THE INDIANA ACADEMY FOR SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS &
HUMANITIES
Available for BSU DUAL CREDIT as FR 201
Syllabus
French 201
Fall Semester 2014
Professor: Olga Mounayar
Instructor of French
153 Wagoner Hall
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
Phone: 765-285-7402
Email: ommounayar@bsu.edu
Office Hours:
M: 11-12 and 1-3; T: 11-12; W: 11-12; 2-3 and 5-7; F: 11-12 and 2-3.
Or by appointment
Texts:
1. Terrell, Rogers, Barnes, and Spielmann. Deux Mondes: A Communicative Approach.
4th edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2001.
2. Hannelore Jarausch, Clare Tufts. Sur le Vif
Course description:
This second year course is intended to enhance students’ knowledge of French language
and culture. Emphasis will be placed on improving proficiency in interpretive,
interpersonal and presentational communication through listening, speaking, reading, and
writing at the intermediate level.
Course Calendar: This is a “tentative” schedule and may be subject to
change by the instructor as the semester progresses
Week one: August 11-15
Monday: introduction, syllabus, the influence of different learning styles
Tuesday: culture and review modalities of language
Wednesday: review grammar
Friday: review vocabulary
Week two: august 18-22
Monday: acquire vocabulary about food
Tuesday: authentic document on food and eating in France
Wednesday: Quiz on vocabulary words about food. The words and expressions related to
table setting
Friday: Quiz on vocabulary and expressions related to table setting. Learn vocabulary
for ordering in a restaurant.
Week three: august 25-29
Monday: Quiz on vocabulary for ordering in a restaurant. Review commands.
Tuesday: Compare and contrast the target food culture with the American food culture
using authentic artifacts.
Wednesday: Practice possible ways for ordering food in a restaurant. Read several
samples of restaurant conversations and ordering from authentic menus.
Friday: Create and present simulation of restaurant conversations.
Week four: September 3-5
Wednesday : understand, identify and correctly use definite, indefinite, as well as
partitive articles and negation. Review and test on chapter.
Friday: additional practice on articles
Week five: September 8-12
Monday: review for test.
Tuesday: chapter test.
Wednesday: culture day.
Friday: Start chapter one of Sur Le Vif with an emphasis on education in France and
vocabulary in the context of the education system and schooling.
Week six: September 15-19
Monday: additional vocabulary and expressions.
Tuesday: quiz on vocabulary. Compare and contrast the French schooling system and
American one.
Wednesday: understand learn the conjugation of irregular verbs in the present tense and
the imperative
Friday: practice irregular verbs.
Week seven: September 22-26
Monday: Quiz on irregular verbs. additional practice on conjugation and use of
vocabulary with the use authentic settings and readings.
Tuesday: discuss the baccalaureat and the differences in the French grading system and
the American one.
Wednesday: students work on sketches with a partner. Review for Chapter test.
Friday: test on chapter.
Week eight: September 29-October 3
Monday: Culture day
Tuesday: Start chapter two of Sur Le Vif: Acquire vocabulary on clothing, accessories
Wednesday: learn to describe physical and moral characteristics.
Friday: quizz on vocabulary. Review regular adjectives and gender and number
agreement
Week nine: October 6-10
Monday: irregular adjectives.
Tuesday: Compare and contrast clothing in France and in US. Practice irregular
adjectives.
Wednesday: Quiz on adjectives. Use irregular descriptive adjectives in sentences and
paragraphs.
Friday: authentic reading with use of regular and irregular adjectives
Week ten: October 15-17
Wednsday: review of adjectives. Comparatives and superlatives.
Thursday: Compose sentences and paragraphs comparing and contrasting cultural
elements of the target culture and the American culture using regular and irregular
adjectives and comparatives and superlatives.
Friday Quiz on adjectives, comparatives and superlatives. Understand, identify and use
the different forms of tout.
Week eleven: October 20-24
Monday: Quiz on the forms of tout. Lesson on c’est vs. il est and their correct uses.
Tuesday: Quiz on il est vs. c’est. practice oral presentations by describing famous French
people.
Wednesday: Review for test.
