FREN110 Elementary French I

Department of Language & Literature: French

  1. Course Number and Title

    FREN110 Elementary French I

  2. Number of Credits

    3 credits

  3. Minimum Number of Instructional Minutes Per Semester

    2250

  4. Prerequisites

    None

    Corequisites

    None

  5. Other Pertinent Information

    Students spend between six and nine hours per week outside of class in activities such as learning vocabulary, reading, completing written exercises, working on pronunciation, preparing oral presentations, and working with the multimedia files that accompany the text.

  6. Catalog Course Description

    In this course students learn the basics of understanding, speaking, reading, and writing French. This course stresses oral proficiency, pronunciation, listening comprehension, and grammatical accuracy, as well as the cultural backgrounds of French-speaking countries.

  7. Required Course Content and Direction

    1. Learning Goals:

      1. Course
        2. Students will:
        1. acquire and demonstrate an elementary degree of competence in the four language skills: speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing;
        2. recognize and respond appropriately to the most common spoken situations;
        3. demonstrate ability to write basic sentences in French; and
        4. explain some common aspects of life in French-speaking countries.

      2. Core (if applicable)
        3. Category I
        Cultural Perspectives
         Students will:
        1. compare, contrast, analyze, and/or defend differing world views and practices.

        Category III
        International, Gender, and/or Minority Perspectives
         Students will:
        1. articulate similarities and differences in the various cultures of the world and demonstrate familiarity with the skills necessary to make informed judgments.

    2. Planned Sequence of Topics and/or Learning Activities:

      Grammatical topics
      The present tense of regular -er verbs
      A few irregular verbs
      The present tense of regular, stem-changing verbs
      Word order and sentence structure; subject-verb agreement
      The verb aller infinitive to describe future actions
      Prepositions and prepositions with articles
      Definite and indefinite articles
      Negation: ne…pas and ne…jamais
      Adjectives, placement and agreement
      Possessive adjectives
      Regular and irregular adjectives
      Adverbs of time, manner, place

      Vocabulary and social contexts

      Greetings, time, numbers, describing yourself and others, describing others
      Geography, languages, nationalities
      Giving opinions
      Calendar, holidays, customs, vacations
      Sports, hobbies
      The city, modes of transportation

      Cultural contexts

      Geography of the French-speaking world
      Levels of formality
      The café
      Monetary systems
      Global importance of the French language
      French cultural icons

    3. Assessment Methods for Core Learning Goals:

      1. Course
        2. Students
        1. take quizzes and tests;
        2. complete written assignments, such as short compositions and grammatical exercises;
        3. perform listening comprehension exercises; and
        4. participate in speaking tasks, which may include oral interviews, conversations and/or presentations that assess proficiency levels.


      2. Core (if applicable)
        1. Cultural Perspectives: Quizzes and tests taken in class include the cultural topics presented in the course. Students compare, contrast, analyze, and/or defend differing worldviews and practices of some French-speaking people.
        2. International, Gender, and/or Minority Perspectives: Quizzes and tests taken in class include the cultural topics presented in the course. Students articulate similarities and differences in the various cultures of the world and demonstrate familiarity with the skills necessary to make informed judgments.

    4. Reference, Resource, or Learning Materials to be used by Students:

      Students use the textbook, workbook, and multimedia resources of first-year proficiency-based French program. See course format.

  8. Teaching Methods Employed

    Section VIII is not being used in new and revised syllabi as of 12/10/08.

Review/Approval Date - 3/98; Core Goals/Objectives added 4/04; Revised 4/2011