UC-Irvine Self-placement Questionnaire

UC-Irvine Self-placement Questionnaire
WHO SHOULD TAKE FRENCH 2A?

If you have had three or four years of high-school French and made good grades, or if you have already had a second-semester French course at another college or university, you are entitled to enroll in French 2A and may have been placed here by your academic advisor. However, it is important for you to understand that you are expected to know the basic material that is usually covered in a first-year French course. The grammar will be reviewed, but you are expected to do most of the grammar work on your own, and there will not be sufficient time during class to explain basic grammar structures. Much of the class time will be spent on working with reading and writing assignments or on practicing spoken French.

The following chart should help you decide whether this level is appropriate for you. Read the descriptions; and if you believe that you should be placed in a higher or a lower level, you should speak with your teacher.

This is the right class for you if ....

You are able to understand most of what your teacher says in French and you are comfortable in an all-French classroom.
You are hesitant when you speak French, and you make grammatical mistakes, but you can describe yourself, talk about your interests, ask other people about themselves and their activities, etc.
You have done some reading in French, but it takes you some time and effort to follow the gist of a story or newspaper article.
You could write a page about yourself and your friends or family, without a dictionary, with some errors.

This class may be too advanced for you if...

It is difficult for you to follow what the teacher says, and you are not able to comfortably participate in the class.
You can say a few words at a time, but you can't join in a conversation without frequent stops and explanations to help you follow along.
You get discouraged easily and stop reading before you get through an entire text, because you can't figure the sentences out and/or there are too many words you don't know.
You can't write more than a sentence or two without looking words up, and you're not sure that your sentences are mostly in grammatically correct French.

You might want to consider a more advanced class if...

You understand everything the teacher says and you wish the pace of the class were faster.
You speak easily, make few mistakes, and are able to speak comfortably in the past or present and to talk a little bit about relatively sophisticated issues such as critical opinions, politics, etc.
You can read unabridged French texts fairly easily with the help of a dictionary. It takes time, but you can read with attention and some enjoyment.
You're comfortable writing a short composition that develops an argument or a position on a serious issue. You may need a dictionary occasionally, but you make few grammatical errors.