UC Irvine French 1

UC Irvine
FRENCH 1A, 1B, 1C
Course Information

Required Texts

School and departmental policies that may affect you

Adding and dropping: You may add or drop a course in the School of Humanities up to the end of the second week of classes with the instructor's signature. Requests to add or drop after the second week will be granted only for exceptional circumstances and with the approval of the Language Director.

Passing to the next level of French: Note that in order to enter the next level of instruction, you must complete this class with a grade of C or better. (C- is not sufficient.) There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this campus policy.

Incompletes: Requests for an Incomplete are granted only if you must miss the oral exam or the final for exceptional reasons; you must have no other missing work, and your work must be clearly passing at the time of your request.

Departmental policy on the use of tutors: If a tutor helps you with an assignment to be turned in for credit, you must give the tutor's name and phone number on the paper, and it must be clear that you understood and can account for the work. If you work with a tutor from outside of this department, s/he may be unaware of this rule, so it is your responsibility to be sure that you understand exactly why you write what you do and to be able to explain why you chose the words and forms you did. In case of uncertainty, your teacher may ask you to explain your work and demonstrate that you can do the same things without the tutor's assistance that you could do with it.

Course Goals

  1. To develop comprehension of spoken French through use of French in the classroom, listening exercises, and interaction with other students and with your instructor.
  2. To develop a functional vocabulary through reading and through active use of French.
  3. To develop a capacity for meaningful self-expression in French through written practice and classroom interaction.
  4. To become familiar with basic principles of French language structure through assigned exercises and class discussion.
  5. To develop an awareness of and sensitivity to French and francophone cultures through reading and discussion.

Grading

2 one-hour tests, 150 points each 300
final exam 200
oral exam 200
Journal (1A); 4-5 writing assignments (1B/C) 100
Your 4 best grades of 5 written quizzes x 25 100
Homework and participation 100

Grade scale

970-1000 A+ 930-969 A 900-929 A-
870-899 B+ 830-869 B 800-829 B-
770-799 C+ 730-769 C 700-729 C-
670-699 D+ 630-669 D 600-629 D-

Course Policies

Missed work: If you must be absent on the day of an exam, contact your instructor to arrange to take the exam before it is given in class. Reasonable accommodation can be made for illness or emergency, but it is your responsibility to contact the instructor promptly to discuss the situation. Quizzes will be announced in class. One quiz grade is dropped so that one illness or low score will not lower your term grade. There are NO make-ups for missed quizzes.

Oral Exam: At the exam, your instructor will evaluate your ability to communicate in French in a role-play situation with your partner. Your overall fluency, your accent, the correctness of your sentences, and your vocabulary will be considered. The best ways to prepare for the exam are to participate actively in class, to work consistently with the tape program, and to find classmates or other friends with whom you can arrange times to speak French outside of class.

Participation: Your instructor evaluates your participation based on your attendance, your preparation, the effort that you put into doing your best work, and your progress.

About homework: Homework assignments aer indicated on the course syllabus. Your instructor may make minor changes from time to time; so if you are out of class for more than a day, you should call a classmate and find out what you missed. DO NOT CALL THE FRENCH DEPARTMENT TO ASK ABOUT A HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT.

Doing your homework regularly is crucial to success in this course. Note that the general rule of thumb for college classes is that you should expect about 2 hours of homework for each hour of class time. If you participate regularly in class, practice as much as you can, and develop very effective study strategies, you might not really need 10 hours a week for French homework; but staying abreast of the work is very important, and homework will be taken up at random times for correction by your teacher.

Homework is due promptly at the beginning of class on the date for which it is assigned. Late homework will not be graded under any circumstances.

Tapes: At the Humanities Instructional Resource Center (HH 363) you can check out all the cassette tapes for Voil# for this quarter; or, if you prefer, you may use the tapes in the lab, where you can control the speed of the tape. You should practice regularly with the tapes, preferably out loud. If the current chapter is too hard for you, work from earlier chapters.

Attendance: Nothing you do in this class is more important than being in class and participating actively. Frequent absences will be reflected in your course grade, because attendance is the most important part of your participation grade and because if you aren't in class to get the practice and direction you need, it will show up in your exam grades. If you are unable to attend class regularly, you should not take this course.