Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

910 Clemens Hall

Buffalo, NY 14260-4620

French 104 Transitional Elementary French

Course Coordinator: Dr. Jeannette Ludwig, 935 Clemens Hall Tel. 645-0877 jmludwig@buffalo.edu

Course description: One-semester review course designed for students who have taken the Regents exams, but who are not yet able to go into the second year of language study. Involves development of all four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and, to some extent, writing), emphasizing the grammatical structures and vocabulary fundamental to simple, everyday conversation. LEC

Students who have completed FR 101 and/or 102 should not register for FR 104 as no credit will be given for duplicate courses

Course objectives: This one-semester course is designed for students who have studied French in high school, who have taken the Regents' Exam, and who need to quickly refresh their linguistic and communicative skills before starting intermediate level study. Thus the material on this syllabus reflects the statewide Regents' syllabus for high school levels I-III.

The first half of the course focuses on material students have already studied in high school, including four basic irregular verbs (être, avoir, faire and aller), the formation of the present and past tenses (passé composé and imparfait), as well as adjective formation. The second half of the course focuses on material which may be slightly less familiar: the future and conditional tenses, relative pronouns, and the subjunctive. The textbook, Contacts, also discusses the cultures of the French-speaking world. All four language skills are used in French 104: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, in a cultural context. In functional terms, you will be able to use appropriate greetings and farewells, ask simple questions about daily matters, and respond correctly (both orally and in writing) to questions about your own life and opinions, we well as those of others. You should be able to satisfy basic survival needs and social courtesies. Specifically, in the first half you will re-learn to describe events and people and to narrate past events. In the second half, you will re-learn to speculate about the future, relate events in a more complex fashion, and write brief, coherent, and correct paragraphs on simple topics. You are responsible for all the material assigned in the course schedule (see below), whether or not it is practiced in class.

Placement Policies:

• Native speakers of a foreign language are not allowed in introductory or intermediate courses if they were schooled in a country in which the language of instruction was the language in question.
• Heritage speakers of the language (those with home knowledge of the language) must see language coordinator for proper placement.
• Students who have completed coursework in French, Italian or Spanish either at UB or another college will not be allowed to register in a proficiency level lower than that already completed.
• Students repeating a course in which a failing grade was received must do so prior to registering in a higher-level course.
• Students with special circumstances or who have been away from the language for some time must contact the language coordinator for adequate placement.
• WARNING:  The department will unregister (drop) students who attempt to take courses for which they are ineligible or over-prepared.

Textbooks: Contacts, Valette & Valette, Houghton & Mifflin, 2008, 8th ed. , QUIA Workbook to accompany Contacts, a French-English/English-French Dictionary

Workload: This course is 5 credits. Students can expect to spend an average of 6 hours per week outside of class time. Students are responsible for the Aperçus, Notes Linguistiques and Notes Culturelles, as well as the dialogues at the beginning of each chapter.

Course Requirements: You are responsible for all material assigned on the Course Outline, whether or not it is practiced in class. Students must attend class regularly, and participate fully in all class activities, both oral and written. Laboratory and homework assignments prepared outside of class constitute an integral part of the coursework. At least one hour a week with the audio component of the workbook is indispensable.

Grading Procedures:

Elementary French is a concrete, performance-oriented course, for which accuracy and mastery are essential. In general the following scale will apply:

100%-90%=A, 89%-80%=B, 79%-65%=C, 65%-50%=D

However, the difficulty of the exam and the relative preparedness of the students may necessitate deviation from these cutoffs. Pluses and minuses are taken into account when averaging students' grades.

The final grade is calculated as follows: The combined average of the two types of exams -- quizzes and hourlies -- will begin to determine your grade, i.e. the average grade (not percentage) of the quizzes (25%) and the average grade (not percentage) of the three hourly exams (50%). Fully 25% of the grade is at the discretion of the instructor. It reflects attendance, assignments, and class participation.

Quizzes are written and corrected by the instructor for each section. The hourly and final are written and graded on a course-wide basis. Make-ups are at the discretion of the instructor. The hourlies are announced well in advance, so only the most compelling reasons--stated in advance--should necessitate a makeup.

Incomplete: Typically, incompletes are not given, except in cases of a well-documented medical condition.

Plagiarism: Academic dishonesty will result in a grade of F and disciplinary actions by the university. Examples of academic dishonesty are: copying the work from the Internet or a book, having a friend/relative write the work for you, copying during an exam or quiz, using an electronic word by word translator.

Students with disabilities: Students who require special accommodations because of a diagnosed disability should bring relevant documentation to their instructors as soon as possible. The instructor in conjunction with the course coordinator will oversee arrangements with assistance from the Office of Disabilities.

Course Outline: The following is a SAMPLE course outline. Students who register for this course will receive an updated course outline through UBLearns (Blackboard).