Course Description

Course Name

French Society through the News

Session: VPRS1424

Hours & Credits

42 Contact Hours

Prerequisites & Language Level

High Intermediate

  • Prior to enrolling in courses at this language level, students must have completed or tested out of a minimum of three semesters (or five quarters) at the college level.

Intermediate

  • Prior to enrolling in courses at this language level, students must have completed or tested out of a minimum of two semesters (or three quarters) at the college level.

Overview

1. Intentions
Are the French incorrigible moaners, staunch supporters of the strike? Do they have
really the meaning of celebration and conviviality? Why do the French meet
so many in festivals and museums every year? What is this
"Cultural exception" that they brandish during world economic summits? And
Where did they get this funny idea of ​​only working 35 hours a week?
These are some of the questions we will try to answer in this
course French society through the media.
Understanding a society, that is to say a people and its culture, supposes making the synthesis
very many sources of information and knowledge.
This is how the course will offer the discovery of French society through its
different media representations (written press, television, radio, cinema,
internet ...) so that each student is able to build their own vision of
France.
Articulated around two themes, the French art of living and civic life, it will allow
to look at family and social life, the importance of the cultural fact (literature,
cinema) but also political life (institutional functioning, recurring debates etc.)
 
2. Educational approach and linguistic objectives
The course is based on an action-oriented and communicative approach, active participation
of students is therefore essential.
Listening and listening skills will be in high demand since all
documents offered are authentic (film extracts, press articles, videos
internet etc.).
This confrontation with real speech situations will enrich the lexicon,
identify language registers and identify cultural implicit.
Students will also be asked to produce structured, oral or
writing - writing an article, presenting a topic related to current events ...
 
3. Corpus of observation
All documents will be provided by the teacher (extracts from films, series etc.) or
available online.
Among the essential consultation sites: Le Monde, Liberation, Le Figaro, La Croix
Language: French-French Larousse dictionary online
 
4. Evaluation
- Continuous monitoring throughout the session (initiative, responsiveness, relevance of
interventions, debates and role plays etc.)
- Oral expression: presentation (individual or group) of a topical subject.
- Written expression: writing an article and / or an interview
- Final validation test for acquired knowledge (MCQ)

*Course content subject to change