French

This course provides an in-depth look at how French history and culture influenced French literature. It utilizes textual analysis and brief history lessons to contextualize literary movements. Poems and passages are critically analyzed for historical accuracy, biases, et cetera.

This beginning course introduces fundamentals of the French language such as common greetings, basic introductory phrases, numbers, commonly used verbs, and the alphabet. In addition, basic knowledge of France and other French-speaking countries such as Switzerland and Belgium is also taught. Listening, speaking, and writing exercises are utilized. The course covers the A1 CEFR level of French language.

This course is a collective exercise to establish a portrait of each of the past ten presidential elections in France and create a systematic comparison with the 2021-2022 campaign and the 2022 vote. Through close investigation of these elections, the course examines fundamental, far-reaching elements in order to better understand the 2022 election. Studying the candidates, their platforms, their profiles, non-votes, votes against the system, the campaign, the context, and the debates, it identifies the most relevant criteria and establishes a description of each election to draw conclusions as to the elements that characterize the current campaign.

This course is composed of three parts: grammar and spelling, written comprehension, and written production. Grammar focuses on verbal morphology, morphologies of nouns, adjectives, determinants and pronouns, simple and complex sentence structures, use of the most frequent articulations, lexical spelling, and grammatical spelling. Written comprehension section focuses on written production for linguistic and lexical deepening. From various themes, the learner is led to produce different types of written texts (descriptions, stories, friendly letters, etc.) in relation to the grammar points studied. Finally, reading comprehension enables learners to read direct factual texts on various topics with a satisfactory level of comprehension in order to locate and understand global information, specific information, detailed information, word formation, punctuation, and text structure.

This advanced intermediate course improves communicative skills in oral French. It consists of 3 parts: oral production, phonetics and pronunciation, and listening comprehension. Oral production involves interaction in class on topics related to daily life and immediate environment (sketches, dialogues). Phonetics and pronunciation includes sound recognition, pronunciation exercises, and reading. Listening comprehension focuses on listening and analysis of everyday messages and lexicon. The course develops French oral skills to reach a B2 level (comprehension, production). It provides an opportunity to practice the French language in a relaxed atmosphere, without fear of making mistakes.

This course, the fifth in our intensive summer language program sequences, with its contiguous course FR56B, is roughly equivalent to the fifth and sixth quarters of French language instruction on students’ home campuses. FR56A and FR56B provide students who have completed more than a university-level first-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 intermediate-level forms of grammar, an expansion of students’ basic working vocabulary, and practice of oral and written communicative skills. Placement in this course is determined by students’ previous experience and the results of a language assessment taken prior to arrival. Course material includes: MOTIFS: AN INRODUCTION TO FRENCH, by K. Jansma, Heinle, 5th Edition, 2011, and RÉSEAU: COMMUNICATION, INTEGRATION, INTERSECTIONS, by J.M. Schultz and M.P. Tranvouez, Prentice Hall, 1st Edition, 2010. Through the FR56AB sequence course, students gain the ability to communicate in spoken and written French and develop a understanding of intermediate French grammar points and a working vocabulary of information on French and Francophone culture including family structures, the distribution of household chores, housing, health, politics, the education system, leisure activities, the arts, multicultural society, and vernacular French. Following the 56AB course sequence, students should be able to use all the verb tenses of high-frequency regular and irregular verbs including reflexive verbs, use the indicative, imperative, conditional, subjunctive and infinitive moods, as well as use subject, stressed and object pronouns, articles, expressions of quantity, prepositions, possessive and demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, negative and interrogative expressions, relative pronouns, hypothetical sentences and the passive voice at the high-intermediate level. Students apply aspects of French grammar (such as verb tense, mode and conjugation) to written and oral communication, engage in conversations in French on familiar topics and express their basic everyday needs, and discuss themes presented in contemporary French culture and society. Students are required to do individual and group presentations; read, understand, answer questions and discuss selected literary and journalistic texts as well as multimedia material; write summaries, dialogues or skits, as well as produce 2½ - 3 page compositions. Additionally students are encourage to reflect upon basic cultural differences as reflected in a variety of French and Francophone contexts, such as varying levels of familiarity/formality, etiquette, cuisine and dietary habits, family structures, commerce and the professional world, etc., as well as in cultural products such as film, performances, news, and music. Assignments include class participation, small group and pair work, role play, games, individual and group presentations, written exercises, grammar, dictation, presentations of cultural products such as songs, films, audio texts, a variety of short and simple texts on cultural perspectives, and writing activities.