V45.0020Intensive Intermediate
French V45.0020 New
York University Welcome back to
French! Congratulations on your decision
to continue studying a language spoken by over 200,000,000 people in over 50
countries around the world. Your choice
of Intermediate French is a clear sign that you are someone who wants to learn
about these people from what they say and write instead of depending upon
someone else’s interpretation and that you are someone who desires direct
access to the linguistic and cultural production of these nearly
quarter-of-a-billion people to deepen your understanding of the world and all
it has to offer. We applaud your
decision! Materials for the year: Bravo!
(fifth edition) i. Textbook ii. Cahier
d’exercices et manuel de laboratoire iii. Answer key to the Cahier d’exercices et manuel
de laboratoire Course and Materials Description: This
Intensive Intermediate French course is designed to give those of you who have
already mastered the basics of French vocabulary, culture, pronunciation, and
grammar the opportunity to deepen your knowledge of the French language and the
cultures for which it is a vehicle. This
class will thus allow you not only to gain even easier access to the thoughts,
ideas, history, and production of hundreds of millions of people scattered
across every continent around the globe, but also to prepare yourself to tackle
advanced-level French courses. “Bravo!” will be the principal, but by no means only, tool used
in this exploration of culture and language.
Each chapter of “Bravo!” is designed to help you review and expand upon
your knowledge of French. Each chapter
begins with a section entitled “La grammaire à réviser” that highlights
structures that you have seen before in Elementary French. Take the time to look these sections over
(and to work on the corresponding exercises in the workbook) so that you can
pinpoint any areas in which you need to do some more reviewing before diving
into the meat of the chapter. You will
also see that some of the vocabulary in each lesson is presented in traditional
list form, while other vocabulary elements are grouped under the heading
“Expressions typiques pour…” This
category contains words and phrases grouped by function, thus allowing you to
move beyond isolated words and to see how you can put together words and
structures you have learned to express culturally important and appropriate
ideas, suggestions, etc. On a final note, keep in mind that learning a language is
learning to do something (e.g., speak, read, write, and listen), not learning
about something. Successfully learning
to do something requires regular practice, not last-minute, frantic study. You couldn’t become a good basketball player
by reading about basketball every so often, then reading a whole lot the night
before a game, and then stepping out onto the court for the first time the day
of the game. The same holds true for
language. To do well, you need to
practice every day; you need to train your mouth and your mind to speak and
think differently. That can’t be done in
one all-night cram session! Remember that this is an intensive French course. You will complete the entire book in one
semester. You will have homework every
night, and the pace of workbook assignments and essays is demanding. If you do not think you can devote the time
necessary to succeed in this class, you might want to reconsider your French
class choice. Grading: Written Tests (4) 45% Oral Test 10% Oral Presentation 10% Homework 15% Essays (6) 10% Participation 10% Tests: Tests
should not be solely an indication of the average of where you have been during
the semester; they should also reflect the level of skill and knowledge you’ve
achieved by the end of the course. As a
result, your four tests during the semester, all of which are cumulative, are
unevenly weighted. The first test is 8%
of your final grade, the second test is 10% of your final grade, the third test
is 12% of your final grade, and the fourth test is 15% of your final
grade. Not only is this a more logical
distribution of points, since you should know a lot more by the end of the
semester, but it also benefits those of you who are new to language study and
might need a little more time before everything “clicks.” You
will take your written tests in class on the days indicated on this
syllabus. (NOTE: no calendar or schedule has been included
with this syllabus; dates vary from semester to semester.) Be sure you arrive a little early on test
days because each test begins with an oral comprehension section. If you arrive late, you will miss the reading
necessary for the completion of that first section. No late written tests will be administered. The
oral test (administered during the final two weeks of the semester) takes place
in your teacher’s office. The oral
diagnostic (administered in the middle of the semester) also takes place in
your teacher’s office; however, while written feedback will be provided for the
oral diagnostic, the oral diagnostic itself is not graded. The oral diagnostic is simply a chance for
you to practice taking an oral exam. No
late oral tests will be administered. Oral Presentation: At
the end of the semester you and a partner will give a ten to twelve minute oral
presentation on some aspect of French and/or francophone culture (a place, a
person, a movement, an event, an organization, etc.). You can find information for your
presentation in the library, on line, or from interviews with French speakers, but
be sure when you give your presentation in class that your words are your
own. If you cite a source, make it very
clear that you are citing someone else’s words so that you can avoid the trap
of plagiarism. Homework: Your
homework grade is not based on how many of your homework answers are correct,
but rather on how much effort you put into doing the work. Mistakes are an essential part of learning
anything new, including a new language…there is a reason why people say, “You
learn from your mistakes.” You should
think of your homework assignments as an opportunity to try to see how well you
know what you’ve been studying and to pinpoint areas that you still need to
work on. Your homework grade is made up
oral and written exercises from your workbook. Your
workbook contains an array of well-designed exercises focusing on listening,
speaking, pronunciation, grammar, writing, reading, and culture, all of which
are keyed to the chapter divisions in your textbook. For each lesson from each chapter (or
sometimes for two lessons from a chapter), you need to complete the exercises
listed in the schedule at the end of this syllabus and submit them in class on
the days indicated on the syllabus.
