FRN1070 - French studies 7

Leader(s): Patrick Durel

Offered

Clayton 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

At the end of the course, students should have reinforced their ability to communicate and interact efficiently in French both in oral and written form by using appropriate techniques of exposition. They will be expected to develop and demonstrate the following skills in the target language:

1. Reading comprehension/oral production: students should be able to communicate the main points contained in a newspaper article they have read, reformulating, structuring and explaining its content.
2. Writing skills: students should be able to plan in detail, use appropriate expressions, vocabulary and syntax in order to write an expository text. They should also demonstrate an awareness of issues of textual grammar (coherence and cohesion).
3. Morpho-syntax and stylistics: students should further their knowledge of French grammar and develop their awareness of differences between French and English syntax.
4. Students should also have become familiar with the use of software programs and electronic tools such as a grammar assistant, a bilingual electronic dictionary, an online French dictionary and grammar revision software.
5. Students should have developed learning strategies appropriate to their learning style as well as an ability to reflect and evaluate these learning strategies.
6. Socio-cultural awareness: students should acquire a greater critical knowledge and understanding of modern French society, its values and their evolution.
7. Students should have 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

Written work: 12%
Composition test: 16%
Oral exam: 18%
Comprehension test: 13%
Reseach project: 25%
Translation exam: 16%

Contact hours

5 hours (1 hr computer lab workshop, 1hr translation workshop, 1 x 2 hour language tutorial and 1hr Specialized Culture lecture/seminar) per week

Prerequisites

VCE French (or equivalent) with a score of 40+ (or equivalent) and some study in a French-speaking country.

Prohibitions

FRN2070, FRN3070