French

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Instructors with diverse backgrounds and top-notch language lab facilities make OU's French program magnifique. Students studying French at OU are immersed in language and culture in order to foster an overall understanding of French and the people who speak it. Starting with a firm base in grammar and composition, students perfect their speaking, listening and writing skills to become masters of the language.

Degrees Offered

Students graduate with a Concentration in French within the World Languages and Cultures BA.

French at OU

Why Study French at OU?

Instructors with diverse backgrounds and top-notch language lab facilities make OU's French program magnifique.
Students studying French at OU are immersed in language and culture to foster an overall understanding of French and the people who speak it.
Starting with a firm base in grammar and composition, students perfect their speaking, listening and writing skills to become masters of the language.
The Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics encourages its students to study abroad to give them an hands-on-experience, and OU has exchange programs with a number of French universities.
Language lab equipped with access to tutoring in addition to cultural and educational visual and audio materials

Career Opportunities

International businesses
United Nations
U.S. Department of State
Secondary schools
Government agencies
Colleges and universities
Freelance translator
Associate professor
French teacher, secondary schools around the world

Courses Offered

FR 1115 Beginning French
- An elementary course in understanding, speaking, reading and writing French. Laboratory. This course does not count for major credit in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics. (F, Sp, Su) [I-FL].
FR 1225 Beginning French Continued
- An elementary course in understanding, speaking, reading and writing French. Laboratory. This course does not count for major credit in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics. (F, Sp, Su) [I-FL]. Prerequisite: 1115.
FR 2113 Intermediate French
- The systematic cultivation of increased depth and control in the basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing French. Laboratory (F, Sp, Su). Prerequisite: 1225.
FR 2223 Intermediate French Continued
- The systematic cultivation of increased depth and control in the basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing French. Laboratory (F, Sp, Su). Prerequisite: 2113.
FR 2243 French Conversation and Literature
- Conversation practice based on modern literary texts, with the objective of improving reading speed, vocabulary and comprehension, and increased oral fluency, while obtaining an expanded appreciation of French literary texts. (F, Sp, Su). Prerequisite: 2113 or 2133.
FR 2253 Health, Medicine, and the Environment in French Culture
- This second-year French class teaches about key issues in health, medicine, and the environment, so that students develop functional cultural and linguistic fluency about French-speaking populations in relation to the topics under study. Issues of global and personal health, medicine, and the human relationship with nature, ecology and the environment are essential topics for our era. (F, Sp). Prerequisite: FR 2223 or concurrent enrollment, or FR 2243.
FR 3423 Advanced French Composition
- The inculcation of proper writing habits, at an advanced level, toward the achievement of idiomatic French. (Sp, Su). Prerequisite: FR 2133 or FR 2243 or FR 2263.
FR 3623 Business French
- Focuses on terms and expressions used in business settings. Designed to impart an awareness of the differences between French and American business cultures. (F). Prerequisite: two years of college French or equivalent.
FR 3723 French for the Professions
- Introduces students to vocabulary in sectors such as advertising, marketing, transportation, medicine, and law. French professional and business cultures are studied. Communication skills for professional and business settings will be practiced in this course. (Sp). Prerequisite: two years of college French or equivalent.
FR 3753 French Culture Through Film
- This course deals with contemporary French culture through the medium of cinema. Topics examined include family, education, religion and societal issues, and ethnicity. As a course taught in French, it will also focus on regional accents and generational and ethnic speech. (F). Prerequisite: 2243 or concurrent enrollment.
FR 3853 Introduction to Literary Analysis.
- Designed to introduce students to the language and technique of literary analysis. Also serves to improve reading skills generally, as well as oral/aural and written skills. Representative works from the various literary genres will be studied. (Sp, Su). Prerequisite: 2223.
FR G4153 Survey of French Literature to 1800.
- Reading and discussion of major French works and their background from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution. (F, Su)
FR G4163 Survey of French Literature Continued
- Reading and discussion of major French works and their background from 1800 to the present day. (Sp, Su). Prerequisite: 4153 or permission.
FR 4313 From Lascaux to la Terreur
- The political and social background of French literature from its beginning to the French revolution. (F, Su). Prerequisite: FR 3423; HIST 1223 or 1233.
FR 4323 The Making of Modern French Culture
- The political and social background of French literature from the French revolution to the present day. (Sp). Prerequisite: FR 3423; HIST 1223 or HIST 1233.
FR 4993 Senior Capstone in French
- Requires undergraduate French majors to synthesize their knowledge of French contributions to world civilization. They will be required, as part of this enterprise, to demonstrate their mastery of the four basic skills involved in learning a foreign language: reading, writing, speaking, and understanding. (Sp) [V]. Prerequisite: graduating majors in French.