studies, Addis Ababa University and at the Alliance Ethio-Française.

It is my sixth year at ICS and I have enjoyed every moment of teaching French language and culture. It has been a wonderful experience to participate in teaching at the elementary school, creating and developing the curriculum from 1st to 5th grade by designing coherent instruction and working with colleagues to build the successful and popular elementary program during five years.

It is with great enthusiasm that I will now be teaching middle and high school French for the 2012-2013 school year.

I am a firm believer that the acquisition of more than one language enriches personal growth and helps to facilitate international understanding. I approach languages studies as a way to develop four communication strands: listening, speaking, writing and reading as they are, by nature, interrelated and interactive. I've also come to understand that learning a language is also learning about language and through language. My teaching philosophy focuses on advocating and nurturing confident, open-minded, independently thinking, well-balanced inquirers for global responsibility.

I truly appreciate the richness of languages, including a long-lasting, deep love of literature.