3110

Department: Languages and Literatures
Course Number and Title: FRE 3110, Advanced French Conversation
Bulletin Description: This course will develop competence in the spoken French
language at a functional level. The students will also make short presentations, conduct
interviews, and converse on topics of their choice.
Prerequisites: FRE 2040, 2050, or placement by program coordinator
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.
Units of Instruction:
Semaine 1. Pour mieux vous connaître et pour connaître les autres.
Semaine 2. Sur la France: les fêtes et traditions.
Semaine 3. Sur la France: les médias, la télévision et la radio.
Semaine 4. La jeunesse en question: Information, conversation et réflexion.
Semaine 5. La vie à l’université: Information, conversation et réflexion.
Semaine 6. Les informations régionales. Discussions et débats.
Semaine 7. L’État et la famille: vie familiale et vie professionnelle.
Semaine 8. Les loisirs et l’amitié: Information, conversation et réflexion.
Semaine 9. La France multiculturelle: Information, conversation et réflexion.
Semaine 10. La cuisine en France. Vocabulaire et exercice d’application.
Semaine 11. Présentation/Débat. TBA.
Semaine 12. Présentation/Débat. TBA.
Semaine 13. Préparation à l’examen final.
Semaine 14. Présentation/Débat. TBA.
Semaine 15. Présentation/Débat. TBA.
Semaine 16. Final Exam
Assessments: The students’ performance will be assessed in French through an exposé,
an interview, a presentation, quizzes, exams and their class participation.
Exposé: 10% (presentation based on a theme introduced in the course packet).
Interview: 10% (oral summary of a conversation conducted with a Francophone speaker).
Aural comprehension exams: 10%
Quizzes: 15% (given to assess your knowledge of the vocabulary, grammar and phonetics
reviewed and acquired in class).
Presentation: 15% (students will lead a debate on an issue of their choice).
Final exam: 20% (given to evaluate the performance and progress of the students).
Participation: 20% (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).
Bibliography
Required texts:
The students will be using a packet that contains the reading relevant for the course. They
include segments from Catherine Carlo, Mariella Causa. Civilisation du français, and
Jean H, Duffy. Using French Vocabulary. 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 wordreference.com.
NYSED Requirements:
Homework/Preparation: 90 hours
Video/Website analysis: 30 hours
Text analysis: 30 hours