France

This course provides an overview of the use of quantitative methods in sociology. It alternates between presentation and discussion of quantitative sociology methods and the techniques most used in this discipline (univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics, logistic regressions), and practical application using R software. Students conduct their own research project implementing these methods with research topics based on the 2018 European Values Survey highlighting the values, political opinions, and representations of the French. 

This course, the sixth in our intensive summer language program sequences, with its continuous course FR170, is roughly equivalent to the sixth quarter of lower-division French language instruction and an upper-division French composition course on students’ home campuses. FR60 and FR170 provide students who have completed the better part of a university-level second-year French course or its equivalent the opportunity to expand and improve their speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, as well as expand their cultural knowledge of the French and Francophone world. The course is based on a presentation of advanced intermediate-level forms of grammar, an expansion of students’ working vocabulary, and practice of oral and written communicative skills, with a particular emphasis on their writing skills. Placement in this course is determined by students’ previous experience and the results of a language assessment taken prior to arrival. Textbook and Course Materials for the course include: RÉSEAU: COMMUNICATION, INTEGRATION, INTERSECTIONS, by J.M. Schultz and M.P. Tranvouez,. Grammar, vocabulary, and cultural topics are discussed, including art, literature, cinema, vernacular French, multicultural society, Francophilia and Francophobia, and France’s role in the European Union. Students engage in class discussions, write summaries, dialogues and essays, in addition to group and individual oral presentations.