FREN352

French Grammar

Les sept arts libéraux dans l'Hortus deliciarum d'Herrade de Landsberg (1180)

Welcome! Languages are patterns that can be reproduced and predicted, so by recognizing these patterns, you can acquire better and more durable knowledge of that language. This is what this course is about: helping you get an overview of the structures and systems of French so that you can read any text, reach a higher level of expression and understanding, and appreciate the French language even more.

In order to teach grammar in a more inclusive way, exercises, descriptions and lessons adopt a descriptive approach (describe what can be observed) and not a prescriptive approach (judge “good” or “bad” grammar and apply rules) of French Grammar.

This hands-on class provides students with a complete overview of the fundamentals of French Grammar. Students will learn to apply theoretical concepts to grammar exercises and and close reading of literary texts (grammar in context). They will acquire the basics of analyse logique (parsing), a tool aimed at increasing students’ comprehension and production of complex sentences and gain confidence in their reading of challenging French authors as well as in their own written production.

Language of instruction: French

Instructor: Dr. Isabelle Delage-Béland

Prerequisite: One of FREN 123, FREN 302.
Recommended prerequisite: FREN 401, FREN 402.

Upper-Intermediate French II

Alfred Pellan, Canada Ouest, 1942-1943.

The Department of FHIS offers a series of eight courses designed to build students’ skills progressively in the four basic communicative functions of listening, reading, writing, and speaking. FREN 402 is the second of a pair of Upper-Intermediate courses—401 and 402—aligned with level B2 objectives of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

The course is open to all students with a sufficient level of French, whether they are in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year.

With an approach that is communicative and collaborative, inductive and interactive, the course aims to refine the skills acquired in Intermediate French I & II or equivalent courses and to enhance students’ knowledge of French and the Francophone world. Students will be able to consolidate and expand their writing, reading, comprehension, and speaking skills in French.

The course is devoted to providing students with tools for interacting with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction in French possible without strain.

The course is focused on:

• grammatical analysis, vocabulary enrichment, and socio-cultural competency using a wide variety of authentic documents of the French-Speaking world (news, literature, songs, etc.);
• the deep understanding of both concrete and abstract topics in a complex document (written or oral);
• the ability to research Francophone relevant resources and synthesize them;
• the production of clear, detailed, nuanced, and well-structured written and oral communication on a number of topics (use of critical thinking and creativity, construction of arguments to defend one’s opinion and explain one’s viewpoint, use of rhetorical strategies);
• the ability to correct one’s own mistakes (when writing or speaking) and constantly improve;
• the development of learner’s autonomy.

Both individually and in collaborative small groups, students will produce and share ideas in workshops, whole class discussions, oral presentations, debates, or other writing assignments. French grammatical structures such as relative pronouns, the passive form, the subjunctive, and logic connectors will be studied within a task-based approach so that students reach a greater degree of complexity and sophistication when expressing themselves.

Language of instruction: French

Recommended prerequisites: One of FREN 224, FREN 401, or assignment based on placement test

Intermediate French II

The Department of FHIS offers a series of eight courses designed to build students’ skills progressively in the four basic communicative functions of listening, reading, writing, and speaking. FREN 302 is the second of a pair of Intermediate courses—301 and 302—aligned with level B1 objectives of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

With an approach that is communicative and collaborative, inductive and interactive, the course aims to reinforce the skills acquired at the A1 and A2 levels and provides students with the tools to understand and use French independently. At the B1 level, you will have the opportunity to go beyond everyday communication situations in order to express yourself on current social and cultural issues.

In FREN 302, you will strengthen your existing skills with a view toward more advanced language practice. Whether you intend to continue your studies in French (in literature, culture, or linguistics courses) or simply maintain your French beyond this course, you will develop the strategies needed to achieve your goals.

Note: This course is not available for credit to students with French Immersion 12 or those who were educated in a Francophone school.

