Le syllabus

Alliance Française de Missoula
Spring 2010 Intermediate-Advanced French Conversation Course


Instructor: Bryan Whitney
Contact: (406) 370-2074 or email: bryan.whitney@umontana.edu or whitney_bryan@hotmail.com
Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 6:30pm-8:00pm
(Friday- optional informal conversation, noon to 1:00 at the cafeteria in the UC)
Classroom: Room 305 in the LA building on the University of Montana campus

Required Texts:

difficultés expliquées du français ...for English Speakers,
by Alain Vercollier, Claudine Vercollier, and Kay Bourlier,
ISBN: 209033701X

Kiffe kiffe demain,
by Faïza Guène
ISBN: 0785990232

These books can be ordered on Amazon.com or can be found on other websites if one searches using the ISBN. I will also be using other resources of my own and resources that can be found for free on the internet.

Goals and outcomes:

Our main goal in this course will be to work towards oral fluency, therefore this will be primarily a French conversation course. We will be studying grammar, culture (wine, Art, and food), as well as reading and discussing Kiffe kiffe demain. This course will be as active and interactive as possible, which means that I expect everyone to throw themselves into the process as much as they can.

We must all be willing to make mistakes and (oftentimes) feel somewhat less than intelligent (this may very well be an understatement) as we grapple with a language that isn’t our native tongue. I expect everyone to push themselves a bit outside of their comfort zones, yet to be forgiving of themselves and of others as we learn together. After all, some of the best learning occurs when we make mistakes and can laugh about it afterwards. At the very least we should have some good stories to share because of it!

I also expect myself and my students to study diligently outside of the course so that we can focus upon actively using and applying our language skills in the classroom. I would like to focus on interacting as a class, in small groups or in pairs as much as possible during our class time. After all, we can study on our own all we want, but we can’t always have other speakers of French around to share our thoughts and selves with.

Schedule:

Week 1: Monday, Jan. 25th and Wednesday, Jan. 27th
(Friday- optional informal conversation, noon to 1:00 at the cafeteria in the UC)
Grammaire: Chapitre 23- Le présent (Difficultés expliquées... p. 182-187)
Sujet culturel: Le vin
Lecture: Kiffe kiffe demain (p. 9-28)

Week 2: Monday, Feb. 1 and Wednesday, Feb. 3
(Friday- optional informal conversation, noon to 1:00 at the cafeteria in the UC)
Grammaire: Chapitre 21- Les verbes pronominaux (Difficultés expliquées... p. 166-169)
Sujet culturel: Le vin
Lecture: Kiffe kiffe demain (p. 29-43)

Week 3: Monday, Feb. 8 and Wednesday, Feb. 10
(Friday- optional informal conversation, noon to 1:00 at the cafeteria in the UC)
Grammaire: Chapitre 25- Le passé composé (Difficultés expliquées... p. 195-197)
Chapitre 26- L’imparfait (Difficultés expliquées... p. 200-204)
Sujet culturel: Le vin
Lecture: Kiffe kiffe demain (p. 45-66)

***Wednesday: Dégustation !***

Week 4: Monday, Feb. 15 and Wednesday, Feb. 17
(Friday- optional informal conversation, noon to 1:00 at the cafeteria in the UC)
Grammaire: Chapitre 10- Le pronom personnel (Difficultés expliquées... p. 74-82)
Sujet culturel: L’Art
Lecture: Kiffe kiffe demain (p. 67-81)

Week 5: Monday, Feb. 22 and Wednesday, Feb. 24
(Friday- optional informal conversation, noon to 1:00 at the cafeteria in the UC)
Grammaire: Chapitre 27- L’accord du participe passé (Difficultés expliquées... p. 206-209)
Comparaison du passé composé et l’imparfait
Sujet culturel: L’Art
Lecture: Kiffe kiffe demain (p. 83-99)

Week 6: Monday, March 1 and Wednesday, March 3
(Friday- optional informal conversation, noon to 1:00 at the cafeteria in the UC)
Grammaire: Chapitre 29- L’antériorité(d’un fait passé par rapport à un autre fait passé
(Difficultés expliquées... p. 219-223)
Sujet culturel: L’Art
Lecture: Kiffe kiffe demain (p. 101-115)

***Optional: First Friday events (?)***

Week 7: Monday, March 8 and Wednesday, March 10
(Friday- optional informal conversation, noon to 1:00 at the cafeteria in the UC)
Grammaire: Chapitre 28- Le futur et le futur antérieur (Difficultés expliquées... p. 213-217)
Sujet culturel: L’Art
Lecture: Kiffe kiffe demain (p. 117-134)

***Wednesday: short presentations (5-10 min.) of favorite artist and/or artwork
(also: include questions to lead discussion of an artwork)

Week 8: Monday, March 15 and Wednesday, March 17
(Friday- optional informal conversation, noon to 1:00 at the cafeteria in the UC)
Grammaire: Chapitre 32- Hypothèse et condition (Difficultés expliquées... p. 243-247)
Sujet culturel: La cuisine
Lecture: Kiffe kiffe demain (p. 135-153)

Week 9: Monday, March 22 and Wednesday, March 24
(Friday- optional informal conversation, noon to 1:00 at the cafeteria in the UC)
Grammaire: Chapitre 30- Le subjonctif (Difficultés expliquées... p. 226-233)
Sujet culturel: La cuisine
Lecture: Kiffe kiffe demain (p. 155-168)

--------------------------------------Spring Break---------------------------------

Week 10: Monday, April 5 and Wednesday, April 7
(Friday- optional informal conversation, noon to 1:00 at the cafeteria in the UC)
Grammaire: Chapitre 30- Le subjonctif (Difficultés expliquées... p. 226-233)
Sujet culturel: La cuisine
Lecture: Kiffe kiffe demain (p. 169-189)

***Monday, April 12- Fête finale !***

Merci à tous et à toutes pour un cours énergique et dynamique !