Friday: test on chapter
Week twelve: October 27-31
Monday: Culture day
Tuesday: Start on the theme of chapter three from Sur Le Vif: immigration. Explain
statistics and issues about immigration in France and in Europe and compare and contrast
to issues in America
Wednesday: Students work on a virtual shopping trip project
Friday: Complete the project
Week thirteen: November 3-7
Monday: vocabulary of chapter three
Tuesday: start lesson on past tenses
Wednesday: practice the conjugation of past tenses of regular and irregular verbs
Friday: Quiz on conjugation. Practice the appropriate use of the different past tenses
Week fourteen: November 10-14
Monday: Additional practice on the use and conjugation of past tenses: the simple past,
the imperfect, and pluperfect.
Tuesday: Read and discuss literary pieces to study the use of past tenses.
Wednesday: practice writing paragraphs in the past tense
Friday: Review for chapter test
Week fifteen: November 17-21
Monday: test on chapter
Tuesday: Culture day
Wednesday: Read through samples of French children stories and explain the “once upon
a time” project to students.
Friday: start chapter four of Sur Le Vif. Discuss the theme of the chapter: different
means of transportation and public transportation.
Week sixteen: 24-28
Thanksgiving break
Week seventeen: December 1-5
Monday: learn vocabulary of chapter four
Tuesday: review vocabulary and compare and contrast the means of transportation in
France and in the US. Discuss the different views between the two cultures on the use of
transporation.
Wednesday: quiz on vocabulary. Introduce direct object pronouns.
Friday: Additional practice on direct object pronouns. Introduce indirect object
pronouns.
Week eighteen: December 8-12
Monday: Quiz on direct object pronouns. Additional practice on indirect object
pronouns. Introduce “en” and “y”
Tuesday: Quiz on indirect object pronouns. Additional practice on all pronouns
Wednesday: Present children stories
Friday: Presentation of children stories and review for final
Week nineteen: December 15-18
Final exam


Informal assessments: occur on a daily basis.
Fomal assessments: homework are assigned on a daily basis.
Quizzes are in italics and are assigned when new material is covered.
Tests and more comprehensive assessments are in bold and are assigned at
the end of the chapter, for midterm and finals.
Course Components:
For grading purposes the course consists of four components, which are weighted
approximated as follows in determining your final grade:
Quizzes
Chapter Tests*
Written and Oral Homework
Class oral participation
20%
40%
20%
20%
*Chapter tests assess the students abilities in reading comprehension, grammar, listening
and speaking.
Grading scale:
93-100
A
90-92
A88-89
B+
84-87
B
80-83
B78-79
C+
74-77
C
70-73
C69 or Below D*
Attendance Policy:
You are expected to attend all classes. You
will be considered tardy if you arrive after the beginning time of the
class. If you are ten minutes late or more, you will be considered
absent. You are invited to attend the class session anyway. The
bottom line is that it is important to “show up.”
All work is to be turned in on the date assigned by the instructor. Unless approved by
instructor, there are no exceptions to this policy and no unexcused late work is
accepted. However, if you have an excused absence, you may turn in your work on the
very next business day. When absent, it is the student’s responsibility to check with
the faculty about missed work. It is also the student’s responsibility to approach the
faculty in order to make up the work. The student will be given a grace period to
make up the work that is equal to the amount of excused absences.
Use of technology in class: Lap top computers are to remain closed in class unless
directed otherwise by the instructor. Use of phones is strictly forbidden and will
result in a warning the first time the student is caught and in the confiscation of the
phone the second time. At that point, the phone will be given to the administration
and it is up to the student to retrieve it and suffer the consequences.
Disabilities or Special Needs:
If any disability requires course adaptations or accommodations, if emergency
medical information needs to be shared with me, or if any special arrangements must be
made in order to evacuate the building, please advise me at your earliest convenience.
Academic Honesty
All students deserve a healthy learning environment and evaluations that are based on
their honest, independent efforts. Honesty, trust, and personal responsibility are
fundamental attributes of the university community. Written and oral assignments should
be completed without any kind of outside assistance. If a student is in doubt, s/he must
seek help from his/her instructor only. Use of electronic translators of any kind is strictly
forbidden in and outside the classroom. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Academic
dishonesty can lead to a D* (F) for the course. (Please check the student handbook under
Academic Integrity)
General guidelines:
Majority of work in 201 IA will be done in French. We will start with Deux Mondes and
move onto Sur Le Vif. Reminder that Sur le Vif is divided into two parts: the first
includes nine chapters of exercises and readings in French; the second part contains
explanations of the grammatical structures in English. Classroom activities will be
structured around the grammar, but little time will be spent going over what you can read
in the book. It is your responsibility to read and understand these sections and to bring
any questions to class. In this course, we emphasize active use of the grammar structures
and vocabulary. Students may spend up to 6 hours per week outside of the class
reviewing materials covered in the previous class, doing appropriate homework, learning
vocabulary, and preparing for the next class.
