39973 - French Language (Course and Laboratory) II (GR. A)

Academic Year 2019/2020

  • Docente: Michela Tonti
  • Credits: 8
  • Language: French

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students should be able to follow a lesson in French, to read a complex text about social or political sciences and make a fluent oral report on it in French. To this purpose they should reach a minimum level of B1 (Council of Europe framework) for spoken and written French, while the ideal level is B2.

Moreover, they should be capable of writing a text in French (minimum level B2).

Course contents

The whole course is composed of a series of 30 hours of lectures, and 40 hours of laboratory work dedicated to practicing spoken and written French, and to improving grammatical competence.

Labs are streamed according to the level of knowledge ascertained in the entry test. The Lab is aimed at improving fluency and accuracy in writing and speaking skills and is dedicated to French grammar. Topics covered will include:

  1. Prépositions spatio-temporelles simples
  2. Les indéfinis

  3. Le gérondif

  4. Rappel du passé composé et de l'accord du participe passé

  5. La forme passive

  6. Rappel du conditionnel présent – conditionnel passé

  7. Les formes hypothétiques

  8. Le discours indirect

  9. Les connecteurs logiques simples: chronologie du discours.

  10. Toutes les subordonnées

  11. Le subjonctif présent

  12. Utilisation des expressions de l’opinion (subjonctif présent ou indicatif)

  13. Connotation essentielle/dénotation

The 30 hours course is organized into two modules:

- One module will be devoted to reading and analyzing written and oral texts focusing on specific themes which are related to the disciplines of the degree programme. The texts will focus in particular on some relevant political and socio-cultural issues. We will particularly focus on argumentative texts in many forms. The aim of this module is to initiate students to the morpho-syntactic and discursive features of some textual genres, but also to a specialized lexicon related to socio-political issues, and to some crucial periods in 20th century French history.

- The second module will be devoted to discussing the topics treated in the texts and to improving writing skills in French (written composition of texts in French).

Readings/Bibliography

The texts used for class work will be made available in form of a “dossier” on AMS Campus before the beginning of the course.

For the laboratory:

Grammathèque , (Livre + CD + Exercices), Ed. CIDEB, 2010.

Dictionary : Le petit Robert : dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la langue française, Paris, Dictionnaires Le Robert, 2017.

For general reading :

1. Charles Giol, De Hollande à Sarkozy: histoire de France de 1914 à nos jours,Paris, PUF, 2015.

2. Jean-Jacques Becker, Histoire politique de la France depuis 1945, Paris, Colin, édition 2015.

3. Michel Offerlé, Les partis politiques, Paris, PUF, 2018.

4. Jean Baubérot, Histoire de la laïcité en France, Paris, PUF, collection « Que sais-je ? », 2013.

5. Jacques Donzelot, La France des cités : Le chantier de la citoyenneté urbaine, Paris, Fayard, 2013.

6. Christine Bard, avec Frédérique El Amrani et Bibia Pavard, Histoire des femmes dans la France des xixe et xxe siècles, Paris, Ellipses, 2013.

Teaching methods

Lectures are aimed at developing skills in comprehending and interpreting written and oral specialized texts, and to produce written texts in French. The course will be held in French. The course will be held in French and will be dedicated to B1 students.

The language laboratory, on the basis of a specific grammar for Italian speakers and practical exercises with “communicative methods”, is aimed at allowing students to achieve a good level of linguistic and communicative competence.

Assessment methods

Students that follow lessons:

Overall assessment will be based on two written tests (mid-term test and final exam) and a final oral exam.

The mid-term test includes a cloze test and a reading test with multiple choice and open questions to check the comprehension of the text and test grammar skills. The final exam will consist in writing a composition in French and in some questions to test grammar skills.

Spoken French will be assessed by means of a discussion of a selection of pages from one of the books in the general reading section of the bibliography.

Beside the reading of the selection of pages from one book, each student will choose one or 2 recent articles from the online press on a topic which has to be related to the text and the pages selected. The first part of the oral exam will focus on the knowledge acquired through the book. The second part will consist in a brief presentation of the selected articles (sources, interest of the articles in the actual context, journalist's opinion, tone of the articles – polemic, virulent, etc.) – in the presentation of the student's personal opinion about the topic.

Students that do not follow lessons can take the exam as follows:

Written test – a cloze test, a composition in French, and a reading test with questions to check the comprehension of the text and test grammar skills.

Oral test - an interview on a selection of pages from one of the texts below.

Beside the reading of the selection of pages from one book, each student will choose one or 2 recent articles from the online press on a topic which has to be related to the text and the pages selected. The first part of the oral exam will focus on the knowledge acquired through the book. The second part will consist in a brief presentation of the selected articles (sources, interest of the articles in the actual context, journalist's opinion, tone of the articles – polemic, virulent, etc.) – in the presentation of the student's personal opinion about the topic.

Charles Giol, De Hollande à Sarkozy: histoire de France de 1914 à nos jours, Paris, PUF, 2015

chapters: introduction, 1, 2, 3

or

chapters: 1, 4, 5

or

chapters: 6, 7 + conclusion

 

2. Jean-Jacques Becker, Histoire politique de la France depuis 1945, Paris, Colin, édition 2015.

chapters 1, 2, 3

or

chapters 4, 5, 6 (pp. 83-163)

or

chapter 6

 

3.Michel Offerlé, Les partis politiques, Paris, PUF, 2018.

Chapters da 1-4 + conclusion

4. Jean Baubérot, Histoire de la laïcité en France, Paris, PUF, collection « Que sais-je ? », 2013.

chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

5. Jacques Donzelot, La France des cités : Le chantier de la citoyenneté urbaine, Paris, Fayard, 2013.

Préambule + première partie : chap. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

or

Première partie: chap. 6 + Deuxième partie : chap. 1, 2, 3, 4

6. Christine Bard, avec Frédérique El Amrani et Bibia Pavard, Histoire des femmes dans la France des xixe et xxe siècles, Paris, Ellipses, 2013.

Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

or

chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Teaching tools

PC with Video Projector, Internet, DVD.

Office hours

See the website of Michela Tonti