(NOTE: no calendar or schedule
has been included with this syllabus; dates vary from semester to semester.) (Please note that the audio files for the
“exercices de laboratoire” are located on line.) After completing the assigned exercises, you
need to correct them yourself using the Answer Key. You should use a different color ink to
correct the exercises so that your teacher can clearly see your work. (Your teacher will correct the exercises, or
the parts of exercises, that require free responses and therefore do not have
answers printed in the Answer Key. In
addition, certain listening exercises require no writing.) You are of course welcome to do additional
exercises that are not assigned on the schedule and submit them for feedback or
discuss them with your teacher. Other
exercises that are not assigned in the schedule may be assigned by your teacher
for in-class work or homework. No late
homework will be accepted. Note
that while there are workbook exercises due just about every week, you never
have very many written exercises to turn in at one time. The workbook assignment schedule has been designed
in this way to help you achieve your goal (or rather, what we hope is your
goal!) to work on your French in a regular manner. Don’t do the exercises assigned the night
before (or the morning!) they are due.
That vastly diminishes your chances of learning something from
them. Instead, do two or three exercises
each night. This is an easy way to check
yourself and to make sure you have a good handle on the vocabulary, culture,
and grammar being presented and discussed in class. Essays: You
will write six essays during the course of the semester. All essays should be typed,
double-spaced. These essays are due in
class on the days indicated on the syllabus.
(NOTE: no calendar or schedule
has been included with this syllabus; dates vary from semester to semester.) No late essays will be accepted. Your teacher will provide you with the topic
for each essay at least one and a half weeks before the due date. (The first two essays are to be a minimum of
200 words long, the third and fourth essays are to be a minimum of 250 words
long, and the final two essays should be at least 300 words long.) As
you may know by now, the best way to improve your writing skills in any
language is to take a process approach to writing, which is what we will do in
this class. When you turn in an essay,
your teacher will read it and signal the errors; however, he or she will not
provide you with the correct forms. When
you get your essay back, you will need to look over your teacher’s comments and
rewrite the essay, correcting the errors your teacher has indicated and
incorporating all the changes your teacher has suggested. Your final grade for an essay will be the
average of your first grade and the grade for your rewrite. Not rewriting your essay will result in a 0
(zero) as the rewrite grade. The
essay assignments are a chance for you to find out just what you can really do
in written French. The essays you submit
should be entirely your own work so that you can know for sure where your
strengths and weaknesses lie. You may
not ask a French-speaking friend, family member, or acquaintance to read over
and correct your essay before you turn it in – not only will you lose out on
the chance to show yourself and your teacher what you can do, but this is at
best a form of cheating, at worst plagiarism.
In addition, you may not use Internet translation programs such as
Babblefish when writing your essay.
This, too, is plagiarism. If you
do decide to use a friend or family member’s help or an Internet translation
program, even if it is for only part of your essay, you will receive a 0 (zero)
for your essay. So, make everyone happy
and get the most out of your work by doing it all yourself! You
are encouraged to use good, large dictionaries (both French-English and French-French)
while composing your essays. Small
paperback dictionaries, while often very handy in class, are unreliable sources
for this kind of written assignment.
Don’t forget that through the Bobst homepage you have free access to the
on-line Oxford-Hachette bilingual French-English dictionary. Participation: As
you can imagine, participation is of the utmost importance in a language
class. Your participation grade does not
depend simply on your being physically present in class. A good participation grade depends on having
all your assignments completed before class, participating (in French!) to the
best of your ability, and making a real effort to improve. Since
participation, or “time-on-task” as it is sometimes called, is so important to
your regular progress, it counts as part of your grade. It’s very simple: there are no excused or unexcused absences,
there are just absences. Once you miss
five classes, you will receive a warning letter, a copy of which will also be
sent to the Director of Language Programs.
For every absence over six, one percentage point will be deducted from
your final grade. If
you find that a serious illness or family emergency will cause you to miss many
more classes than are allowed, you should speak with your instructor and
academic counselor about the possibility of arranging for a withdrawal from the
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