The central objective of this course is to provide a strong foundation to successfully pursue upper-level courses in French. This entails several specific competencies: to read journalistic, scholarly and literary texts in French with the level of comprehension and attention to detail required for undergraduate study; to understand the underlying logic of French grammar in order to improve one’s language ability through autonomous study outside of class; to apply this knowledge to write correctly, and to proofread one’s own texts and the texts of others; to understand the oral production of Francophone speakers in a variety of registers; to speak and pronounce correctly and coherently in a register appropriate to academic discussion; to gain an elementary grounding in the cultural knowledge required to understand modern Francophone societies, including essential themes, historical figures and movements; and to become familiar with a number of methodological tools relevant to language learning specifically, and to academic study more generally. The course places roughly equal emphasis on written and oral production.

Prerequisite / Co-requisite: AP/FR 1030 6.00 (with a minimum grade of C), or GL/FR 1500 6.00 (with a minimum grade of C), or through language placement questionnaire.

Course credit exclusions: AP/FR 1060 6.00, GL/FRLS 1510 6.00 (prior to Fall 2013), GL/FRLS 1512 3.00, GL/FRLS 1515 3.00, GL/FRLS 1525 3.00.

English Grammar for Students of French, 7th ed., Jacqueline Morton, Olivia & Hill, 2013.

Bescherelle. La Grammaire pour tous, Nouvelle éd., Nicolas Laurent & Bénédicte Delaunay, Hatier, 2019. [N.B. It is very important to get the Hatier edition (red cover), and not the Hurtubise edition (green cover) of the same year, as the pagination and overall structure of the book will not match the references given in this course.]

Bescherelle. Chronologie de l’histoire de France des origines à nos jours, Nouvelle éd., Guillaume Bourel, Marielle Chevallier, Axelle Guillausseau, Hatier, 2019. [electronic format]

Exercices de style, Raymond Queneau, Paris, Folio, 1995 [1947]

5 quizzes each semester (10 x 2%)                                                     20%

Oral presentation                                                                                 5%

Workshops with a linguistics & literature professor (2x5%)             10%

Reading assignment                                                                            10%

Reflection on a cultural outing                                                           10%

Exercises and travaux pratiques                                                         15%

Written test                                                                                         15%

Oral test                                                                                              15%

The course meets twice weekly for two-hour sessions. Generally, the first meeting of the week will be devoted to the presentation of cultural or linguistic content or explanations of key concepts or techniques. The second meeting of each week will usually be focused on reinforcement and practice through hands-on activities. Often, instructions for these practical activities will be provided at the end of the previous class, and students will be expected to come prepared to the next session.

Students will also have bi-weekly quizzes to complete outside of class (through eClass). These quizzes evaluate students’ understanding of the key material for the last two weeks and will help students to identify what content is considered most crucial, but also contain a review portion to help ensure retention of key material throughout the year.

Course directors will be available weekly for (virtual) office hours. For times and instructions on how to connect, see your section’s eClass site.

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Recognise the critical importance of engaging with the French language on a daily basis outside of class through engagement with authentic Francophone media (television, radio, press, literature, etc.) in the aim of expanding vocabulary and developing fluency.
• Constitute a personal routine and collection of preferred resources for the above purpose.
• Identify the parts of speech and perform basic syntactic analysis of French phrases.
• Use the above knowledge to methodically proofread and correct French texts, especially with respect to conjugation and agreement.
• Understand and reliably apply the following aspects of French grammar in the context of real written or oral communication:
  • The mechanics of conjugation (subject pronouns, stems, endings, and how to derive all the above)
  • Agreement, especially as it relates to nouns, adjectives and past participles
  • The proper usage of past tenses (including the formal passé simple) for the purpose of narration.
  • Complex expressions of negation, including “ne… que”, “ne… jamais”, “ne… plus” etc.
  • The comparative, superlative and degrees of intensity
• Interpret assignment instructions, understand what knowledge and/or skills they are asking students to demonstrate, and respond accordingly.
• Know what efforts and steps are necessary to understand a French text and employ the requisite strategies (vocabulary research, synthesis, background research, etc.) to be able to talk or write about it with a level of detail and depth appropriate to university-level study.
• Read a French text aloud with pronunciation and intonation that does not impede the listener’s ability to understand. This includes making an effort to correctly pronounce French’s more “difficult” phonemes (such as R, or U), being able to identify and correctly pronounce nasal vowels, to know how to handle final consonants, and make liaisons where necessary.
• Engage in critical discussion in relation to cultural themes covered in class in either written or oral form. In oral situations, students should be able to speak in a structured and coherent manner even in in-the-moment situations (i.e. not reading a text prepared in advance), such as when responding to a question posed by the professor, or in responding to a point raised by a classmate.
• Gain awareness of some of the most important historical periods, figures, places and trends in French culture, and comment on their lasting impact in the present day, or their similarities/differences relative to Canadian culture.
• Demonstrate basic understanding of the objectives and methods of the fields of linguistics and literature.

Attendance is expected