Æntrelangues multilingual writing competition
The spirit of the competition: plurilingualism in freedom
The main feature of the Æntrelangues competition is its plurilingual dimension: the students' texts must indeed be written in French, but a French mixed, fused, associated with other languages, in a thousand and one ways. This is hardly surprising, given that Inalco offers the opportunity to study over a hundred different languages and civilizations!
The aim of this competition is to give students confidence, and to enable them to showcase their creativity and linguistic baggage: adherence to the norms of standard French is not part of the assessment criteria. Texts will be assessed first and foremost on the basis of their writing, narrative and visual dimension, as well as on the appropriateness of using other forms of language and integrating them into a French text. Spelling and syntax errors should be seen as signs of a language at work: they can be corrected, or simply listened to with a sympathetic ear!
A pedagogical dossier for writing between languages
Inalco, through the REVE service's pedagogical action unit, has put together a pedagogical dossier for teachers. This includes not only a variety of activities to raise students' awareness of plurilingualism and the diversity of world languages and French, but also a framework narrative and turnkey writing proposals, which competition referents can appropriate to get students in their schools to write.
The aim of these resources is to turn the competition into a real educational activity for the classes and students taking part: not only to bring out the winning texts, but also to enable each participant to play with their linguistic repertoire, to allow themselves to be creative through the interplay of languages. Our aim is to enable each student to learn about and through languages, and to gain confidence in his or her ability to grasp them and write with them.
Please note that this pedagogical dossier is here to give leads, ideas, to provide turnkey writing proposals, but that the competition remains open to other forms and formats. All these elements are specified and detailed in the file itself.
As the illustrations below show, this competition lends itself very well to graphic creations and illustration. Consideration is being given to creating several categories (visual creation, simple narrative text, poetry, etc.
).
Practical organization
This competition is open to all secondary school students, whether or not their school is aligned with Inalco.
Each participating secondary school will receive, during the month following its registration, the pedagogical dossier and detailed general instructions for setting up the competition. The practicalities of organizing the competition are left to the discretion of each school's coordinator, depending on the dynamics and possibilities specific to the school. In the event of a large number of participants, the school will be invited to select, from among all the texts written by the students, those that will be submitted to the competition: a pre-selection according to free modalities but in compliance with the spirit and rules of the competition.
To enter classes or students from your school, please read the competition rules (they will be published on this page from September 15), which also act as a framework document, and return the entry form (which will also be posted online at the start of the school year).
Competition timetable
Registration is open from September 29. to December 15, 2025; texts selected for submission to the competition by registered establishments must be returned to Inalco by March 13, 2026, either digitally or by post.
The results of the competition will be sent to participating establishments in mid-April, and an awards ceremony, will take place at Inalco (Paris 13) during May 2026.