F316: French Conversational Practice

Text: Bragger, Jeannette and Rice, Donald. 2005. Du tac au tac, 3rd edition. Heinle & Heinle.

Description: This upper-level course teaches students pragmatically appropriate expressions for common conversational situations such as sharing opinions, asking favors, and telling anecdotes. It also incorporates a number of oral presentations inspired by films, such as a sketch in français familier following an excerpt from La fille seule and a lesson to the class after viewing Etre et avoir .

Reflection: This course had its ups and downs for me. I most enjoyed the presentations; the students always surprised me with their energy and creativity in inventing commercials or rummaging through dumpsters! I also learned to use rubrics in evaluating presentations and exams in this class – a very helpful tool for myself in grading and for students in preparing. The challenging part of this course was the textbook; it is a good guide for thinking about the common idioms and expressions we use in conversations in English and in French, but students found the activities a little limited and forced. If I had this course to do over again, I would look for more ways to bring that material to life and make it relevant.