Summary
Level:
Advanced. This module is offered to undergraduates who already have a good knowledge of French: A level, grade A or B (or equivalent), or who have successfully completed French 4.
Main Objectives:
To strengthen reading and writing skills and reinforce the communicative skills acquired during previous study of the French language. Focus will be put on understanding French social, economic and political issues to enable students to engage with native speakers when visiting a French-speaking country and/or in a French speaking work environment.
Credits:
30 CREDITS, also available for 24 CREDITS.
Teaching:
One 2-hour language class each week for 21 weeks. Students are reminded that 1 credit = 10 hours of study, therefore the minimum expected amount of study is 240 hours, which averages over 10 hours per week. A substantial amount of independent study is therefore required. Students can make use of Moodle to facilitate this.
Students will take part in the online exchange with the Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Tutors:
Claude Trégoat
Course Texts (must be bought by student)
G. Vandaele & P. Turk (2018), Action Grammaire - Fourth edition, Hodder Education, ISBN-13: 978-1-5104-3486-8
Course Description
The emphasis of the module will be on improving the following skills:
- communicating more effectively in French, in situations ranging from informal conversation to a formal interview or presentation
- developing competence in communicating in French in the business context
- reading and understanding articles in French and a varied range of fictional and non-fictional passages
- gaining practice in writing essays in French
- writing formal, transactional, non personal emails in French
- facilitating students’ self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses in order to improve their learning skills
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module, students will have:
- developed competence in a broad range of complex and non-routine language tasks across a wide and often unpredictable variety of contexts
- consolidated and expanded grammatical and syntactical competence
- furthered their awareness and appreciation of French economic activity, social issues, history and culture
- developed a proficiency in some of the stylistic resources of French
- gained confidence in interacting with native speakers, taking part in discussions with French-speaking people and administrations
By the end of the course, students should be able to perform at Level B2+ Independent user (vantage) of the Common European Framework.
Syllabus
Themes
Activities will be centred on non-literary texts and audio-visual material focusing on the following themes:
- l'éducation supérieure
- le monde du travail
- les 30 glorieuses et les 40 désastreuses
- politique économique
- la France dans le monde
- consommation et révolution du capitalisme
- politique et institutions
- les nouvelles technologies dans l'entreprise
- films à dimension sociale
Grammar
Consolidation of major elements, such as:
- gender
- all tenses
- hypotheses
- passive voice
- direct & indirect object pronouns
- relative pronouns
- conjunctions
|
