French Course Research Articles

Seeing and Tasting

Drawing from historical cookbooks, literary works, and contemporary sources, this article traces a shift in the conception of the French dessert course from an adjunct but fully edible form in the seventeenth century to a mainly visual element in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the current balance between edibility and “legibility” in iconic desserts. What was once simply fruit and then pure ornament is now at once delicious and symbolic. The essay argues that present-day desserts represent a merging of taste and aesthetics, with the “decoration” now in the form of a colorful and sometimes invented history. When the dessert course was democratized in the nineteenth century—open to bourgeois tables—specific dishes became “textualized,” codified by name and form and inscribed with origin stories that connect these dishes to French identity, making dessert both symbolically and materially accessible to a wider public.

Education Challenges and Developments in Foreign Language Teaching in Croatian Law Schools Education Challenges and Development for the Future

In the modern world of global economic and political associations, the knowledge of foreign languages and communication skills represent essential factors in all professions. In this respect, knowledge of English language as lingua franca of international communication is an indispensable prerequisite for communication within the legal profession worldwide. This paper is a case-study of teaching foreign languages in Croatian Law Schools, presented on the case of the Faculty of Law, University of Osijek. In the introductory part of the paper, a short description of the status and the position of foreign language courses in the Higher Education System of the Republic of Croatia is offered. In the main part the author presents new developments in the foreign language teaching in Croatian law faculties as answers to current challenges of Croatian membership in the EU. On the example of the Faculty of Law, University of Osijek, new projects on teaching foreign languages to practicing lawyers and law students are presented, with an emphasis on the Lifelong Learning Programme for Lawyer-Linguists. This programme, as well as specific foreign language courses in Legal English, Legal German and Legal French, have been developed within the lifelong education projects for lawyers, by which young lawyers are offered an opportunity to learn and/or to improve their knowledge of the three working languages of the EU. These developments in foreign language teaching within the Croatian Higher Education System are one of the responses to current challenges of the internationalization of the modern world. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2015.v5n1s1p87

영어로 가르치는 초급프랑스어 수업의 개발 방안과 시사점

The present study discusses the theoretical backgrounds and developments of a beginning French course conducted in English at a Korean university setting. We can best understand the need for developing this course on the Korean educational context where English is taught at as early as primary school and is perceived as an important subject throughout the university level. In this beginning French course, teachers need to maximize the positive transfer from English to French, as both languages are typologically closely related to each other. In doing so, they need to have positive attitudes and a good mastery of classroom English and everyday English, and have to structure each class so that students can anticipate the progression of the class. In addition, they need support in terms of the developments of textbooks and class activities from their colleagues and native-speaker English instructors. Schools also need to offer English language workshops regularly both for teachers and students to facilitate communication in class.

Francês para Objetivo Específico (FOS): reflexões e práticas em um curso para estudantes do campo da Linguística

The teaching of foreign languages (FL), as well as FL teaching for specific purposes, has been innovating and incorporating new challenges. In this article, we expose some aspects of reading in a foreign language, in French for specific purpose (FOS) and we present a course, which was designed to meet the demands of a public university students in the countryside of Sao Paulo. The course was developed in four main steps – (i) demand, (ii) requirements analysis, (iii) data gathering, and (iv) development of the program and teaching materials – and the group was formed by students of Literature and Linguistics as target audience. We will also present data analysis and observations collected during the course. The academic reading course in French for specific purposes was based on the idea that reading comprehension – one of the skills of student readers – activates a body of knowledge articulated/motivated by the individual and by group interaction. This is in consonance with the premise of Richards, who postulates that reading involves more than a mere decoding of linguistic elements. We hoped that this work contribute with reflections on the teaching of French for specifi c purpose in academic context. Keywords: French for specific purpose, academic reading, foreign language teaching, teaching French.