Courses in French Language and the Indiana Academy for
Science, Mathematics, and Humanities
French 201 is a University Core Curriculum Course that seeks to implement the
goals of the Ball State University Core Curriculum Program. A description of the role of
language courses in the University Core curriculum Program follows:
The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (A.C.T.F.L.) has developed a series
of National Standards for Foreign Language Learning as part of the Goals 2000 initiative. Their
philosophy is that language and communication are at the heart of the human experience. The United
States must prepare students to communicate linguistically and culturally if they are to participate
successfully and to maintain proficiency in English and at least one other language, modern or classical.
The Council believes that, regardless of the reason for study, foreign languages have something to offer
everyone. It is with this philosophy in mind that the standards task force identified five goal areas that
encompass all of these reasons: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and
Communities—the five C’s of foreign language education.
1. Communication is at the heart of second-language study, whether the communication takes
place face-to-face, in writing, or across centuries through the reading of literature.
2. Through the study of other languages, students gain a knowledge and understanding of
cultures that use that language and, in fact, cannot truly master the language until they have also mastered
the cultural contexts in which the language occurs.
3. Learning languages provides connections to additional bodies of knowledge that may be
unavailable to the monolingual English speaker.
4. Through comparisons and contrasts with the language being studied, students develop
insight into the nature of language and the concept of culture, and they realize that there are multiple ways
of viewing the world.
5. Together, these elements enable the student of languages to participate in the multilingual
communities at home and around the world in a variety of contexts and in culturally appropriate ways.
In addition to contributing to the realization of the A.C.T.F.L. National
Standards for Foreign Language Learning, courses in French at The Indiana Academy for
Science, Mathematics, and Humanities and Ball State University reflect the goals and
objectives of the University Core Curriculum program by helping students to develop
knowledge, skills, and values that all graduates of the University are expected to share.
By taking a class in French, students will progress toward the University Core
Curriculum Goals listed in the University Catalogue. Students of French should therefore
acquire:
1.
An ability to engage in lifelong education by learning to acquire knowledge and to use it
for intelligent ends.
Students of French are actively engaged in the acquisition and perfection of an invaluable skill, one that
provides a means of communicating with other linguistic communities and of understanding cultural
differences. Knowledge of another language is truly a key to lifelong education. It provides direct access
to sources of information and the cultural understanding indispensable to an intelligent assessment of that
information.
2.
An ability to communicate at a level acceptable for college graduates.
We live today in a global village and are closer than ever before to the myriad cultures of the world. The
ability to communicate directly with those other peoples is more than ever the mark of an educated person.
There is also considerable evidence that the study of languages improves the understanding of one native
language.
3.
An ability to clarify one’s personal values and to be sensitive to those held by others.
Few experiences have a more profound impact upon one’s understanding of the relativity of one’s own
cultural values and the predominance of the world of other values than a close encounter with another
language. At a more personal level, the experience of studying, assimilating, and eventually emulating
foreign linguistic and cultural codes provides an exceptional perspective on how modes of thinking and
communicating are central to our fundamental selves.
4. An ability to recognize and seek solutions for the common problems of living by drawing
on knowledge of historical and contemporary values and the elements of the cultural heritage related to
those events.
The study of French has always included elements of history, culture, and geography, all of which play a
significant role in highlighting the problems of living encountered by all peoples, including our own. The
window that a language course opens onto the intimate workings of another society provides an especially
privileged view of those very problems of living that we must confront everyday.
5. An ability to work with others to solve life’s common problems.
In addition to providing insight into the lives of other peoples, language study offers students an
unsurpassed opportunity to work cooperatively with their peers. Students often work in small groups with
their classmates to use the foreign language as a vehicle for discussion as well as to share discoveries
about the language and culture. The very process of language learning is collaborative.
6. An ability to assess one’s unique interests, talents, and goals and to choose specialized
learning experiences that will foster their fulfillment.
Students of French are encouraged to view their acquisition of language in the context of their specialized
interests. In addition to providing students with specific skills, the acquisition of which engages a unique
set of aptitudes, language classes address a wide range of interests that fall outside the immediate context
of language-learning. These range from the traditional academic discipline, such as history and
philosophy, to applied arts, such as telecommunications, music, and architecture, and they include
professional careers in the liberal professions, government, and industry.