FREN 200: Intermediate French I
Prerequisites: French 100 or two years of high school French
Credit Hours: (4) Four hours lecture and language practice
A continuation of the study of the fundamentals of the language and continued development of the language skills.
Description of Content of Course
Situations covered include: High school and university settings; living accommodations, the city, looking for an apartment, household chores, geography, means of transportation, the car, travels, childhood, youth.; family situations, the importance of French cafes in teenage social life; dining, household appliances, shopping and cooking, asking for directions, clothes and appearance, illness and personal hygiene, going to the doctor and to the hospital, accidents, relationships, multi-cultural society and socio-cultural interactions between French-speaking countries of diverse cultural backgrounds.
Cultural sections focus on: writers, artists, scientists, regional living styles, architecture, legends, traveling, Francophone areas of the world, the youth culture, the eating culture, fashion, relationships, multi-culturalism in France.
Grammatical structures include: comparing adjectives and adverbs, varying meaning of prepositions, word order, the use of the subjunctive, if-clauses and conditional situations; relative clauses, the superlative of adjectives and adverbs, conjunctions, the past tense (with special emphasis on the stylistic differences between the pass茅 compose and the imparfait) indirect questions, possibility, the passive voice, reflexive pronouns, and the imperative (a review).
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
French 200 uses the second part of the textbook adopted for the French 100-200 course sequence. This allows for a quick review of previously seen material and affords a degree of didactic continuity in teaching materials used by the students. Class instruction targets communication practice utilizing the situations, intentions, vocabulary culture and grammar introduced in a given chapter. Other activities include; grammar and vocabulary explanations, pronunciation practice, listening comprehension exercises, writing, and grammatical drills. Class is conducted primarily in the target language, while more difficult parts of French grammar explanations are offered in English.
Goals and Objectives of the Course
Speaking and listening goals (standardized ACTFL proficiency criteria); Students will be able to speak the critical language by relying heavily on learned utterances but occasionally expanding these through simple recombinations of their elements. Students can ask questions or make statements involving learned material. There will be some spontaneity, but speech will continue to consist primarily of learned phrases. Students will be able to pronounce nearly all French sounds accurately when uttered in isolation and a growing number even in rapid speech. As regards listening skills, students will be able to understand short, learned phrases and some sentence-length utterances; particularly where context strongly supports understanding and speech is clearly audible.
Reading and writing goals (standardized ACTFL proficiency criteria); Students will be able to identify an increasing amount of learned material without assistance and to understand a limited amount of new material when supported by context or dictionary assistance. In writing, students will be able to reproduce a variety of learned phrases and some basic sentences by recombining learned material.
Students will achieve a degree of competence in a foreign language and culture.
Students will be able to:
a. demonstrate language skills appropriate to the level of study
b. analyze similarities and differences between their own and the target cultures
c. explain contemporary international issues from the perspectives of their own and the target cultures
Assessment Measures
Speaking progress is evaluated in class and in oral interviews. Written homework assignments provide a basis for the evaluation of writing progress. Listening and reading comprehension and grammatical accuracy are tested in vocabulary quizzes, grammatical hourly exams, chapter tests, and on the final exam. In most of these testing situations, students will also either demonstrate or further expand (in the case of new linguistic excerpts containing new cultural topics) their familiarity with cultural topics and current global issues. Students鈥� success in using French will therefore demonstrate not only their linguistic abilities but also their cultural competence to anticipate, identify, and to simulate the use of different cultural perceptions and behaviors through the new language.
Other Course Information
French 200 is a continuation of French 100 and targets language learners with either French 100 or the equivalent, e.g. one or two years in high school. To supplement linguistic and cultural encounters in class, students are expected to participate in some extracurricular activities such as conversation with native speakers, watching French- language movies, and inquiring about French- speaking cultures by means of the multitude of media available as informational resources.
Approval and Subsequent Reviews
August 2001 Revised Eric du Plessis