Les 100 mots du management de projet par Elsebeth Lange

Lange, Elsebeth. Les 100 mots du management de projet. Paris: Ophrys, 2014. ISBN 978-2-7080-1380-3. Pp. 151. 14 a. This little book is designed for a very specific audience, non-native speakers of French who will be serving as members of a project team (or possibly even leading a team) in a French-speaking country. It contains approximately one hundred terms related to project management. Each term is the focus of a unit (of approximately one page), containing a definition, the English equivalent, and a few expressions using the term, as well as related vocabulary. The problem with this book, a drawback which will impose severe limitations on its usefulness, is the extreme narrowness of its focus. While it may indeed be appropriate for employees who have been recently assigned to project teams in France or Francophone countries, the highly specialized nature of the book is not likely to help those individuals whose working French may be minimal or even non-existent, and who would probably be better served by more rudimentary language instruction that will enable them to negotiate a number of daily tasks and to engage in social interaction to some acceptable degree. One might consider including the book in a business French course, but given the current cost of textbooks and the very limited scope of this particular book, it would be difficult to justify its inclusion as a required text. Furthermore, a number of the terms are either identical or very close to the English equivalent: documentation, contrat, communication, logistique. One might imagine that the book could be useful to those students enrolled in an international MBA program who are receiving special language training to serve in managerial positions abroad, but given its limitations, it would be very hard indeed to find convincing arguments to adopt this book for any French course at the undergraduate level. University of North Carolina, Greensboro David A. Fein Rosillo M.P., P. Maccotta, et M. Demaret. Quartier d’affaires: français professionnel et des affaires. Paris: CLE, 2013. ISBN 978-2-09-038660-8. Pp. 144 (+ DVD-ROM). 22 a. Les auteures expliquent dans leur avant-propos que la cible principale de leur manuel est un public d’apprenants adultes de niveau A1 se destinant à intégrer le monde du travail francophone. L’objectif est de leur donner des outils de niveau A2 pouvant optimiser leur profil professionnel et de faciliter leur transition ultérieure vers le niveau B1. Ces outils sont majoritairement d’ordre linguistique et culturel. Le manuel aux couleurs et illustrations attrayantes propose au fil des dix unités un contenu qui augmente judicieusement en difficultés. La même structure se répète à l’intérieur de chaque unité, aidant la préparation des cours: un texte à lire et à écouter qui aborde le thème du chapitre; des encadrés de mots et d’expressions,sans traductions, 228 FRENCH REVIEW 89.1 ...

