Course Catalog

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INTERMEDIATE GRAMMAR AND WRITING (FR1400)

This course allows students to review the grammar they have previously studied in their elementary French courses and to write short compositions about their personal experience. It is specifically designed for students whose skills in French grammar do not match their skills in spoken French, whether they studied the language on their own or just needed more time to work on the rich, but sometimes confusing, niceties of written French.

After completing this course, students can confidently register in a French 2000-level course.

ACCELERATED ELEMENTARY FRENCH AND CULTURE (FR1500)

This intensive course combines French and Culture I and French and Culture II and provides an accelerated introduction to elementary French. The course emphasizes interpersonal communication and the development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills through interactive activities and authentic materials. Culture is used as a key approach to learning the language. Through films, songs, photographs, paintings, graphic narratives, and other short texts, students explore aspects of Parisian and Francophone life while practicing French in meaningful contexts. Students learn to communicate about everyday topics by speaking and writing in the past, present, and future. They practice describing people and places, talking about themselves, their studies, and their surroundings, asking and answering basic questions, making comparisons, expressing preferences, and showing agreement or disagreement.

TOPICS IN FRENCH (FR1910)

Topics vary by semester

INTRODUCTION TO FRENCH GLOBAL STUDIES (FR2001)

This introductory Francophone Studies course explores French language's global status, examining its evolution, geography, politics, and colonial legacies. Students delve into decolonial perspectives, questioning binaries between France and Francophone regions. Discussions on world literature,transculturalism, and language varieties prompt reflections on contemporary French and Francophone identities. The course probes debates surrounding French usage and its diverse manifestations, encouraging critical examination of language in today's world.

FRENCH IMMERSION: INTERMEDIATE I (FR2005I)

This intermediate course reinforces and expands students’ ability to express themselves, defend an opinion, and debate with others. Special attention is paid to increasing students' ability to form complex sentences, to express attitudes, wishes, necessity, doubt, emotions, to link ideas and to speculate. It aims at the B1 level on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, while allowing a first-hand introduction to French culture both in and outside the classroom. The French immersion program includes daily coffee and croissant breaks, offering opportunities for casual conversation, and two Friday afternoon faculty-led tours of towns near Paris, including dinner.

PARIS THROUGH ITS BOOKS (FR2010)

Examines how experiences of Paris have been committed to the page from the first century to the present. Considers the uses and effects of overviews, street-level accounts, and underground approaches to describing the city and its inhabitants. Includes visits to the sewers and museums, revolutionary sites and archives, with multiple members of the comparative literature faculty speaking on their areas of expertise.

FRENCH IMMERSION: INTERMEDIATE II (FR2010I)

This advanced course reinforces and expands students’ ability to give clear descriptions, express viewpoints on most general topics, without much searching for words, using some complex sentence forms. It aims at the B2 level on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, while allowing a first-hand introduction to French culture both in and outside the classroom. The French immersion program includes daily coffee and croissant breaks, offering opportunities for casual conversation, and two Friday afternoon faculty-led tours of towns near Paris, including dinner.

FRANCOPHONE CULTURE IN SHORTS (FR2034)

The course aims to broaden students’ understanding of the multicultural, historical, and social contexts of short productions across various Francophone regions, notably sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb, the overseas departments (such as the West Indies and Réunion Island), and Québec in Canada. For assessment, students will produce a journal and create short stories or films. Prerequisite: FR2100 or equivalent.