Intensive Language Program / Premier Cycle

Courses offered in Vermont


The information below is provisional and some course descriptions may be changed or added.

The Intensive Language Program (seven-week session) is designed for people whose proficiency in the French language is similar to that of a college undergraduate, from pure beginner to intermediate and advanced. Each level of the program involves four or five hours of classroom instruction per day and carries a total of three units of credit (the equivalent of nine semester hours). Although all students must sign the Language Pledge, those who are placed at the beginner levels may observe a modified version of the Pledge for the first week of the session. All books required for the courses will be available for purchase from the Middlebury College Store. Students will arrive on Friday, June 26, and courses begin on Monday, June 29.

Level I: Beginners 3101-3102-3103
Coordinator: Barbara Sicot
Instructors: Barbara Sicot, Richard Mattei, Nicolas Houdelette & Andrew Tourtelotte

This course is intended for students with no or minimum previous experience of the French language. We will develop the four competencies (listening and writing comprehension and expression) with extra emphasis put on oral communication. We will work with two different kinds of support: a method, Reflets, as well as realia. The entire class will also revolve around a creative oral and writing project in response to the needs of students.

Texts : Maia Grégoire- Grammaire Progressive du Français (Niveau débutant)- Paris, CLE International- 2004 ; Guy Capelle, Noëlle Guidon- Reflets (méthode de français 1)- Paris, Hachette- 1999 ; Guy Capelle, Noëlle Guidon- Reflets (Cahier d’Exercices)- Paris, Hachette- 1999.

Level II: Early Intermediate 3211-3212-3213
Coordinator Corinne Fertein
Instructors : Corinne Fertein , Simone Muller, Jose Nuñez, Véronique Ogden

Level Two is an integrated, intensive program for students who have received some previous instruction in (or exposure to) French, but who have reached only minimal proficiency and are not yet able to function independently in full immersion.

Level Two focuses on:

* Developing listening comprehension, oral competence, and socio-cultural communicative proficiency;

* Systematic acquisition of strategies for oral and written expression through progressive practice, with topical review of basic morphological and syntactic structures;

* An overview of various cultural aspects of French-speaking communities worldwide, through readings and multimedia resources.

The course is divided into 3 units. Students will be taught 4 classes a day:

Vocabulary and civilization (3211);
Introduction to literature (3212);
Oral activities (3213);
Grammar.

For this course students will be asked to:
- do presentations using Powerpoint,
- film presentations using their personal digital cameras and/or mobiles (if they have one),
- memorize poems and short texts for the literature class.

Texts: This course makes extensive use of authentic materials: literary excerpts, magazine and news articles, comic strips, songs, film clips and web sites.

In addition, the following texts are required:
- Grégoire M et Thievenaz O, Grammaire progressive du français Niveau intermédiaire (600 exercices) (CLE International 2003) ISBN 2090338482 ;
- Thievenaz O, Grammaire progressive du français Niveau intermédiaire : Corrigés (CLE International 2003) ISBN 2090338490
- Le Robert Micro, dictionnaire d'apprentissage de la langue française (Edition Poche, Édition 2006). ISBN 2849022527

- Blondeau N, Allouache F, Né M-F, Littérature progressive du français, Niveau débutant, avec 300 activités, CLE International 2003. ISBN 2090338843

* Integrate the characteristics of non-verbal language into communication in French (gesture, posture, facial expression, voice inflection, etc.);

* Review selected grammatical structures in close coordination with topics and activities taught in class;

* Provide a broad introduction to French and Francophone culture and literature through the study of articles from the press, plays, short stories, poems, and excerpts from novels.

Texts: La grammaire progressive du français" niveau intermédiaire chez Cle International; Le Robert Micro-Poche (Paris, Le Robert).


3305 La Dramaturgie : pratique orale et théâtre vivant / Dramaturgy: Oral Practice and Drama
Instructor: José Pliya

This course aims at developing ease, fluidity, and efficiency in oral expression through the medium of theater. Different plays by José Pliya will be studied. A public performance will be showed at the end of the session. (.5 unit)

3306 Voyage dans l’écriture/Journey in Writing
Instructor: Laurent Patenotte

This French composition course features a creative approach to process writing. Learners, in groups of two or three, select a genre, a mini-novel, skits or epistolary novel, and construct a story with embedded grammatical, rhetorical, and stylistic constraints. User-friendly instructive tools intended to stimulate creativity and facilitate language accuracy are readily available on the instructor's website. There, learners have access to a panoply of descriptive and narrative excerpts featuring various genres, moods, and registers. They also find pedagogically relevant reference works such as lexical and semantic webs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, grammatical descriptions, and literary, historical and Francophone civilization links. This carefully orchestrated course is a natural environment for 'scaffolding' and 'noticing' the gap between the language they experience from the various sources of input and their own output. It also aims at targeting 'avoidance' and 'overuse' strategies that often immobilize learners' language development and creativity.