La France contemporaine par William Edmiston, Annie Duménil

meant to prepare students for the DELF, for which Didier has related textbooks as well. The series is thus designed specifically for FLE within the European system, but it could serve North American teachers well at least as reference material and for exercise and activity ideas. They could also be used by self-motivated learners because of the extensive material available on the CDs, DVDs, and the program website. Bob Jones University (SC) Jeremy Patterson Edmiston, William, and Annie Duménil. La France contemporaine. 5th ed. Boston: Cengage, 2016. ISBN 978-1-305251083. Pp. 336. $158. The most important changes in this edition, published before the Charlie Hebdo attacks, may be found in chapters 9, 12, and 13 (La famille et la sexualité, Les religions, L’immigration). For example, the authors have added 1.5 pages on France’s marriage equality law (146–48) and a little over a page on the French position on immigrants, including a condensed yet clear explanation of the Roma population and the hotly debated political measures their presence on French soil has generated (231–32). Among many other short updates and additions, we find new surveys about French religious attitudes (208–09),including the number of practicing Muslims and mosques in France (211), and a new paragraph on the 2010 burqa ban along with a very brief outline of the highly mediatized Baby Loup affair (217). The authors have retained the same pedagogical approach and structure of the previous editions. Organized thematically, La France contemporaine, which targets North American college students at the intermediate level and up, comprises five broad and self-contained units: La France et l’Europe, la vie politique, la vie sociale, la vie culturelle, and l’information et la technologie.A brief but helpful Repères chronologiques section—which now includes a timeline of key governmental measures under Hollande’s presidency up to 2014— precedes the introduction. Each unit, minimally illustrated with black-and-white photographs of a slightly lesser quality than those in the previous edition, consists of several chapters, all varying in number and length, and is followed by a contrôle des connaissances section with questions designed to further comprehension, discussion, and online research. Also included at the end of the volume are a few color photographs , a brief lexicon, and a list of acronyms. Finally, the book comes with basic online support and Internet resources for both students and teachers. Instructors may not all agree with the selection and omission of socio-political and cultural topics presented in La France contemporaine, but the authors, by and large, have succeeded in capsulizing most of the fundamentals and making cross-cultural comparisons with American institutions whenever pertinent. One of the book’s greatest strengths resides in its clear prose and uncluttered explanations. Students in my upper-level civilization course frequently commented on the overall accessibility of the language and were able to recycle some of the vocabulary into our class discussions. A major criticism of 192 FRENCH REVIEW 89.2 Reviews 193 this cultural reader is an over-reliance upon surveys that focus on the “French” view of one or more aspects of France’s socio-cultural and political landscape. Given France’s uniquely rich ethnic diversity, such surveys may end up either limiting or misguiding students’understanding and analysis of these cultural realities. But, overall, this fifth edition offers a flexible approach to the teaching of contemporary French civilization and would also serve as a useful introductory companion in any upperlevel culture-related French courses. DePauw University (IN) Cheira Belguellaoui Jansma, Kimberly, and Margaret Ann Kassen. Motifs. 6th ed. Boston: Cengage, 2014. ISBN 978-1-133-31128-7. Pp. 544. $250.95 (Book + CD-ROM). Ce manuel pour débutants s’engage de nouveau à fournir aux instructeurs des sujets pertinents, modernes et multiculturels pour faciliter des discussions animées en classe et faire le lien avec les intérêts des étudiants hors de leur environnement scolaire. Le manuel, contenant quinze modules attrayants, offre toujours une structure facile à suivre avec des thèmes de conversation, des perspectives culturelles, des lectures guidées et des structures utiles. Cette volonté de suivre les tendances culturelles, sociales, et linguistiques apparaissait...

La question du public et de la nature de l’emploi du jeu à des fins sérieuses. Une réflexion développée dans un cadre d’enseignement

Comme dans bien d’autres formations, les etudiants de DUT Informatique suivent des cours d’expression-communication. Mais, ce type de cours est souvent considere comme un cours de francais et donc peu digne d’interet pour une majorite d’etudiants. Aussi, afin d’interesser les etudiants, nous avons tente de mettre en place quelques formes de jeux a des fins serieuses. Pour ce faire, nous avons tente de mieux comprendre ce que pouvait etre un jeu serieux a partir de sa terminologie, de ses origines ainsi qu’a partir de la semantique du prototype. Nous avons ensuite identifie certains jeux qui pouvaient etre adaptes a notre situation de cours. Nous relatons a la fin de cet article, trois experiences utilisant le jeu dans notre cadre d’enseignement. Ces formes de jeu exploitent des aspects de jeux de competition, de roles et de construction.

Enhancing L2 Reading Comprehension with Hypermedia Texts: Student Perceptions

This study extends current research about L2 hypermedia texts by investigating the combined use of audiovisual features including: (a) Contextualized images, (b) roll-over translations, (c) cultural information, (d) audio explanations and (e) comprehension check exercises. Specifically, student perceptions of hypermedia readings compared to traditional print texts are investigated in this study to address theoretical concerns that the combined use of multiple audiovisual annotations might split learners’ attention from their reading comprehension. Additionally, student perceptions of the usefulness of the annotation features afforded by the hypermedia texts were investigated. Data were collected from 70 French language learners across four intermediate and advanced French courses at a large Midwestern research university. Participants in each course were assigned hypermedia readings, each of which being paired with an analogous traditional print reading of the same genre, with a similar word count and reading difficulty level, followed by a format preference survey. Results from data analysis of the format preference surveys showed statistically significant differences for user preference of the hypermedia texts and a user belief that the hypermedia format facilitated reading comprehension with less effort than print readings. Research findings about the reported usefulness of the annotation features are situated within Mayer’s (2005) cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Directions for future research into the optimal design of hypermedia texts are discussed.

