Monash University

Leader(s): Dr Natalie Doyle

Offered

Clayton First semester 2009 (Day)

Synopsis

In the Language and Culture component of the unit students will develop their comprehension and analysis of communication in French and will be exposed to a variety of spoken discourses. They will practice and develop their oral skills through a variety of activities including role-play, and their writing skills through productions modeled on the study of a variety of written documents. In the Specialized culture component, students will explore cultural and 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

The subject aims at:

1. Consolidating and developing the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
2. Consolidating and developing correct use of French at the level of sentence structure and an explicit grammatical competence in French.
3. Promoting a capacity for autonomous language learning.
4. Promoting the appropriate use of spoken and written discourses in French.
5. Consolidating and developing knowledge about contemporary French society and an understanding of the historical, political, social and cultural issues which underpin and contest definitions of contemporary French identity.

Upon completion of this subject, students should be able to meet the following objectives: Communicative competence and linguistic knowledge:

1. Express themselves, both orally and in writing, correctly, fluently and appropriately, on a wide range of topics and in the different contexts studied in the oral and written expression component of the unit which are as follows: situations in which instructions are given or requested, situations in which events are retold and chronological information provided, or refused, situations in which discourse is reported, described or commented upon, situations in which proposals are made and accepted or rejected, situations in which discourse has to be structured logically and hypotheses formulated, situations in which logical arguments are conveyed, accepted or refuted, situations in which information is processed, ideas presented or reported orally, situations in which ideas are presented or reported in writing.
2. Understand and demonstrate understanding of written, audio and video documents.
3. Demonstrate explicit competence in French grammar in the areas reviewed.
4. Demonstrate competence in the use of language reference material.
5. Demonstrate autonomous learning strategies. Socio-cultural awareness:
6. Acquired a greater critical knowledge and understanding of modern French society, its values and their evolution.
7. Developed a critical understanding of issues of identity in France since the beginning of the 20th century.
8. Developed an explicit understanding and more sophisticated practice of text analysis, especially in relation to film.
9. Developed individual and cooperative research skills.

Assessment

Assignments (Written and Oral): 15%
Class tests (written): 30%
Specialized culture component: 25%
Exam: 30%

Contact hours

5 hours ( 2 x 1 hour lectures and 3 hours of tutorials)

Prerequisites

VCE 3/4 French

Prohibitions

FRN1010, FRN1030, FRN1070, FRN2050, FRN3050