FRE 3120: Advanced French Conversation

FRE 3120: Advanced French Conversation
St. John’s University
Paris Campus
SYLLABUS
Spring 2011
Prerequisites: FRE 2040, 2050, or placement by program coordinator
Instructor: Dr. Tina Chen
Email: [email protected]
Class times: M-Thurs, 10:15-12:15
Credits:
3 semester hours
Texts:
The students will be using a packet that contains the reading material for the
course. They include segments from Face à Face, Françoise Ghillebaert, Faisons
le Point, Josette Penso-Cortes, Karen Harrington, Exercices d’Oral, Hachette, Le
Petit Nicolas, Sempé/Goscinny, Lire la Presse, Bernadette Chovelon, MarieHélene Morsel, Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong, Jean-Benoît Nadeau
and Julie Barlow
Additional sources, dossiers and newspapers articles will be provided.
The students should also use a good paper back French-English dictionary or go
online to consult a dictionary at www.wordreference.com.
Bulletin Description: This course develops oral competency on a variety of topics
including cinema, traveling, world and local news, history, art, culture, and society. In the
second part of the semester, the students will debate on issues of their choice drawn from
printed, audio, or visual material. They will deal with both sides of the issue.
FRE 3120: Advanced French Conversation
Goals of the course: The aims of the course are:
1. to improve the students’ speaking skills through vocabulary building, listening
exercises, readings and discussions.
2. to enhance their comprehension of concrete ideas and gradually use the French
language in increasingly complex and abstract forms and contexts.
3. to help them acquire a dynamic range of vocabulary in order to converse in most
practical situations encountered in a French-speaking environment.
Learning outcomes: The students will be able:
1. to converse in a clearly participatory fashion, initiate, sustain, and bring to closure
a wide variety of communicative tasks.
2. to understand main ideas and most details of connected discourse on a variety of
topics, by way of an increasing control of the language.
3. to read prose of several paragraphs in length, particularly if presented with a clear
underlying structure.
4. to express themselves in the past, present and future on a broad range of topics
and to develop a further understanding of French culture and society.
Assessments: The students’ performance will be assessed in French through an exposé,
an interview, a presentation, quizzes, exams and their class participation.
25% : Exposés and presentations: you will be doing several presentations
throughout the semester.
20% : Final exam: given to evaluate the performance and progress of the
students.
25%: Journals and Quizzes: given to assess your knowledge of the
vocabulary, grammar and phonetics reviewed and acquired in class.
30% : Participation: students must commit to reading all assigned
material before the class meeting and should demonstrate an ability to
participate in the conversations. They will be evaluated each day on their
performance taking into account their usage of the skills they acquired,
their pronunciation, use of grammar and vocabulary.
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FRE 3120: Advanced French Conversation
Units of Instruction:
Semaine 1
*Faire connaissance: le tempérament, l’humeur, l’esprit. Les mots pour le
dire: Pour mieux vous connaître et pour connaître les autres
*La Famille: Vocabulaire et lectures: Vivre en couple: le PACS, vie
familiale
*Faire connaissance avec la France : présentations sur des régions
Grammaire : le subjonctif
Lecture : La rue parisienne, Chapitres 1-3, Sixty Million Frenchmen…
Visite ? : Salon de l’Agriculture
Semaine 2
*L’amitié et l’amour
*La France gastronomique
*Fêtes et traditions
*Préparation de la visite guidée à St. Germain des Près
*Film et discussion: Au Revoir les Enfants
Grammaire: negation et pronoms interrogatifs
Phonétique: Les nasales
Lecture: Le Petit Prince, Le Petit Nicolas, Le souvenir invisible, , Sixty
Million Chapitres 4-7
Semaine 3
*Film et discussion: Au Revoir les Enfants
*La Francophonie et la France multi-culturelle
*Film et Discussion: Inch’allah Dimanche
*Présentations sur les pays francophones
Lecture: Sixty Million, Chapitre 8-11, Chapter 21 L’intégration des
Roms
Visite: St. Germain des Près
**Cours de rattrapage: Vendredi 11 mars
Semaine 4
* L'Education et la Formation
*Film et Discussion: L’esquive
Lecture: Chapitres 12-14, L’enfant delinquent
Semaine 5
*Les médias, la presse, la technologie
*La culture française
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FRE 3120: Advanced French Conversation
Week 2. The family: Vocabulary and related exercises. Reading: « Mère et fille »
(Simone de Beauvoir), « Père » (Jean Dutourd). Text comprehension. Points of view and
discussion. Living as a couple: free union, the PACS. The French state and the family:
financial aid, family life and professional life. Phonetics: vowels [ ] [e] [ ]. Grammar
review: articles, nouns and adjectives (Paquet, 7-16).
Week 3. Mariage, love and friendship : Vocabulary and related exercises. Reading:
« Mariage » (Jean-Louis Curtis), « Passation de pouvoir » (Eugène Ionesco). Text
comprehension. Points of view and discussion.. Video and Audio: songs by Edith Piaf.
Movie: « L’auberge espagnole ». Phonetics: vowels [u] [o] [ ] [y]. Grammar review:
the indicative present. Quiz 1. (Paquet, 17-28).
Week 4. Young people in France: Vocabulary and related exercises. Reading : « Un
jeune homme de 1927 » (Simone de Beauvoir), « L’Âge ingrat » (Françoise Giroud).