Multi-storied Lives: Global Simulation as an Approach to Developing Multiliteracies in an Intermediate French Course

Recent scholarship has proposed a pedagogy of multiliteracies to frame FL curricula and instruction, and encourage critical reflection about language use through a variety of discourses and textual genres. One pedagogical framework conducive to fostering learners’ intersemiotic awareness is Global Simulation (GS). GS consists in the creation of a culturally grounded, fictitious scenario, wherein students adopt specific character roles through which they enact discourse styles associated with their characters’ identities and the simulation’s attendant social demands. The adoption of characters reinforces the notion of literacies based on participation in a variety of discourses from the standpoint of particular social roles. This article reports on the development and implementation of a multiliteracies-based GS in fourth semester French applying a genre-based framework. First, we provide background on GS and its compatibility with multiliteracies and genre-based approaches. Next, we outline the framework and various texts and modules used in the course under study. Finally, we demonstrate through our findings the potential for this approach to foster learners’ awareness of language and other communication modes as social signifying practice, and their abilities to draw upon multiple Available Designs in making meaning.

Three factors in vocabulary acquisition in a university French immersion adjunct context

This study investigates the role of teaching, context, and repetition in the acquisition of specialized vocabulary. It involves thirteen students enrolled in a French immersion class linked to a French adjunct language course at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Based on Webb’s (2008) classification, the researchers have examined and rated the contexts in which students were exposed to a sample of thirty words in their immersion course (lectures and readings). Of these, some (n = 22) were taught explicitly over the semester and others (n = 8) were not taught, as they were words students encountered incidentally in their readings or lectures. Results in this study showed that: a) incidental exposure did not lead to vocabulary acquisition regardless of clarity of context and number of exposures, and b) explicit teaching led to differential learning outcomes not fully explained by clarity of context or number of exposures. The study concludes with a discussion of other factors affecting vocabulary learning in the immersion adjunct context.

Troisième Cours Francophone sur l'Autopsie Virtuelle

On October 4, 2013 the Groupe de Recherche en Autopsie Virtuelle et Imagerie Thanathologique (GRAVIT) organized the third French course on virtual autopsy in Marseille, France (Fig. 1). This year, the French course on virtual autopsy was attended by more than 60 participants. Most of them were either radiologists or forensic pathologists or radiographers. The current congress program covered a wide range of aspects on post-mortem imaging but kept a focus on post-mortem angiography. The morning session was dedicated to “Challenging Cases”. After a brief introduction, the first speaker, Dr. Matthieu Coulange (France) discussed aspects of drowning on post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) with a special emphasis on distribution patterns of intravascular gas collections. This lecture was followed by a very interesting report by Dr. Douraied BenSalem (France) on a recently concluded study on deaths related to heat and fire exposure. The lecture covered challenges related to signs of vitality, the diagnosis of the cause of death, and identification. Identificationwas also a key aspect of the lecture on imaging in decomposed bodies by Dr. Fabrice Dedouit (France). Dr. Dedouit provided a very comprehensive overview over various aspects of both early and late postmortem changes. The last lecture of the morning was dedicated to crash-dummymodeling based on cadaveric experiments. Dr. Thierry Bege (France) offered a very fascinating insight in to how experimental research on traumatic injury can be translated to models of humans to analyze cause and effect in motor vehicle accidents. The afternoon session was opened by Dr. Thomas Ruder (Switzerland) who gave an introduction to post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging (PMMR), including PMMR-angiography. In his second lecture, Dr. Ruder provided an overview over the development, current techniques and applications of PMCT-angiography. This lecture was followed by Dr. Silke Grabherr (Switzerland), who reported the current state of the European multi-center PMCTangiography study by the Technical Working Group Postmortem Angiography Methods (TWGPAM). The session on post-mortem angiography was concluded by Dr. Guillaume Gorincour (France) who lectured on technical aspects of PMCT-angiography as performed in Marseille. The day was closed by Dr. Valerie Souffron (France), who provided an interesting insight in to sociologic aspects of post-mortem imaging. There is no doubt that the third French Course on Virtual Autopsy was a great success. The program offered a variety of lectures which were interesting for both participants without and with experience in post-mortem imaging. In addition, the coffee and lunch breaks offered ample opportunities to meet and greet colleagues.

