Major in French Studies

The objective of the French major is to provide oral and written competence in the language and a solid background in the literature and culture of the countries of the French-speaking world.

Lower-division students are required to meet for one (1) hour a week in small group sessions with French-speaking tutors and to use the LLC computer lab.

By design, this is a flexible program that can be adapted to a variety of situations. In order to ensure the flexibility of the French major or minor, each student will discuss and prepare his or her curriculum with a French advisor and, where applicable, an advisor from the student's major field. Each program will be tailored to fit the individual needs and career goals of the student.

To further develop students' skills in French, the Department offers a French Ciné-Club, a weekly café conversation, a writing center, vidéothèque and an audiothèque and contacts with French-speaking students from several countries. A free tutoring program is also available in addition to the French tutorial sessions required in lower-division courses.

Students are encouraged to spend a summer in France or in another French speaking country, or a semester abroad at a French-speaking university.

Requirements for the Major in French Studies

Lower-division courses

• FREN - 101 First Semester French
• FREN - 102 Second Semester French
• FREN - 201 Third Semester French

Note: Lower division courses 101, 102, 201 do not fulfill the units required for the major or minor. They fulfill the language requirement and prepare the student to continue in French.

Requirements for the Major

This program requires completion of forty (40) units in French, as follows:

• FREN - 202 Fourth Semester French

Upper division courses (24 units)

• Culture requirement:
• FREN - 340 French Cinema and Literature or
• FREN - 350 Paris-Berlin: Connections and Contrasts at the Turn of the 20th Century or a course with a significant French or Francophone component (with permission of Department), and
• Six 300-level courses:
• FREN - 300 French Culture and Civilization
• FREN - 320 Introduction to Textual Analysis
• FREN - 322 Introduction to French Literature 17th and 18th Centuries
• FREN - 324 Introduction to French Literature 19th and 20th Centuries
• FREN - 330 Francophone Literature I
• FREN - 332 Francophone Literature II
• Three French 400-level seminars (12 units)

Learning Goals/Outcomes for the B.A. in French Studies

• Students will have acquired a basic understanding of the literary, historical, social, or cultural influences that inform French and Francophone literary works.
• Students will have acquired the ability to express themselves in French, and to articulate in writing and discussion their responses to literary texts.
• Students will have developed a basic critical ability to identify, interpret, and evaluate the ideas and formal features of an integrated body of literary texts authored in the French language.
• Students will have developed a sensitivity to the plurality of meanings within a literary text authored in French.