The French course is designed to enable students to develop a high level of communicative competence (including translation skills and specialised registers such as business French) in the French language, and a critical awareness of fundamental areas of French studies: literature, film, cultural theory, civilisation and linguistics. Students will develop writing and research skills appropriate to advanced independent study. Language training is compulsory in each year. The department reserves the right not to offer any subject which does not have sufficient enrolments.
The definition of the teaching and learning objectives of the department recognises:
The above has important implications for language-teaching methodology and the definition and coordination of the units of increasing complexity offered by the department.
In general, language teaching objectives include:
Graduated courses in linguistics provide an understanding of the structure of the French language and varieties of French.
Integral to language acquisition, making it significant in terms of the general aims of the university, is the acquisition of `cultural competence'. This is understood as the development of skills in the description and analysis of the social construction of reality. Students will learn to appreciate the construction of the individual and collective self (ie concerning both personal and national identity) in a peculiarly French light.
The modes of social construction studied are various: literary, cinematographic, historical, journalistic, graphic. They range from high art to popular culture and they are canonical and marginal. Students' varying interests are fully recognised.
Students will develop the ability to recognise the specificity of French cultural constructs, especially in contrast with competing and various Anglo-Saxon constructs of `Frenchness'.
At a minimal level, students should be able to analyse the basic processes through which a variety of texts using French produce meaning. At advanced levels, students should be able to understand and apply competing theoretical models of analysis of social constructs, in particular those developed by French theorists. Assimilation of mere descriptions of social or cultural constructs is not considered a form of knowledge: knowledge is founded on skills of critical analysis transferable from one construct to another. All students are encouraged to develop these skills, thus enabling them to carry out research and other academic work independently.
First-year French is offered at three levels:
(i) Students who have completed VCE French will take FRN1070/FRN1080 (five or six hours per week).
(ii) Students who have studied French to a level below VCE 3/4 will take either FRN1070/FRN1080 (but must undertake this study over six hours per week) or FRN1010/FRN1020, which is also offered to complete beginners.
(iii) Students with little or no knowledge of French will take FRN1010/FRN1020 (five hours per week).
Two types of minor/major sequences are offered:
(a) Minor sequence FRN1070, FRN1080, FRN2070, FRN2080 and eight further points at second-year level. Major sequence A minor sequence plus FRN3070 and FRN3080, together with sixteen further points of third-year level work.
(b) Minor sequence FRN1010, FRN1020, FRN2010, FRN2020. Major sequence A minor sequence plus FRN3010 and FRN3020, together with sixteen further points at third-year level.
All honours students have the opportunity to participate in the Language Study Abroad Program in France, for which major grants are available. The department has links with the universities of Angers, Clermont, Lyon III, Nice and Paris III. Smaller grants are also available for short overseas courses. These will normally be awarded to second year students committed to completing a French major.
Coordinator: A Macdonald
Students may be admitted to honours at fourth-year level if they have completed a major and achieved an average of 70 (distinction) in third-year level.
Combined honours may be taken in French and another discipline provided that all honours requirements have been met in both disciplines and subject to the approval of the heads of both departments/centres.
Students who wish to apply for mid-year entry should consult the head of department.
All intending honours students are strongly advised to take more than the minimum number of subjects required for admisson to honours. It is in their own interest to do so, since this will increase their linguistic proficiency and broaden their knowledge of French culture.
Honours students are expected to attend the departmental staff- student research seminars.
The due date for the submission of final coursework and the dissertation is the last day of the final semester of the honours program (Friday 5 June in first semester 1998 and Friday 30 October in second semester 1998). Departments may grant an extension of time for submission of the honours dissertation or for final coursework up to the last day of the examination period of the semester in which the work is due. Applications for extensions beyond this date must be made to the Committee for Undergraduate Studies. The Marie Maclean Prize will be awarded (but not necessarily every year) for the best honours dissertation.
For postgraduate studies offered by the French section, please refer to the Arts graduate handbook for 1998.
All intending honours students are strongly advised to take more than the minimum number of subjects required for admission to honours. All students are encouraged to choose additional subjects which relate their studies in French to the wider context of European culture and society. They should read carefully the entries for European studies and comparative literature, cultural studies and critical theory.
All intending honours students are strongly advised to take more than the minimum number of subjects required for admission to honours. All students are encouraged to choose additional subjects which relate their studies in French to the wider context of European culture and society. They should read carefully the entries for European studies and comparative literature, cultural studies and critical theory.
The fourth-year honours course consists of:
(a) FRN4100 Honours dissertation (16 points), FRN4990 Language study abroad program (16 points) and two eight-point subjects, which may include FRN4000 (French language IV)
or
(b) FRN4100 Honours dissertation (16 points), FRN4000 French language IV (16 points) and two eight-point subjects