DOCUMENT R: SYLLABUS
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Date Prepared:
April 2011
Prepared by:
Nathalie G. Cornelius
Department:
Languages and Cultures
Course number:FRENCH 102
Course title:
French II
Credit hours:
3
Goal 8-Second Language
Goal 4- Cultures and Diversity
2 GEPs
1 GEP
7. Prerequisite: FRENCH 101 or equivalent proficiency level.
8. Catalogue description:
Develops further the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing to a proficiency level
regarded as basic communication in French. FRENCH 102 is for students who wish to continue studying
French at the second level. Students earn two General Education Points for Basic Communication in a
Second Language and one General Education Point for Cultures and Diversity. General Education Goal 8
may also be satisfied through placement testing as approved by the Department of Languages and
Cultures. Generally, students with two or more years of French in high school would be able to satisfy
General Education Goal 8 by taking the placement test. French language study is taught in its cultural
context, including history, culture, diversity, and comparison with students’ native culture. Practice in
language laboratory and / or use of electronic language-learning media is required. Students must have
passed FRENCH 101 or the equivalent in order to enroll in FRENCH 102. FRENCH 102 is offered every
semester.
9. Content Outline:
FRENCH 102 is structured according to cultural topics appropriate for this level. Topics may include
cuisine and dining rituals, contemporary gender issues, urban life, geography, environmental issues,
health care, travel in French-speaking countries, holiday customs, education, and limited historical
topics. Specific skills in language production (speaking and writing), reading, listening comprehension
are presented and developed with each topic. Reading ability develops more quickly than speaking and
writing, which allows exposure to more sophisticated topics in French before students are able to speak
or write above the rudimentary level. However, students will not be able to produce spontaneously the
new information and skills they learn in structured lessons. A course plan could include but is not limited
to the following, with the understanding that the structures introduced with the topics could vary
depending on the instructor’s prerogative or textbook’s structure:
Topic
Skills
Structures
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Family
Traditions
Modern Québec
Lousiana and the History
of the Cajuns
Projects and Outings
Pastimes of the French
Paris and Cinema
Travel in France
The European
Community
describing your family, saying
where you go in your free
time, what you are going to do,
how you will get there
near future tense, avoir
expressions, dates, command
forms, modes of
transportation and key verbs
saying what you did, telling
where you went, discussing
your activities, deciding what
to wear and buying clothes,
Inviting someone to go out,
talking about how you spend
and used to spend your time,
talking about the past
passé composé verb tense,
the verb faire and its use in
expressions, direct object
pronouns, imperfect tense,
vocabulary for clothing,
activities, invitations
Daily Life
Gender Relations
Interpersonal Relations
Changing Views on Love
and Marriage in France
The European
Community
describing your daily routine,
talking about your
relationships, describing traits
and characteristics
pronominal verbs in the
present/immediate future/
passé compose/imperfect,
relative pronouns
Food and Nutrition
Dinner Traditions in
France
Gastronomy
Vacations and Hotels
Traveling to the French
Antilles
Creole
ordering and buying food,
choosing a healthy lifestyle
the partitive, expressions of
quantity, conditional tense
talking about vacation,
preparing for a trip, going to
the travel agent, buying your
ticket, deciding where to go
and where to stay
running errands, living
arrangements, going to the
doctor, giving directions
future tense, indirect object
pronouns, geographical
expressions
Francophone Music and
its African and Antillean
Influences
West Africa
impersonal expressions,
subjunctive, infinitive use with
expressions of
emotion/volition/impersonal
expressions
10. Methods:
a. Students entering Bloomsburg University who have taken four years or more of a second
language in high school will be waived of the requirement and receive 2 GEPs. Students
with fewer than 4 years of learning in a foreign language will take a placement test.
Students who place above the second level (x.102) will be considered to have fulfilled the
General Education Goal 8 Basic Communication in a Second Language. Students who
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successfully complete a language course above the second level (above x.102) and who did
not take the placement test, will also satisfy goal 8.
Class sessions are primarily devoted to a variety of activities to primarily exercise spoken
French, with work in small groups or pairs in order to maximize time spent on speaking.
