This introductory French course emphasizes mastery of basic skills through a solid study of grammatical structures and interactive oral activities. Students will develop accurate pronunciation, build a useful vocabulary and work regularly in small groups to develop conversational skills. The class is lively and fast-paced with a wide variety of fun and creative activities in music, poetry, videos and work with Internet sites. Students use additional activities in the Community Language Laboratory to accelerate their skills.

This class is designed to reinforce, practice and build upon previous skills. It will be fast paced, completely in French, with continued review of grammatical structures. Class is interactive, and emphasizes conversational skills through discussions with native speakers of video segments, music, poetry and Internet news clips. Students will be expected to interact completely in French in small groups related to particular cultural themes. Students will increase their reading and writing skills through study of selected literary excerpts and/or a novel.

What connects people? What are the expectations and codes of conduct in social interactions? Join us as we use the lens of film to study relationships among individuals, gender and social groups. This is part of a year-long series of courses which will explore French and Japanese cultures through media. Students will be introduced to both languages as we look at their roles in the expression of culture.