French 2113:

Intermediate French

Three Semester Hours



Instructor

A special instructor from the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics at the University of Oklahoma will be assigned by the Independent Study Department. At the present time your instructor is Kathleen Langan.



Course Developer

Douglas W. Canfield, a doctoral candidate in French at the University of Oklahoma, received his master's degree in French from the University of Utah, where he was a member of the Languages Advisory Board, French GTA supervisor, coordinator of beginning and intermediate courses in French, and recipient of the Dee Fellowship for the Humanities. His teaching experience includes four years of beginning and intermediate courses, L2 Teaching Methodology, and several Internet-intensive immersion French courses. A member of the Modern Languages Association and the Medieval Academy of America, Douglas is the founder and administrator of LA TOILE FRANÇAISE, The French World Wide Web site at OU, and a very active and published scholar affiliated with the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at OU.

 

Required Texts

Interaction: Révision de grammaire française, by Susan St. Onge, Ronald St. Onge, Katherine Kulick and David King; 4ème édition. Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 1995. Includes Student Tape.

Workbook to accompany the above text:
Interaction: Cahier de laboratoire et de travaux pratiques, same authors, edition and publisher.

An audio cassette laboratory program, one cassette per chapter, furnished by Independent Study as a part of the course.

Additional Materials

Access to a high-quality cassette tape player/recorder.
A few blank 30-minute cassettes.
A TV/VCR combination for examinations

Prerequisites

French 1225

Preparation of Written and Oral Assignments

1. Follow all instructions carefully. Do step-by-step completion of the study guide and assignments given in each lesson. You are respnsible for all the material in the textbook.

2. Always label your lesson clearly inside and out. On the top of the first page of your assignment, write your name, your address, the course, and the lesson number.

3. For the audio cassettes which you send in, label each cassette with your name, the course, and the lesson number. On the recording, which should always start after 10 seconds of lead times, say: "This is (name) recording the exercises for Lesson (lesson number)." Identify each exercise orally on the cassette.


Special Information about the Course

This course is designed to provide a systematic cultivation of increased depth and control in basic skills. Our goal is to help you proficiently function in the French language within an authentic cultural context and in realistic situations. These objectives will be achieved through a proficiency in the basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as a heightened awareness of culture and grammar.


Lessons

This course has 15 lessons. To complete a lesson, read the lesson objectives and lecture notes, then work step by step through the instructions. I would suggest following the steps in the order in which they are presented, as they will prepare you for the written and oral assignments, and take you through those in a clear,concise manner. You will be given grades of S, S-, and U for the lessons (see the Course Regulations section).



Grading

The final grade for this course will be determined by averaging all of your individual test grades. Course grades will be assigned as follows:

 

The Text

Your textbook, Interaction: Révision de grammaire française, has 10 chapters. In this course you will complete the first 5 chapters. Interaction is designed to answer needs brought about by a wide range of abilities and backgrounds, so there is a niche for you in this text! Each chapter is divided into three major sections: perspectives (which concentrates on listening), structures (which concentrates on grammar and its incorporation into language), and activités d'expansion (which concentrates on speaking and writing). Each of the three lessons per chapter will concentrate on one of these sections. The textbook is supplemented by a coordinated tape program and workbook/lab manual.
Much useful information can be found in the préface of your text (pp. Vii-xvi).

The Tape Program

The Student Tape
This tape contains the opening conversations used in the Perspectives section of each chapter, and is central to the Mise en train and A l'écoute exercises.
The laboratory tapes
These tapes contain the aural input needed to do the Activités orales for each chapter in the Cahier.

Introduction


French 2113 and French 2223, Intermediate French and Intermediate French Continued, is a two-course sequence conceived to reexamine and reinforce your French proficiency in both productive skills (writing, speaking) and receptive skills (reading, listening). In other words, it should become evident that while you are gaining an expanded and more profound vocabulary and an understanding of new grammar concepts, you will also be reviewing vocabulary and grammar concepts taught in elementary French. This should not be considered redundant, but rather an opportunity to enhance your retention, as you learn and remember through repetition.

My role is to make this as fun and as easy as possible for you. Since I will not be present when you study, this means you miss out on the jokes and most of the realia that makes the classroom experience so appealing. I have tried to circumvent this by making much of this available on the Internet through the FR2113 Homepage, but I realize that many of you will not have access to these WWW pages, either. This means that you have the primary responsibility of providing physical and emotional involvement.

How do you do this? Well, by doing the assigned exercises (and the unassigned ones as well) both written and orally as you write, you are off to a good start. The more physical senses you can involve in a certain exercise, the more your retention of the language will improve.

The emotional involvement, however, will depend a lot more on you. You must strive to use your imagination and pretend that you are in France, trying to perform the various situations in the text. You must do the exercises with enthusiasm in order to "feel" them as real.

As you proceed through the course, you may have questions about a point of grammar, vocabulary, syntax, etc. Do not hesitate to ask! You may ask the question directly on a separate piece of paper, or contact the instructor by phone or e-mail (This information will be kept current both in the Department of Independent Study and on the FR2113 WWW home page):

http://www.ou.edu/class/FR2113/