Most activities focusing on writing, reading as well as some listening comprehension will
take place outside of class sessions. Activities in class sessions and outside class sessions
may require use of electronic media. Homework assignments will also include a variety of
writing assignments, texts, resources and authentic audio and video samples.
Maximum suggested class size: 25. Teaching language requires intensive and often
immediate feedback and interaction among students and between the instructor and the
students.
FRENCH 102 is offered every semester.
Activities outside of class, such as participation in informal conversation groups or film
viewings, may be assigned.
Students may be awarded credit for co-curricular activities, such as participation in the
French Club.
Student will incur no extra costs for FRENCH 102.
Alternate assignments may be provided in lieu of out-of-class or co-curricular activities.
11. Student Learning Objectives:
FRENCH 102 guides students in the acquisition of specific language skills (conversation, writing,
reading) at the Novice-High/ Intermediate-Low levels, according to the standards of the
American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL). The course also develops
students’ ability to communicate their knowledge of Francophone cultures to others, and to
make comparisons between those cultures and their own.
Student Learning Objectives
11a. Create language that successfully manages a
number of uncomplicated communicative tasks in
straightforward social situations; speak and on
topics necessary for survival in the target language
culture, such as basic personal information, basic
objects and a limited number of activities,
preferences and immediate needs; respond to
simple, direct questions or requests for information;
are generally understood by sympathetic
interlocutors used to non-natives.
11b. Demonstrate and communicate basic
information pertaining to the cultures of the French-speaking world and compare those cultures with
their own.
Gen. Ed. Goal
associated with
GEPs
Second Language
Related VALUE
Rubric Elements
Cultures and
Diversity
Intercultural
Knowledge and
Awareness:
Knowledge, Skills
Intercultural
Knowledge and
Competence: Skills
(Verbal and non
verbal
communication)
11c. Compose lists, short messages, postcards, and
Second Language
simple notes in order to meet limited basic practical
writing needs and communicate in writing within the
context in which the language was learned, relying
mainly on practiced material.
11d. Demonstrate reading comprehension for
instructional purposes (graded reading from
textbooks, for example), including standardized
messages, phrases, or expressions, such as some
items on menus, schedules, timetables, maps, and
signs. Some material at a slightly higher level is
understood where the topic is already familiar to the
student.
11e. Demonstrate comprehension of short, learned
utterances and some sentence-length utterances,
particularly where context strongly supports
understanding and speech is clearly audible.
Students comprehend words and phrases from
simple questions, statements, high-frequency
commands, and courtesy formulae. They still often
require repetition, rephrasing, and/or a slowed rate
of speech for comprehension.
Second Language
Second Language
(Empathy),
Attitudes
(Curiosity,
Openness)
Intercultural
Knowledge and
Competence: Skills
(Verbal and non
verbal
communication)
Intercultural
Knowledge and
Competence: Skills
(Verbal and non
verbal
communication)
Intercultural
Knowledge and
Competence: Skills
(Verbal and non
verbal
communication)
The ability to accomplish in Arabic most if not all of the communicative tasks identified under
Course Content constitutes ACTFL proficiency at the novice-high level (see attached ACTFL
Novice-High Proficiency Rubric) and is deemed to constitute basic communication in a second
language. These competencies also align with the VALUE Rubric Intercultural Knowledge and
Competence (attached) inasmuch as students will recognize and participate in “cultural
differences in verbal and nonverbal communication and begin to negotiate a shared
understanding based on those differences,” as referenced in the Skills: verbal and nonverbal
communication Element, and to articulate, recognize and participate in cultural differences in
verbal communication (Arabic and English), as well as nonverbal communication, and negotiate
a shared understanding based on those differences. These combined ACTFL and VALUE Rubric
competencies warrant the awarding of 2 GEPs toward, and the satisfaction of, General
Education Goal 8, Second Language.
