French

French 53C is the third part of the three-part 53ABC intensive advanced beginning conversation and grammar course sequence. The course immerses students in the French language and culture through daily class sessions and occasional instructor-led site visits. The 53ABC course sequence includes listening, speaking, reading, and writing with a focus on communication. Students have the opportunity to use everything they learn in class as they go about their daily activities. Students can expect to be able to talk about daily life, food, travelling, Paris, and a wide variety of activities. While students are learning how to speak the language, they continue their introduction to the culture of the French-speaking world. To immerse students in the language, only French is spoken in class. Although students are not expected to understand every word, they should try to follow the gist by paying attention to the context. Students find their comprehension increasing as the course progresses. The goal of the 53ABC course sequence is to help students develop the ability to communicate in spoken and written French. By the end of the course sequence, students should be able to understand the following at a level appropriate to a novice-high learner. Engage in short conversations with a sympathetic interlocutor in French, using simple sentences and basic vocabulary, with occasional use of past and future tenses, on familiar topics (such as the academic environment, family, food, and the home environment, habitual activities, memories, travelling and accommodations, facts and beliefs, opinions and emotions, health and illness, friendship, love and romance, etc.) and express their basic everyday needs. Use the present, and use occasionally the past, near future, and future, of high-frequency regular and irregular verbs, use reflexive verbs to talk about their daily routines, use reciprocal verbs, and use occasionally the imperative, conditional and subjunctive moods, as well as use subject, object, and relative pronouns, articles, prepositions, possessive and demonstrative adjectives, adverbs, interrogative expressions, negative expressions, idiomatic expressions, expressions of quantity, and time and weather expressions. Read, understand, and discuss short, non-complex, and highly predictable texts, for which there is contextual/extralinguistic support, on very familiar topics. Write with some accuracy on familiar topics in simple French, using the recombination of practiced vocabulary and structures to construct sentences. Understand basic French spoken by someone who is sympathetic to non-native and beginning students of French on familiar topics, using context and extralinguistic support to determine meaning. 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.

This course explores the difference between the language of literature and the language of general communication. The course examines these topics by conducting close textual analyses from 17th to 20th century literary samples of poetry, novels, and theater.

French Beginners is a French task-based language course for students with no knowledge of the French language. This course involves sets of grammatical, lexical, and phonological items. Communicative tasks are used to develop speaking, reading, listening, and writing skills. An important aspect of the course is the culture knowledge of French and other French-speaking countries. The French language course for beginners aims at the A1/A2 level of the Common European Framework (CEFR). By the end of this course, students are able to: understand and use familiar everyday expressions and basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type; introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows, and things he/she has; can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.

This course studies the great Latin American figures from cultural and political history. The course is conducted in Spanish and French with an emphasis on translating and transcribing texts between both languages. The course focuses on how heroes stand between myth and reality, and how they relate to the individual and the collective. It analyzes the processes of heroization carried out since the Latin American independences to highlight the ruptures and continuities in their contemporary political uses.  Written sources, territorial marks, and iconography constitute the main materials used to approach heroic cults from a critical perspective.

This course is a practical workshop where students create a methodological reading grid to allow them to decode with certainty what news is factual and what can sometimes be used for propaganda purposes. The course covers how to review images, sources, publication dates, itineraries, virality, and context to authenticate the veracity of content.