UCL CENTRE FOR LANGUAGES
& INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
Course Units 2015-2016
French for Academic Purposes I and II
Prerequisite for entry
Successful completion of French Business and Current Affairs at the UCL CLIE, have completed some post-‘A’ level
training or spent some time in the country actively using the language.
Course duration
40 x 2-hour classes.
Self-Study
160 hours in total.
Course codes
LCFR6867, LCFRG867 and LCFRM867.
Aims and Objectives
The course is designed for advanced level students requiring the language for academic purposes.
The course comprises knowledge and understanding both of the structure of the French language and its use in
academic environments, such as lectures, seminars and conferences. The course covers academic development,
academic culture and conventions, critical thinking, reading and writing academic texts (i.e. in the students main degree
subject e.g. history) as well as other related topics to prepare students for further academic study/research in French
speaking countries. This will be related back to the student’s degree subject.
The course will enhance knowledge and use of linguistically complex structures (a variety of styles and registers from a
range of authentic academic material).
Various transferable skills will also be further developed.
Functions
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Suggesting and expressing specialised opinions, critical topic-related comments;
describing, defining, explaining;
debating, commenting, critical thinking, ‘problematising’ for essay writing;
suggesting, making hypotheses;
composing written pieces of information for academic purposes (essay work, synthesis, summaries, reports);
conducting oral presentations on complex academic topics;
conference skills (simulating conference and academic discussions – academic oral registers, presentations);
extracting and selecting key ideas;
note taking for writing short reports;
reading specialised texts;
interviewing.
Course Content
Main topics/themes to be covered
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On the place of literature in humanities; on the relationships between literature, history and philosophy.
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On morals and ethics;
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ideologies and the global world;
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Universities; studying in a French speaking countries.
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French ways of thinking (‘Manières de Penser’; ‘Sciences Humaines’); thinking critically on current issues with
specialised academic and non-academic texts (focus on registers and transferable skills).
Skills
Reading
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reading for gist, scanning for specific information and text structure in academic sources;
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in-depth analysis of academic topics in relevant publications.
Writing
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analysis and review of articles;
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note-taking from and for presentations;
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writing up presentations; essays; working with different registers
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professional reports and conference papers;
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journal articles; reports
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French academic reading and writing skills: writing a detailed plan for contrastive synthesis; writing French
résumés; the different plans for French dissertations
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formal academic correspondence
Listening
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radio, TV, audio material;
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presentations;
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academic debates.
Speaking
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formal and informal discussions, debates, round table;
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seminars;
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presentations;
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conferences.
Linguistic Structures
Discourse Strategies
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analysing/comparing texts from various academic sources (different text types, styles and registers);
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preparing oral contributions for different audiences;
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spoken versus written professional communication.
Main Aspects of These Strategies
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structuring (logical structures); linking devices (lexical, grammatical);
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assessing appropriate usage of registers and styles; academic vocabulary.
Learning Resources
There is no textbook for this course.
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Monolingual Dictionary (Micro Petit Robert)
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Bilingual Dictionary (Collins/Robert)
Materials for the course will be drawn from:
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Authentic written material from various sources to be advised by tutor; specialized academic skill-and academic
reading folders designed by tutor.
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Authentic audio and audio-visual material.
In addition there is a wide range of language learning materials available for self-study in the Self-Access Centre.