Successful completion of FRENCH II will also lead students to recognize new perspectives about
their own cultural rules and biases, and to demonstrate understanding of the complexity of
elements important to members of another culture in relation to its beliefs and practices
(Intercultural Knowledge and Competence: Knowledge). Students will demonstrate an ability to
identify their own cultural patterns, compare and contrast them with others, and adapt
empathically and flexibly to unfamiliar ways of being. They will be able to initiate and develop
interactions with culturally different others; they will learn to suspend judgment in valuing
intellectual and emotional dimensions of more than one worldview (Skills: Attitudes/Openness),
to recognize intellectual and emotional dimensions of more than one worldview (Skills:
Empathy), and to ask deeper questions about other cultures and seek out answers to these
questions (Skills: Attitudes/Curiosity). These competencies warrant the awarding of 1 GEP
toward the General Education Goal 4, Cultures and Diversity.
12. Student Assessment:
The student learning objectives identified above (11) will be assessed through:
11 a) Daily in-class pair and group conversation activities; performance of dialogues and skits;
exit interview with instructor.
11 b) Responses to in-class activities related to pertinent readings and videos; written responses
on assignments.
11 c) Written responses on quizzes and tests
11 d) Responses to reading activities presented in quizzes and tests.
11 e) Responses to listening activities presented in quizzes and tests.
13. Evaluation:
The following second language communication skills will be evaluated, through the monitoring
of conversations, oral interviews, quizzes and exams, according to an established rubric and
assigned an appropriately weighted grade. (The components may be modified according to
pedagogical methods of individual instructors).
Conversational skills (speaking/listening)
Writing skills
Reading skills
Cultural awareness
14. Course assessment:
FRENCH 102 is designed both to support the department’s program goals and established
student learning objectives and to enhance the university’s General Education program. The
assessment data gathered from the course (see 12, above), as well as the tools used to gather
the data, will be reviewed at appropriate intervals both by the department Assessment
Committee and the department General Education Assessment Committee to verify the extent
to which student learning outcomes are being achieved. Modifications to the course will be
made accordingly. Appropriate reports will be generated and supplied to the appropriate
departments.
15. Supporting Materials and References:
(Items marked with an asterisk * are available in the Andress library)
Evelyne Amon, Judith Muyskens and Alice C. Omaggio Hadley. Vis-à-vis (5th edition).
United States : McGraw-Hill, 2010.
Robert Ariew and Beatrice Dupuy. Connectez-vous à la francophonie. United States :
Prentice Hall, 2011.
William Edmiston and Annie Dumenil. La France contemporaine (4th edition). United
States : Heinle, 2009.
Roger Hawkins and Richard Towell. French Grammar and Usage (3rd edition). United
States: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Michael Oates and Larbi Oukada. Entre amis (6th edition). United States: Heinle, 2012.
Cathy Pons, Mary Ellen Scullen and Albert Valdman. Points de depart. United States:
Prentice Hall, 2008.
Schmitt, Conrad. Communicating in French. United States: McGraw Hill, 1991.
Valdman, Albert. Chez nous: branché sur le monde francophone (4th edition). United
States : Prentice Hall, 2009.
Valette, Jean Paul. Contacts: langue et culture françaises (8th edition). United States :
Heinle, 2009.
16. Prototype Text:
Joan H. Manley, Stuart Smith, John T. McMinn and Marc A. Prévost. Horizons (5th
edition). United States: Heinle, 2011.
ACTFL Novice-High Proficiency Rubric
To manage successfully—always (4), mostly (3), occasionally (2), never (1)—a limited number of
uncomplicated communicative tasks by creating with the language in straightforward social situations.
Conversation topics relate to basic personal information covering, for example:
______ self and family
______ daily activities
______ academic/professional activities
______ personal preferences
______ ordering food
______ making simple purchases
______ health related issues
______ ask appropriate questions
______ respond to simple, direct questions
______ ability to develop one or more of the above topics of conversation (=Intermediate-Low)
INTERCULTURAL KNOWLEDGE AND COMPETENCE VALUE RUBRIC
for more information, please contact value@aacu.org
Definition
Intercultural Knowledge and Competence is "a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support
effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts.” (Bennett, J. M. 2008. Transformative training: Designing
programs for culture learning. In Contemporary leadership and intercultural competence: Understanding and utilizing cultural
diversity to build successful organizations, ed. M. A. Moodian, 95-110. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.)
