French

This workshop studies how to read and analyze journalistic content on cultural themes in a professional manner. It provides an opportunity to question journalistic expression by analyzing the facts and data it provides, the credibility of the information transmitted, and the meaning of their publication on certain dates and distribution platforms. The course examines quality, balance, and relevance of the sources; tone, rigor, and atmosphere of the expression; precision of the information; point of view of the narration; identification of the news; typology of the publications; analysis of the formats; and platforms of distribution.

This course focuses on oral comprehension. Within this course, activities and assessments are centered on listening to texts and conversational methods employed by French speakers to then accurately determine the content and context of what is being spoken in real time.

Paris, the most visited city in the world, is both a historical city and a modern global capital that fashionably wears the old and the new on its sleeve. It is also home to Parisians, whose clichéd image has been shaped in cultural imaginaries from around the globe, but whose identities and cultures are increasingly plural. The city and language course poses this two-fold question: just who is this city for, and how does one unlock its levels? More than a picturesque concentration of streets and buildings, Paris's urban landscape provides a tableau upon which people have inscribed meaning, message, and significance to state, nation, and culture. To decipher these messages and gain an understanding of Paris's history and the French culture that has shaped it, this course examines the histories of the conception, construction, and public perception of Parisian sites and it places their stories within the larger context of the development of French identity. The city and language course introduces students to French history, culture, and language through team-taught instruction. In the “Pursuing Paris” sessions, students study French history and culture by visiting sites important to the evolution of the capital city—these sessions are taught in English. In the “Unlocking French” sessions, students practice targeted language skills through situational communication with opportunities to use everything they learn in daily activities.

This course focuses on the history of writing, storytelling, and books. It begins with the first signs of writing known to man, then explores the evolution of the creation of writing and what is known as a book today. The course studies the different methods used to create written works and includes guided visits to the printing museum. The first part of the course focuses on the global history of writing, and the second part of the course concentrates on the history and evolution of writing in France.  

This course examines news, media and current concerns of Quebec society and other French-speaking societies.

This course, the third in our intensive summer language program sequences, with its contiguous course FR34B, is roughly equivalent to the third and fourth quarters of French language instruction on students' home campuses. FR34A and FR34B provide students who have a working knowledge of the basic skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing in French the opportunity to expand and improve these skills with an emphasis on the introduction of new, intermediate-level, forms of grammar and communicative skills within a French-immersion context. Placement in this course is determined by students' previous experience and the results of a language assessment taken prior to arrival. Successful completion of this course combined with FR34B targets the low-Intermediate French level. Course material includes: MOTIFS: AN INRODUCTION TO FRENCH by K. Jansma, Heinle, 5th Edition, 2011. Through the FR34AB sequence, students gain the ability to communicate in spoken and written French and develop a foundation of intermediate French grammar, a working vocabulary, and information on French and Francophone culture including health and illness, vacation time, family structures, schooling and values of the French Republic, the distribution of household chores, environmental protection, cuisine, grocery shopping and eating habits, the workplace, café life, multiethnic society, youth culture, and the geography, music and cuisine of the francophone world. Following the 34AB course sequence, students should be able to engage in short conversations in French, using both simple and more complex sentences and vocabulary, with occasional use of past and future tenses as well as conditional and subjunctive moods, on familiar topics and express their basic everyday needs using the indicative, imperative, conditional and subjunctive moods, regular, irregular, and reflexive verbs, as well as use object and relative pronouns, articles, prepositions, possessive and demonstrative adjectives, interrogative expressions, and expressions of quantity. Through the FR34AB sequence, students reflect upon basic cultural differences as reflected in a variety of French and Francophone contexts, such as varying levels of familiarity/formality, etiquette, family structures, relations between men and woman, urban life, social-cultural representations of France, the professional world, the political 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.

This course, the fourth in our intensive summer language program sequences, with its contiguous course FR45B, is roughly equivalent to the fourth and fifth quarters of French language instruction on students’ home campuses. FR45A and FR45B provide students who have completed 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 45AB course sequence, students gain the ability to communicate in spoken and written French and develop an understanding of intermediate French grammar points and working vocabulary including contemporary sociological and cultural issues that touch on questions of family and professional relationships, class, social, ethnic, multicultural, and political identities, and the role of the arts in contemporary contexts. Following the 45AB course sequence, students are familiar with all the verb tenses of high-frequency regular, irregular and reflexive verbs, the indicative, imperative, conditional and subjunctive moods, as well as subject and object pronouns, articles, prepositions, possessive and demonstrative adjectives, negative and interrogative expressions. Students apply these aspects of French grammar (such as verb tense, mode and conjugation) to written and oral communication and use listening strategies and skills necessary to understanding a wide variety of discourse. Additionally students are required to give 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 short compositions. Students 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.

This is an intermediate level French language course. Fourth semester French- B1.2. This course is for students who have completed through the B1.1 level of French. At the end of this semester-long course, students are expected to: know how to write texts focusing on simply articulated opinions; write simple, detailed descriptions; tell an anecdote and create a story; write personal letters description experiences, feelings, events, or express their thoughts on an abstract idea; write an administrative letter; summarize a factual event; summarize information from diverse sources; write a simple essay; explain a problem; emphasize certain points; conjugate and use the future tenses (simple future, anterior future), the conditional (present, past), the subjunctive (impersonal simple phrases + subjunctive), expression of feelings, of obligation, possibility + subjunctive, the conjugations of pour que, afin que, avant que + subjunctive, pronominal verbs in the passive. The course covers: nouns, pronouns and indefinite adjectives; adverbs with –ment, phrases(relative pronouns, phrases with “if”); speech Lexical content; Diplomacy careers; Europe; talk about numbered date; define a political group; United Nations; express oneself (to talk about an event in the past); describe with precision a place, a person, an object; develop an argument; formulate a hypothesis; evaluate a possibility (doubt, certainty, possibility); introduce, develop arguments, categorize by hierarchy, conclude; expose reasons and explanations of opinions, projects and actions; explain a phenomenon/fact/societal event/natural phenomenon; take part in a conversation, start or restart one; exchange information, negotiate, ask or give advice/tips/a favor/an authorization; express a feeling (surprise, joy, sadness, curiosity, indifference), an emotion, tastes; give or ask for a personal point of view, express one's agreement or disagreement, to explain why something is a problem and discuss how to find solutions, in a formal or informal framework; lead or join a discussion, use an adequate expression to take over the conversation, invite someone to join in the conversation or give their point of view, sum up during a conversation, ask someone to clarify or further develop a point; sum up a short story, an article, a presentation, an interview (synthesize and reformulate); recount a speech.