Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

FR 101 is the first term of a three term sequence in First Year French at the college level. Communicative proficiency is the main objective of the sequence. The four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing are developed with emphasis on active use of these skills. In addition, students will gain cultural awareness and appreciation.

FR 101 is offered for four hours of transferable credit. It satisfies part of the foreign language requirement for the B.A. degree, counts as an elective for the A.A. degree, and contributes to the general education requirement for other Associate Degrees.

FR 101 is a course for beginners, so there are no prerequisites. However, prior experience with foreign language study may be helpful. Students in developmental education classes or ENL should complete those courses before they enroll in FR 101. Students whose skill level in French is more advanced than that of FR 101 will not be admitted.

Students successfully completing FR 101:

A. Manage basic interactions, in both oral and written forms, in highly predictable settings using basic vocabulary in the present tense.
B. Develop circumlocution and inference skills, at a beginning level, when navigating a limited number of real world situations in French.
C. Recognize linguistic and cultural diversity within the French speaking world and how it differs and/or relates to one’s own culture.
D. Identify selected historical and cultural movements in the target culture through exposure to literature, art, music, film and/or performing arts in the target language.
E. Acquire strategies for analyzing 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 practiced, and will be able to use the following communication topics and structures:

‚Communication topics
Greetings and health Age and nationality
Physical and personality characteristics
Family
Date
Personal interests and activities
‚Structures
The sound system of French
Regular and some irregular verbs in present, imperative, immediate future, and durative present tenses; simple infinitive constructions
Interrogative and negative sentence patterns and structures
Numbers and simple adverbs
Definite, indefinite, and partitive articles
Descriptive, possessive, demonstrative, and interrogative adjectives
Subject and stressed pronouns