69380 - French Language and Culture II (First Language)

Course contents

The course aims to consolidate and develop the previously acquired skills. In analyzing original written and oral documents focusing on social-cultural aspects of the French society, students will acquire high levels of language fluency as well as develop advanced writing and oral production skills. We will focus on extended vocabulary, grammar and syntax with particular attention being given to written expression (en registre soutenu).

Syllabus:

• Linguistics techniques (written / oral) : in order to develop and refine the vocabulary as well as to improve the linguistic capacities in a professional context, exercises will be provided with the aim of adapting an appropriate writing style in different situations. In particular, these exercises will focus on reformulating the content of oral and written documents. In addition, these documents will develop reading and oral comprehension skills within the context of themes taken from social and cultural aspects of France.

• A focus on Italian / French comparative linguistics : the consolidation of grammatical structures and the study of interference between Italian and French at the syntactic / morphological level.

Readings/Bibliography

Compulsory

Lecture notes available on Moodle E-learning platform

Grammar book (choose from the following):

- F. BIDAUD, Grammaire du français pour Italophones, Utet Università, 2012

- F. BIDAUD, Exercices de grammaire française pour Italophones, Utet Università, 2012

or

- M. Grégoire, A. Kostucki, Grammaire progressive du français avec 600 exercices, niveau perfectionnement B2-C2, Clé International, 2017

Highly recommended

- M.F. Merger, L. Sini, Le nouveau côte à côte, Amon, 2013

- F. Bidaud, Traduire le français d’aujourd’hui, UTET, 2014

- C. Miquel, Vocabulaire progressif du français avec 675 exercices, niveau perfectionnement C1-C2, Clé International, 2015

- R. Racine, J,-C. Schenker Communication progressive du français avec 700 exercices, niveau perfectionnement C1-C2, Clé International, 2015

DICTIONARIES

Dictionnaires unilingues : Le Petit Robert (de préférence version en ligne)

& « Les Usuels » : Dictionnaire des combinaisons de mots, Le Robert

Teaching methods

The course will focus on:

• an extensive lexical study at advanced level (in the classroom as well as additional exercises)

• a comparative Italian / French linguistic study and exercises

• Particular attention to written discourse and style (“registre soutenu”, idiomatic expressions) and cohesion / coherence (“expressions de la cause, conséquence, but, opposition, concession”)

• Individual and / or group written homework assignments (via the Moodle e-learning platform) with individual feedback

The French language module will be supported by laboratory exercises (compulsory).

Students must attend 70% of the class and active participation is required.

Assessment methods

The written test :

• Contrastive grammar italian / french : exercices  (the use of a monolingual dictionary is not allowed)
• Writing : the student will need to reformulate given oral / written documents based on the techniques taught in the classroom (the use of a monolingual dictionary is allowed)

The oral examination will be comprised of the preparation and presentation of a french argumentative monologue (approx 10min) after which the student will need to answer follow-up questions. The monologue argument will have been previously treated in class and will be assigned to the student through random draws from the list of subjects. The students will have 3 weeks to prepare the presentation.

The final registered mark will be an average of each subject’s mark : written french exam / oral french exam / french italian dialogue interpreting.

Teaching tools

- Moodle E-learning platform (compulsory)

--> [2018-19] Langue et Culture françaises, 2ème année 1ère langue (Iafrate)

- Lecture notes available on Moodle

- Material listed in the bibliography

- Material provided by the instructor during the course

A personalised tutoring service is made available to students needing additional assistance and can be booked by e-mail

Office hours

See the website of Samantha Iafrate