(.5 unit)

3307 A travers cinéma, chansons et littérature / Through Cinema, Songs, and Literature
Instructor: Florian P. Croisé

Through the examination and use of authentic French materials, the course will discuss current topics in French society and focus on oral language (pronunciation, communication, etc.). Aural and visual materials will include feature-length films, songs, and literary texts (poetry, drama, and short story). Films: On connaît la chanson, Les choristes. (1 unit)

Texts: Coursepack of literary texts; Boule de suif by Guy de Maupassant

3308 Introduction au(x) monde(s) francophone(s) / Introduction to Francophone World(s)
Instructor: Dominique Lanni

In this course students will discover the peoples and cultures of various Francophone regions, such as Quebec, Morocco, French Guyana, Lebanon, and the Antilles, through a variety of documents that will demonstrate the range and diversity of Francophone cultures: short stories, plays, songs, recipes, etc. Authors to be considered include Milan Kundera, Michel Tremblay, Jacques Roumain, Copi, Ferdinand Oyono, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Jacques Rabemananjara, Kim Lefèvre, Salah Stétié et Dewé Gorodé.

Students will also continue to perfect their oral and written competence in French through individual and group presentations. (1 unit)

- All students must take the course in advanced grammar and composition

- All students must take the oral production course

- Students choose two of the courses on drama, literature and culture and society.

1. Required Grammar and Composition Course

3411 Écrire: de la grammaire au texte / Advanced Grammar and Composition
Instructor: Kogh Pascal Somé

This course enables students to construct progressively a repertoire of textual forms (narrative, descriptive, expressive, and argumentative) in order to communicate flexibly and fluently in writing. Concurrently, students will review fundamental grammatical structures and principles through numerous and varied exercises

Texts: Boularès & Frérot, Grammaire Progressive du français, Niveau avancé (CLE Internationnal, 2004); Girardet et Frérot, Panorama de la langue française, Méthode de français 3 (CLE International, 2001).

Recommended: Delatour et al, Grammaire du français (Hachette, 2004); M.P. Caquineau-Gündüz, Y. Delatour, J. P. Girodon, D. Jennepin, F. Lesage-Langot et P. Somé, 500 exercices de grammaire (Paris, Hachette FLE).

2. Required Oral production course

3460 Communication orale professionnelle / Professional Oral Communication
Instructor: Christine Guyot-Clément & Aline Germain-Rutherford

To speak, to present one's ideas, and to make public speeches are not natural activities. Oral expression in all its aspects (including pronunciation), will be practiced in this course specifically designed for students who have, in their professional life, to present, to debate, to persuade, or, simply put, to express themselves orally.

Text : Campus 4 livre de l'élève, Clé International

3. Drama, Literature, Culture and Society : Choose two among the following five.

3450 Langue orale et théâtre / Theater and Language
Instructor: Sonia Ristic

This course aims at developing ease, fluidity, and efficiency in oral expression through the medium of theater. By interpreting characters in short contemporary plays, students work both on phonetic and intonative accuracy and on their body language. All those who engage in public speaking (teachers especially) will find dramatic training invaluable in improving the quality of their voice, of their posture, and generally in making them feel more comfortable when addressing an audience. Daily work includes vocal, breathing, and other exercises in addition to rehearsing scenes that will be performed in a public show toward the end of the summer session.

34XX Ecriture autobiographique / Autobiographical Writing
Instructor: Isabelle Pagnon Somé

The aim of this course is two-fold: it will introduce students to the autobiographical genre, and will also help them improve their analytical and writing skills in French. We will explore the various types of particular fantasies (fantasmes) that underly autobiographical texts. Students will also produce their own autobiographical narrations. Readings will include essays by Philippe Lejeune, Les Mots by Jean-Paul Sartre, W ou le souvenir d'enfance by Georges Pérec, and Enfance by Nathalie Sarraute.

3412 Les grands discours de l’éloquence politique française / The Great Speeches of French Political Rhetoric
Instructor: Nicolas Roussellier

This course will study a variety of modern political speeches from the French Revolution to today. It offers a panorama of the evolution of French political rhetoric according to its historical, political, intellectual, and religious context. Students will have the opportunity to become familiar with political literature and will work on the art of rhetoric and political discourse in a concrete and lively manner, notably through enrichment of vocabulary, knowledge of the diversity of language styles, analysis of argumentation, and discursive strategies. Students of this course will have the opportunity to write by themselves a political speech which will be performed in a special event the ‘Soirée de l’Eloquence politique’ (end of the Summer School, in the Warner Hemicycle). For this summer (2009), the ‘Soirée’ will be devoted to Victor Hugo.

