Course of French 1040 - 3 credit hours  Fall 2005

Professor: J. Hollenbeck        e-mail: hollenbeckja@appstate.edu
Office number: 526   Phone: (828)262-2307
Office hours: TTh between 12.30 and 2.30pm,  and by appointment

Course description: Continued training in understanding, speaking, reading and writing French. Prerequisite: two units of high school French and a good score on the French placement test, or FRENCH1020, or the equivalent. Recitation three hours a week and required laboratory.

Course objectives: To acquire language elements such as vocabulary, sounds, grammar and sentence structures. This course is designed to help students develop basic skills to understand how the language functions as a means of communication, and to introduce students to the diversity of Francophone culture. Occasionally, emphasis will be given to the way people live and think, and the use of colloquial expressions in a given situation will be stressed. Students should gradually gain the necessary confidence to express themselves in French. At the end of this course, students should have learned all the elements that allow a foreign student to become functional

Topical content: The material presented to the students will enable them to get acquainted with the French way of life. At the end of this course, the students should be aware of the cultural differences that exist between themselves and people of different origin. They should also be able to accept and adapt to different styles of life.

Method of teaching: Teaching will include lectures, written and oral exercises, and class activities based on readings and/or dialogues.

Grading: Students will be given exams at the time and day indicated on the schedule. Students missing an exam will receive an automatic "F" for that exam. In case of illness or unforeseen event that deserves special consideration, students will be excused when providing a tangible proof for their absence. A make-up test presenting different material but the same difficulties will then be prepared specially for them.   The points given to any given test are cumulative. A letter grade will be  determined at the end of the semester in the following way:
Assuming the highest number of points accumulated by a student is 300,   300-10%=270             285 to 300= A          270 to 285= A-
260 to 270= B+           250 to 260= B          240 to 250= B-       etc.

Attendance: Class attendance is expected of all students in accordance with the university requirements stated in the University Catalog. Students should consider that an instructor looks upon absences as a lack of participation in class, and as a failure to learn very important concepts.
During a given semester, students will be allowed two absences without penalty for snow-bound situations, or for slight illness. It is the responsibility of the students to be in class as does the instructor when classes are officially open. Students are urged to contact their instructor upon their return to provide a tangible proof for their illness(your instructor can estimate the impediments due to snow), in which case they will determine together how to compensate for the time that has been missed.
Any absence above two per semester will affect the final grade in the following way:
Unsubstantiated absences will be penalized by lowering the final grade by  half a point for every two absences. The instructor will NOT assign homework to compensate for a failing grade. Grades can only reflect the quality of work done in a controlled situation. Students  will sign a presence sheet at the beginning of each class.

Required readings: . H. Jay Siskin, Ann Williams Gascon, Thomas T. Field. Débuts. McGraw Hill: New York, (2003).
Cahier d'activités écrites et orales to accompany Débuts!(paper back).

Recommended Readings:
Gac-Artigas, Priscilla, Gac-Artigas Gustavo. Sans Détour.  Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall (2000).
Websterís New World, French Vocabulary and Verbs. New York: Macmillan, (1997).

Plan d'étude:

Les 23 et 25 août : Révision des concepts appris dans les classes de Français 1010 et 1020.

Le 30 août : Examen préliminaire d'évaluation des connaissances(30 minutes). Introduction au chapitre #15.

Du 30 août au 15 septembre : La conjugaison des verbes  ouvrir/vivre/ suivre (p.333/340). Les pronoms y / en (p. 335). La comparaison des adjectifs et des adverbes (p.351) et le superlatif (p.354). Les pronoms interrogatifs (p.357). (Reviser les pages 73, 98/100, 118 et 143.)

Examen sur ces deux chapitres le 20 septembre.

Du 22 septembre au au 13 octobre : Le futur (p.370) et le conditionnel (page 409).
Le plus-que?parfait (p. 467). Etude de la correspondance des temps au conditionnel (p. 412).

Fall Break

Les pronoms directs et indirects (p.373). (Reviser les pages 161 et 202.)

Examen sur la matière étudiée dans les chapitres 17 et 19 le 18octobre.

Du 20 octobre au 8 novembre :. . Les pronoms relatifs (p. 391). Le verbe conduire et les verbes suivis de prépositions (p. 395 et 398). Les pronoms démonstratifs (p. 415). Les expressions impersonnelles et líinfinitif (p. 425). Le subjonctif des verbes (réguliers et irréguliers, pp. 428 et 432).

Examen sur les chapitres 18 et 20 le 10 novembre.

Du 15  novembre au 6 décembre : Líusage du subjonctif (pp. 445/453). Les pronoms possessifs (p. 465). Le discours direct / indirect (p. 470).
November 24, Thanksgiving day.

Dernier examen : se plier à la grille des examens qui sera annoncée ultérieurement.