Einstufung in UNIcert®-Kurse mittels C-Test

AbstractThis article describes a procedure for constructing C-tests for UNIcert® courses, and in doing so gives an insight into work in progress. Each year since 2005 twelve colleagues working in language centres in third-level institutions in Germany have collaboratively developed a C-test for assigning students to French courses. Our central concern is to link the C-test format to the UNIcert® certification system. As the linguistic demands of the different UNIcert® levels cannot be reliably scaled on the basis of the usual descriptors, we use teaching times as stipulated in the UNIcert® framework and correlate this with corresponding language levels that cannot be described precisely. From this we have derived a UNIcert® reference scale, which shows competence ranges for each level in terms of C-test scores. In this way it is possible to define entry levels for the different courses according to a single system of C-test scores. The scale can only be used, however, if the C-tests in question satisfy certain requirements. Accordingly, a UNIcert® reference “testlet” to determine admission to appropriate levels of French courses is being developed according to various parameters. Empirical procedures are being used to explore potentially suitable testlets. Course-related pilot testlets are tested by students taking UNIcert® courses. The results from the piloting of the testlets are compared with the reference testlet, and this determines whether or not they are used in the main test that assigns students to the appropriate levels of the UNIcert® courses for which they have registered. Grading is on the basis of total test scores and the UNIcert® reference scale.

Gender Assignment in French Immersion and Core French Graduates: J’aime la français, mais pas le grammaire…

This study examines gender assignment in graduates of French immersion (FI) (n=100) and Gr.12 core French (n=155) programs who responded to a diagnostic questionnaire distributed at the beginning of their first university French course. We compare accuracy rates attributing gender to the 10 most commonly used consonant-initial nouns. While it was expected the FI students would outperform their peers, overall results are very similar, and indicate both groups would benefit from targeted instruction. Seeking possible evidence of a masculine default strategy, we were surprised to observe, in the FI group, a generalization of the feminine form of the definite article.

Assessment Practices in the English and French Component of a Foreign Languages Teacher Education Program

This article reports on part of an evaluative investigation of the academic processes of a Foreign Languages Teacher Education Program. The study focuses on analyzing assessment practices carried out by teachers in English and French courses and the perceptions students and professors have about these practices. Focus groups were implemented for collecting perspectives from teachers and students. Results show that assessment practices are heterogeneous which is due not only to factors identified in literature but also due to important factors depending on particular situations of a public higher education institution in Colombia. Findings are useful for the self-assessment of language programs in order to improve the curriculum.

Facebook-Induced Motivation Shifts in a French Online Course

This study explores the effects of instructor’s self-disclosure using the Facebook social networking online platform on students’ motivation types in an online language course. The participants were 104 beginning French students enrolled in an online French course at a major research university in the southeast U.S. The participants were divided into a Facebook group, where they could access the instructor’s Facebook profile throughout the semester, and a control group. The Academic Motivation Scale (Noels, Pelletier, Clement, & Vallerand, 2003) was used for determining whether the participants were intrinsically or extrinsically motivated, anchoring this research within the Self-Determination Theory model (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Post-treatment results indicated that participants assigned to the Facebook group experienced a significant shift in motivation type that research has determined as being beneficial for language learning (Gardner, 1985). No such shift occurred in students assigned to the control group. This shift is of particular importance in an online course environment where the instructor’s Facebook profile was the only means of teacher’s self-disclosure unlike a face-to-face environment where teacher self-disclosure can occur spontaneously.

