Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Continuing the work begun in FR 250, FR 251 is the second term of a two term intermediate college course in French. Communicative proficiency is the main objective of the sequence. The development of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing is continued with emphasis on active use of these skills. In addition, students will expand their cultural awareness and appreciation.
FR 251 is offered for six hours of transferable credit. It satisfies the foreign language requirement for the B.A. degree, counts as an Arts and Letters distribution requirement for the A.A. degree, and contributes to the general education requirement for other Associate Degrees.
Recommended: Successful completion of FR 250 or the equivalent language experience in French, competency to be determined by the teacher. Students whose skill level in French is more advanced than that of FR 251 will not be admitted.

Students successfully completing the Second Year French sequence:
 

A. Manage most communicative tasks in a variety of social situations.
B. Communicate effectively with some rephrasing and circumlocution with most native speakers.
C. Narrate and describe with increased detail and length using a variety of time frames and modes with consistent accuracy.
D. Understand the values underlying cultural behaviors and attitudes within the French speaking world and how it relates to one’s
cultural perspective.
E. Compare and contrast historical and cultural movements through analysis of selected works of art, literature, music, film and/or performing
arts from the target culture.
F. Analyze and develop responses to abstract and complex ideas in a variety of authentic materials in the target language.

Students are expected to attend all classes, participate actively in classroom activities, and prepare oral and written homework assignments. Students may work with audio tapes in the media center or at home, and they may meet with the teacher in conferences. After the introduction to the course, French will be used in the classroom at all times. Students should plan to spend about one hour in preparation and practice outside of class for each class hour.

Students are assessed globally rather than from the point of view of the presence or absence of a given linguistic feature. Students will be assessed through a daily evaluation of their individual progress and improving competence in using the language as demonstrated by the quality of oral and written preparation and participation and daily oral and written assignments. Though tests are not used as an assessment tool, attendance is an important factor.

The course focuses on the acquisition and correct use of pronunciation and intonation, grammatical structures, functional vocabulary, and cultural concepts for the purpose of successful communication in French. Successful students have reviewed, expanded, and perfected previously learned material, have practiced, and will be able to use the following communication topics and structures:
 

1. Communication topics
   1. Earning and spending money
   2. Shopping, price, quality
   3. Expressing intentions
   4. Expressing personal opinions
   5. More advanced descriptions and narrations
   6. Geography
   7. Travel
   8. Levels of language
2. Structures
   1. Comparatives and superlatives
   2. Relative pronouns and clauses
   3. Additional uses of the subjunctive
   4. Additional uses of indefinite expressions
   5. Additional uses of the future and conditional
   6. Additional uses of relative pronouns and clauses
   7. Possessive pronouns
   8. Indirect discourse
   9. Additional practice with prepositions and articles
   10. Additional infinitive constructions
   11. Literary tenses