In FREN 301 and FREN 302, you can expect to:

– Consolidate and refine previously acquired grammar points (such as pronouns and past tenses) and learn new structures (such as the subjunctive, complex past tenses, and logical connectors) to enrich both spoken and written expression.

– Explore a wide variety of themes (e.g., art, travel, work, ecology, relationships, new technologies, etc.), which will serve as topics for discussion, writing, and vocabulary expansion.

– Study authentic materials (literary excerpts, news articles, videos, podcasts, songs, etc.) to strengthen key language skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking).

– Develop intercultural skills through activities focused on various Francophone cultures, both in Canada and around the world.

– Acquire tools to express and justify your opinion, recount an experience, describe and analyze a work of art, talk about your plans and wishes, and give advice, among other abilities.

– Work individually, in small groups, and with the whole class to explore different ways of learning and mastering the language.

Language of instruction: French

Recommended pre-requisites: one of FREN 122, FREN 301, or assignment based on placement. Credit will be granted for only one of FREN 302 or FREN 123. Equivalency: FREN 123.

Note: Not available for credit to students with French Immersion 12 or if you were educated in a francophone school.

Elementary French II

A continuation of the A2 level work begun in FREN 201, focused on the understanding of detached sentences and expressions related to everyday life (such as personal and familial information, travels, food, and one’s immediate environment including home and community).

French grammatical structures such as uses of pronouns, the imperative, and hypothetical sentences will be studied with an interactive approach, stressing communicative competences.

This practice will include:

• communicating in the context of the practical exchange of information on familiar and socially relevant topics.
• understanding longer spoken messages,
• reading short texts such as personal letters and newspaper articles,
• expressing practical ideas and opinions both orally and in writing.
• learning about diverse cultures of the French-speaking world.

Three hours a week will be devoted to providing students with useful tools for everyday situations they are likely to encounter in a French speaking region.

At the end of the semester, students will be able to understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance, to communicate in routine tasks requiring direct exchange of information on familiar matters, to describe aspects of their background, immediate environment and ordinary needs.

Lectures and class discussions are mostly conducted in French. If you are unsure whether this is the appropriate level of French course for you, click here.

Language of instruction: French

Recommended prerequisites: one of FREN 111, FREN 201, or assignment based on placement test

Cross-listed with RMST495

Research Intensive Seminar in Romance Studies: Long Books

Course trailer:

Why are long books long? Beyond its length, what makes a long book different from a short book? How is the experience of reading a long book distinct from that of reading a short book? Should long books be shorter? Should short books be longer? What, if any, characteristics do long books share? Is there a politics of extension? This course sets out to answer these apparently simple questions. Along the way, we will also consider the phenomenology of reading, and ask how we read and why?

Over the course of the semester, we will collectively read one long book: Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives, which in English translation comes to almost six hundred pages. We will, however, take this reading slowly: this reading will take up almost the entire semester.

At the same time, for the sake of comparison, we also read some shorter texts, also by Bolaño, in different genres: some poetry; a (relatively) short novel or novella; a couple of short stories; and a few articles and speeches. In effect, then, in some ways this will become a course about Bolaño, one of the most important, and certainly the most acclaimed, of writers to come out of Latin America in the past thirty years.

Parallel to this reading of Bolaño, students students will choose a long book of their own, which they will similarly read over the course of the entire semester. It must be originally written in one of the Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, etc.), but it can be read either in the original or in translation. Beyond this, the only criterion is that this book should be at least four hundred pages long.

Examples of long books that students might pick include:

Roberto Bolaño, 2666
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
Julio Cortázar, Hopscotch
Euclides da Cunha, Rebellion in the Backlands
Elena Ferrante, The Neapolitan Quartet (at least two volumes)
Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
Georges Perec, Life a User’s Manual
Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time (at least two volumes)
Augusto Roa Bastos, I the Supreme
Italo Svevo, Zeno’s Conscience

…but students are also welcome to make their own suggestions, in consultation with the instructor.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Language of instruction: English

Instructor: Jon Beasley-Murray