FRN1030 - French studies 3

Leader(s): Philip Anderson

Offered

Clayton First semester 2009 (Day)
South Africa First semester 2009 (Day)

Synopsis

This unit provides teaching in the basic language skills (speaking/listening/reading/writing) and an introduction to French society. It is designed for students with little or no knowledge of the language. Students will be encouraged to develop appropriate language learning strategies. Regular assessed homework and tests emphasize the continuous nature of language learning and the need for frequent practice. In the Specialized Culture component, students will explore cultural, specifically filmic, constructions of French identity and their concomitant representations of otherness from the interwar Empire years to the post-colonial present. They will develop explicit text analysis skills.

Objectives

Upon completion of this unit students should have met the following objectives in the following areas: Communicative competence and linguistic knowledge:

1. Consolidated and improved their existing speaking, listening, reading and writing skills so as to be able to communicate effectively in an increased range of situations and on a wider range of themes including self, family, study, work and leisure, their own and French society, history, and cultural values.
2. Developed language skills in relation to exposition and argument in a number of contexts such as casual debate, formal pressing of a petition, letter-writing, formulating a written petition.
3. Developed information seeking skills in the form of more advanced reading skills, more advanced questioning and interview skills, writing letters and emails to request information.
4. Developed increased explicit grammatical knowledge, empowering the student as an autonomous learner, and explicit awareness of discourse structure and register.
5. Understood the cultural specificity of certain features of communicative practices in French and understand and use aspects of them such as forms of politeness, modes of address in spoken and written French.
6. Developed learning strategies appropriate to their learning style, reinforcing preferred learning modes and developing other modes. Socio-cultural awareness:
7. Acquired a greater critical knowledge and understanding of modern French society, its values and their evolution.
8. Developed a critical understanding of the nature of "cultural studies" and of the artificiality of the boundaries between disciplines.
9. Developed research skills.

Assessment

Continuing assessment assignments: 35%
Class tests: 15%
Research project: 25%
Exam: 25%

Contact hours

5 hours (4 hours of language-culture classes, 1 hour specialized culture lecture/or workshop)

Prerequisites

Secondary Year 11 French

Prohibitions

FRN2030,FRN1010,FRN1050,FRN1070