Text comprehension. Points of view and discussion.. Debate: « Ce que veulent les jeunes:
Que voulez-vous? » Video and Audio. Movie: « Amélie ». Phonetics: vowels [ ] [
]. Grammar review: the imparfait and the passé composé (Paquet, 29-41).
Week 5. Education: principles, higher education in France. Vocabulary and related
exercises . Debate: « Les études: ce qu’on en pense et ce qu’on en dit. » (excerpts from
newspapers and magazines). Test your knowledge: « Êtes-vous au courant ? » Video and
Audio: Information, conversation and reflection. Phonetics: nasal vowels [ ] [ ] [ ] [
]. Grammar review: direct and indirect object pronouns. Aural comprehension test
1. (Paquet, 42-54).
Week 6. Nature, the environment, discovery. Vocabulary and related exercises . Reading:
« Vivre avec les saisons. La sauvegarde de la nature », « Paris et les régions françaises »,
« Premières impressions des touristes étrangers en France. » Video: Regional news.
Phonetics: semi-vowels [J] [V] [w]. Grammar review: the future and the conditional.
Mid-Term. (Paquet, 55-65).
Week 7. Holidays, traditions, sports, vacations. Vocabulary and related exercises.
Reading : « Quelques fêtes traditionnelles. » « Les habitudes des français à table »,
« Apprenons à lire un menu en français ». Vacation time and leisure in France. Points of
view and discussion. Video: the news on TF1. Phontics: liaisons. Grammar review:
relative and interrogative pronouns (Paquet, 66-78).
Week 8. The French Media: radio, theater and television. Vocabulary and related
exercises. Situation and discussion. Reading : « Les sorties », « Les spectacles. » Audio:
French TV channels and cultural programs. Aural Comprehension test 2. (Paquet, 7986).
Week 9. Living in France. Vocabulary and related exercises. Reading: « La Francophonie », « La France multiculturelle. » « Les échanges politiques et économiques. »
Video and audio: singers issued from immigration. Movie: « Monsieur Ibrahim et les
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FRE 3120: Advanced French Conversation
roses du coran ». Phonetics: consonants [l] [r] [s] [z]. Grammar review: the subjunctive
and adverbs. Quiz 2. (Paquet, 87-97).
Week 10. The fine arts and French songs. What are your tastes and preferences?
Reading: « La cathédrale » (A. Maurois), « Une lettre » (V. Van Gogh), « Pour faire le
portrait d’un oiseau » (J. Prévert), « Berthe Morisot ». Audio: a few selected songs and
poems. To help you describe or tell: « Les articulations du discours ». Aural
Comprehension test 3. (Paquet, 98-111).
Week 11. History and the Francophone cinema. Reading: « Le patrimoine », « L’art du
souvenir », « Pourrait-on vivre dans un monde sans passé ? ». Research on cultural
heritage in France and in the world. Video: famous film excerpts on French history.
Grammar review: Comparison: adjectives, adverbs, nouns, verbs. Modes and methods
of presentation for debates (Paquet, 112-118).
Week 12. Preparation to the final exam.
Bibliography:
Deguy, Michel. La raison poétique. Paris : Editions Galilée, 2000.
Didier, Béatrice. L’Ecriture-femme. Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 1999.
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FRE 3120: Advanced French Conversation
Dumas, Marie-Claire ; Michel Murat. André Breton. Paris : L’Herne, 1998.
Evrard, Franck. Albert Camus.Paris : Editions Ellipses, 1998.
Jeancolas, Jean-Pierre ; Marie Michel. Histoire du cinéma français. Paris : Editions
Nathan, 1995.
Lagarde, André ; Laurent Michard. Le XXème siècle. Paris : Editions Bordas, 1988.
Mitterrand, Henri. Dictionnaire des œuvres du XXème siècle : littérature française et
francophone. Paris : Dictionnaires Le Robert, 1995.
Moreau, Jean-Luc ; Bruno Barbey. Le Paris de Jean-Paul Sartre et Simone de Beauvoir
Paris : Editions Chênes, 2001.
Moura, Jean-Marc. Littératures francophones et théorie postcoloniale. Paris : Presses
Universitaires de France, 1999.
Rioux, Jean-Pierre. La culture de masse en France : de la Belle Epoque à aujourd’hui.
Paris : Librairie Fayard, 2002.
Simon, Anne. Proust, ou, le réel retrouvé. Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 2000.
Sirinelli, Jean-François. Intellectuels et passions françaises. Manifestes et pétitions au
XXème siècle. Paris : Librairie Fayard, 1990.
Tadié, Jean-Yves. La critique littéraire du XXème siècle. Paris : Pierre Belfond, 1987.
Todd, Olivier. André Malraux : une vie. Paris : Editions Gallimard, 2001.
Web Resources:
The following databases provide the conjugation of all French verbs in all tenses and
moods:
http://www.pomme.ualberta.ca/devoir
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FRE 3120: Advanced French Conversation
http://www.leconjugueur.com/
The following French Grammar Central provides a complete database of all grammatical
structures including complex sentences with exercises corrected online
http://globegate.utm.edu/french/globegate_mirror/gramm.html
Also a very good grammar website providing explanations of all grammatical
terminology with examples:
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/index.html
French Cultural Services in the United States
http://www.frenchculture.org
Find links for art, music, cinema, books, radio, tv, etc
NYSED Requirements:
Homework/Preparation: 90 hours
Video/Website analysis: 30 hours
Text analysis: 30 hours
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