Evaluators are encouraged to assign a zero to any work sample or collection of work that does not meet benchmark (cell one)
level performance.
Knowledge
Cultural selfawareness
Knowledge
Knowledge of
cultural worldview
frameworks
Skills
Empathy
Skills
Verbal and
nonverbal
communication
Capstone
4
Articulates insights into
own cultural rules and
biases (e.g. seeking
complexity; aware of
how her/his experiences
have shaped these
rules, and how to
recognize and respond
to cultural biases,
resulting in a shift in
self-description.)
Demonstrates
sophisticated
understanding of the
complexity of elements
important to members
of another culture in
relation to its history,
values, politics,
communication styles,
economy, or beliefs and
practices.
Interprets intercultural
experience from the
perspectives of own and
more than one
worldview and
demonstrates ability to
act in a supportive
manner that recognizes
the feelings of another
cultural group.
Articulates a complex
understanding of
cultural differences in
verbal and nonverbal
communication (e.g.,
demonstrates
understanding of the
degree to which people
use physical contact
while communicating in
different cultures or use
direct/indirect and
explicit/implicit
Milestones
3
2
Recognizes new
Identifies own cultural
perspectives about own rules and biases (e.g.
cultural rules and biases with a strong preference
(e.g. not looking for
for those rules shared
sameness; comfortable
with own cultural group
with the complexities
and seeks the same in
that new perspectives
others.)
offer.)
Benchmark
1
Shows minimal
awareness of own
cultural rules and
biases (even those
shared with own
cultural group(s)) (e.g.
uncomfortable with
identifying possible
cultural differences
with others.)
Demonstrates
adequate
understanding of the
complexity of elements
important to members
of another culture in
relation to its history,
values, politics,
communication styles,
economy, or beliefs and
practices.
Recognizes intellectual
and emotional
dimensions of more
than one worldview
and sometimes uses
more than one
worldview in
interactions.
Demonstrates partial
understanding of the
complexity of elements
important to members
of another culture in
relation to its history,
values, politics,
communication styles,
economy, or beliefs and
practices.
Demonstrates surface
understanding of the
complexity of elements
important to members
of another culture in
relation to its history,
values, politics,
communication styles,
economy, or beliefs
and practices.
Identifies components of
other cultural
perspectives but
responds in all situations
with own worldview.
Views the experience
of others but does so
through own cultural
worldview.
Recognizes and
participates in cultural
differences in verbal
and nonverbal
communication and
begins to negotiate a
shared understanding
based on those
differences.
Identifies some cultural
differences in verbal and
nonverbal
communication and is
aware that
misunderstandings can
occur based on those
differences but is still
unable to negotiate a
shared understanding.
Has a minimal level of
understanding of
cultural differences in
verbal and nonverbal
communication; is
unable to negotiate a
shared understanding.
Attitudes
Curiosity
Attitudes
Openness
meanings) and is able to
skillfully negotiate a
shared understanding
based on those
differences.
Asks complex questions
about other cultures,
seeks out and
articulates answers to
these questions that
reflect multiple cultural
perspectives.
Initiates and develops
interactions with
culturally different
others. Suspends
judgment in valuing
her/his interactions with
culturally different
others.
Asks deeper questions
about other cultures
and seeks out answers
to these questions.
Asks simple or surface
questions about other
cultures.
States minimal interest
in learning more about
other cultures.
Begins to initiate and
develop interactions
with culturally different
others. Begins to
suspend judgment in
valuing her/his
interactions with
culturally different
others.
Expresses openness to
most, if not all,
interactions with
culturally different
others. Has difficulty
suspending any
judgment in her/his
interactions with
culturally different
others, and is aware of
own judgment and
expresses a willingness
to change.
Receptive to
interacting with
culturally different
others. Has difficulty
suspending any
judgment in her/his
interactions with
culturally different
others, but is unaware
of own judgment.