Using culture beyond its borders: the use of content-enriched instruction and the effects of input enhancement on learning in high school French classes

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Standards emphasizes the integration of Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities within teaching. Content-enriched instruction aims at teaching linguistic forms within content and eases the implementation of the five Cs. The focus is at beginning levels and the content is a segment of a larger curriculum. Focus-on-form, along input enhancement techniques, can be a tool to facilitate the integration of grammatical and lexical forms within a meaningful content. This paper presents the data of 132 participants in second-year French high school courses. The study features the integration of form into culture through two teaching procedures: focus-on-form (with enhanced forms) and focus-on-meaning (with no enhancement). It addresses the following questions: (1) Are content (culture) and form (grammar and vocabulary) acquired through a beginning high school French content-enriched instruction lesson? (2) Which instructional technique, focus-on-form (with the support of input enhancement) vs. focus-on-meaning (with no input enhancement), affects most effectively students' learning of (and teachers' teaching of) culture, grammar, and vocabulary in the context of beginning, high school French classes? Findings point to significant differences between instructional methods and provide a substantial contribution and support to input enhancement at the high school level.

La narration des contes en classe du FLE : intérêts et pratiques

The narration of tales in the FLE class: interests and practices
 The narration of the tale already has a certain history as a pedagogical support in the teaching/learning of French as a foreign language. Many journals have devoted articles to it that offer methodologies for its exploitation. Generally, it is literary, written tales that are retained and used with a view to acquiring linguistic skills, grammatical in particular; if the number of articles is quite considerable, the number of educational achievements in FLE class published resulting from these reflections has remained modest. As narrative competence is omnipresent in daily language practices in the teaching of French as a foreign language, we will try to answer a central question: how to insert effectively the narration of the tale in the course of French as a foreign language at school, both from the point of view of its adaptation to our young Algerian learners of French as a foreign language and of its pedagogical virtue.

Impact of Instruction on Shaping or Reshaping Stereotypical Cultural Representations in an Introductory French Course

AbstractLearning a foreign language promotes new ways of seeing the world and the self in relation to it (Gee, 1996), making practices and perspectives underlined through the acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical structures available for appropriation (Bakhtin, 1981; Kramsch, 1993, 2009). Using a combination of interviews and self‐reported questionnaires, this study explores what may influence learners' preconceived images and cultural representations of the French language and culture in an introductory French language course. Data analysis shows that participants started a reflection on how learning a foreign language opens access to the cultures that speak it and embodies cultural acts. However, the findings suggest that at the beginning level, the reflection on the interconnection between a language and its culture needs to be nurtured within the course content itself in order to encourage the process of developing cross‐cultural understanding.

French in Cyberspace

This article discusses the development of an online French language skills course, "French in Cyberspace," for undergraduates at Hollins University. It reviews the desirability and feasibility of conducting an online foreign language course for resident undergraduates as well as advocates a special niche in the instructional cycle that such a course might optimally occupy. The author also considers the "no significant difference" research that suggests that distance learning courses are equivalent to traditional face-to-face classes and concludes that the technoconstructivist advantages offered by an online French language skills course represent unique, important, and meaningful benefits for students seeking to improve their language skills. The course itself is described in detail and provides a potential blueprint for constructing and conducting an online French language skills course. The author furnishes a step-by-step account of all aspects of the online learning experience including student orientation to distance learning, suggested web resources that accommodate the various learning styles of the students, online activities that promote language skill development, and an evaluation rubric for the course.

Using the Web in Elementary French and German Courses

We present here an analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data collected for a study of the impact of World Wide Web use in Elementary French and German courses (first and second semester) in Fall 1998 and Spring 1999. Specifically, the control groups attended class with the instructor four days per week. The treatment groups attended class with the instructor 3 days per week and completed a web activity each week on their own time to "replace" the fourth class meeting. The main research question was: would the treatment group's performance in the areas of reading, writing, listening, speaking and cultural understanding be similar to that of the control group in French and German, over two semesters of first year language study at the university level? We found that there was no pattern of statistically significant differences between the treatment and the control groups in any of these areas.