Minor of French Language

The undergraduate French teaching minor provides the competencies in language, culture, and pedagogy that will result in a student's ability to participate in the social practices and contexts associated with learning and teaching French at the secondary-school level. The liberal-arts training associated with language and culture sharpens communicative, analytical and interpretive skills. It is designed to help students appreciate the language, literature and culture of France and the Francophone world. The pedagogy courses provided by the French department and the School of Education make it possible for program graduates to, in turn, help their own students appreciate French language, literatures and cultures and to begin to communicate meaningfully with French speakers throughout the world. Students in the teaching major learn to use knowledge acquired through French and pedagogy courses to understand and address issues related to education. They learn and teach in ways that stimulate curiosity and encourage learning beyond their in-school experiences.

Students…

1. Develop "proficiency" in:
   • writing, speaking and listening in a variety of living as well as professional contexts
   • reading various text types (newspapers, literature, college-level texts) with a high-level of comprehension
   A senior Oral Proficiency Examination is administered to all French Teaching majors before graduation. The required OPI rating for pronunciation, intonation, grammar, syntactical complexity, usage is Advanced-mid on the ACTFL Proficiency scale.
2. Learn to use writing as a process of discovery by composing academic essays that work toward mature thinking, the orderly development of ideas, and vigorous argument.
3. Learn to recognize and comment intelligently on the major periods and contributions of French and Francophone literature and history.
4. Learn to appreciate the role of aesthetic experience in human experience generally, including both the universal and culturally contingent traits of the beautiful.
5. Are equipped with the linguistic competence, general habits of thought and expression, and pedagogical training, both theoretical and practical, for professional work in foreign language teaching.