Learning outcomes

The course will help students improve, consolidate and further develop their proficiency in French, especially with regards to three basic language skills (reading, listening and speaking), in coherence with the purposes of the course and with Threshold B1. [Threshold level B1. Students in this level can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected texts on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.]

Program

a) Language: morphology and syntax, vocabulary, gallicisms; introduction to expressive reading. Lecture expliquée;

b) Civilization: some social problems in France;

c) Culture: explanation of some passages from contemporary works. Students will complete the reading of texts in prevision of the examination days.

d) Current affairs topics: explanation of some original multimedia texts referring to the actual situation, but also to the purposes of the course (songs, interviews, videos, some well-known movies), exercises on the practical language and on the implicated frameworks.Course prerequisites: preferably B1 (Intermediate) level of competence (according to the European framework).[Traditional lectures will be integrated with Internet-based seminars, conferences and language training classes. Multimedia tools (online dictionaries, material, and grammars) will be available to students throughout the course.]
Bibliography:
1) Grammar:
G. LUCIANI – Y. GUIRAUD, Grammatica pratica del Francese dalla A alla Z, Milano, Hoepli, 2006.
2) Dictionaries:
a. LE PETIT ROBERT, Dictionnaire de la langue française, Paris, Éditions `Le Robert’, last edition;
b. R. BOCH, Dizionario francese-italiano, italiano-francese, Bologna, Zanichelli, last edition;
3) Narrative Works:
a. A. de SAINT-EXUPÉRY, Le Petit Prince, Paris, Gallimard, 1946
b. F. BÉGAUDEAU, Entre les murs, Paris, Verticales, 2006
c. D. PENNAC, Chagrin d’école, Paris, NRF, 2007

Examination Methods

Oral examination based on course topics, preferably in French. Students will be asked to explain the language, vocabulary and syntax of the texts; they will be invited to locate texts in their historical and geographical framework and to explain personal remarks.

Students who will be examined for 9 CFU will study all three narrative works and all the documents (textual and multimedia) treated during the course.

Students who will be examined for 6 CFU will study the first two narrative works of the program, a choice of two songs, a selection of two documents (original and multimedia) of the entire group treated during the course.