FREN 1102 - Beginning French Language and Culture II

1. Converse on a basic level in French in the present tense on topics such as school, home, shopping, clothing, food, holidays, health, and daily routines and comprehend spoken French and readings on those topics.
2. Employ idiomatic expressions and circumlocution as communicative strategies in written and spoken French to convey a message rather than relying on word-for-word translation.
3. Differentiate between direct and indirect objects by analyzing syntactical structures of sentences.
4. Pronounce words with a near-native accent in French, differentiating subtleties as well as obvious differences between English and French productions of letters and phonemes.
5. Conjugate regular, irregular and reflexive verbs in the present tense indicative and imperative moods, and in the past tense indicative (passé composé and imparfait) and future tense.
6. Recognize a greater variety of morphological cues such as prefixes and suffixes as well as borrowed words and cognates derived from common languages (such as Latin) to guess the meanings of unfamiliar words in English and French.
7. Empathize with the difficulties any non-native English speakers, and minorities and immigrants face in learning a second language.
8. Recognize some cultural and linguistic variations between the many countries comprising the French speaking world.
9. Identify some cultural differences between English-speaking and French-speaking societies, particularly with regard to foods and mealtimes, education, religious and national holidays, leisure activities, and health care.
10. Reflect on the cultural and linguistic influence and contributions from France and French-speakers in Canada, Africa, and the Caribbean to the English-speaking world as evidenced by place names and some daily customs, such as modes of dress, food, as well as architecture, art, and music.
11. Identify examples of vocabulary borrowed from other linguistic groups into French through historical events, such as France’s colonial presence in Africa and Indochina.
12. Label French-speaking countries and regions on a map, and identify major immigration patterns of French speaking groups living in the United States and in the French-speaking world.
13. Consider the role religion has played in the history of France and the French-speaking world, and the role it plays in present society.
14. Reflect on the relationship between France’s own struggle for freedom in the previous world wars and the subsequent impetus for independence in its former colonies.
15. Consider the cultural and linguistic influence of countries such as the United States, neighboring countries and former colonies on France.

1. Commands, formal and informal
2. Expressing “to know” with “connaître” and “savoir”
3. Expressing “ago” and “since” in French with il y a (+past tense) and depuis (+ present tense)
4. Expressing negation
5. Direct and indirect object pronouns used separately and together
6. Forms and usage of partitive articles, as opposed to definite and indefinite articles
7. Expressing the past: forms and usage of the conversational past (passé composé) vs. the imperfect (imparfait) and the recent past with venir de
8. Impersonal and reciprocal uses of the pronoun se
9. Relative pronouns and relative clauses
10. Vocabulary relating to school, foods, travel, holidays and health
11. Basic geography of the French-speaking world
12. Cultural themes and vignettes through readings, class discussions, videos and multimedia presentations