Text (required) :

Grossiord, S., Victor Hugo. Et s’il n’en reste qu’un, Paris, Découvertes Gallimard, (ISBN : 2070533441 / 2-07-053344-1)

Reference texts:

Chaussinand-Nogaret G., Les grands discours parlementaires de la Révolution : de Mirabeau à Robespierre : 1789-1795, Armand Colin, 2005.

Anceau E., Les grands discours parlementaires du XIX siècle, de Benjamin Constant à Adolphe Thiers, 1800-1870, Armand Colin, 2005.

Garrigues J., Les grands discours parlementaires de la Cinquième République, Armand Colin, 2006.

3429 Le cinéma du Maghreb et de l’immigration / Cinemas of the Maghreb and Immigration
Instructor: Bachir Adjil

N.B. This course will be offered from June 29 to July 22, 2 hours a day.

This course will study the historical and cultural aspects of the Maghreb and immigration though cinema. It will explore the double image that characterizes this type of cinema. The first image will focus on the French vision of the Maghreb and its representation in France’s former colonies. The second image will focus on Maghrebian directors and their vision of their societies. We will also explore the integration in France of the second generation of immigrants (the "Beurs"), especially issues of citizenship, exile, etc. Examples will be taken from films such as: Julien Duvivier’s "Pépé le Moko", Gillo Pontecorvo ‘s "La Bataille d'Alger", M. Allouache ‘s "Omar", C. Ruggia ‘s "Le Gone du Chaaba", Y. Benguigui ‘s "Inchallah dimanche" and A. Kechiche’s "La Graine et le mulet", among others.

Text: a course pack that is to be purchased at the college bookstore.

3485 Les formes de politisation de la jeunesse /Young people and politics in France today : continuity and change
Instructor: Anne Muxel

N.B. This course will be offered from July 23 to August 13, 2 hours a day.

Youth is an intensive period of transaction during which individuals, in different ways, will enter adulthood and discover politics. Young people have to negotiate with their primary socialization, and especially with their family legacy, to make their own choices and to appropriate specific attitudes, behaviours and roles in this field. First of all, this course will give the opportunity to better understand this process and to study political identity during this period of life. Are young people in politics so different from their elders? Can we observe some generational characteristics? Are all young people politically similar? This course will also explore the different forms of politicization among the young. Are they interested? Do they vote and how do they vote? Are they engaged and how are they engaged? Lastly, working with different data, surveys and studies, this course will offer an overview of French political life today.

Texts : A course pack that is to be purchased at the college bookstore

Courses offered at Mills


The information below is provisional and some course descriptions may be changed or added.

The Intensive Language Program (seven-week session) is designed for people whose proficiency in the French language is similar to that of a college undergraduate, from pure beginner to intermediate and advanced. Each level of the program involves four or five hours of classroom instruction per day and carries a total of three units of credit (the equivalent of nine semester hours). Although all students must sign the Language Pledge, those who are placed at the beginner levels may observe a modified version of the Pledge for the first week of the session. All books required for the courses will be available for purchase from the Mills College Store. Students will arrive on Friday, June 19, and courses begin on Monday, June 22.

Level I: Beginners 3101S-3102S-3103S (1 unit each)
Instructors: Mireille Belloni and Elise Bayle

This course is intended for students with no or minimum previous experience of the French language. We will develop the four competencies (listening and writing comprehension and expression) with extra emphasis put on oral communication. We will work with two different kinds of support: a method, Reflets, as well as realia. The entire class will also revolve around a creative oral and writing project in response to the needs of students.

Texts : Maia Grégoire- Grammaire Progressive du Français (Niveau débutant)- Paris, CLE International- 2004 ; Guy Capelle, Noëlle Guidon- Reflets (méthode de français 1)- Paris, Hachette- 1999 ; Guy Capelle, Noëlle Guidon- Reflets (Cahier d’Exercices)- Paris, Hachette- 1999.

Level II: Early Intermediate 3211S-3212S-3213S (1 unit each)
Instructors : Lourdes Suarez Vallé
Level Two is an integrated, intensive program for students who have received some previous instruction in (or exposure to) French, but who have reached only minimal proficiency and are not yet able to function independently in full immersion.
Level Two focuses on:
* Developing listening comprehension, oral competence, and socio-cultural communicative proficiency;
* Systematic acquisition of strategies for oral and written expression through progressive practice, with topical review of basic morphological and syntactic structures;
* An overview of various cultural aspects of French-speaking communities worldwide, through readings and multimedia resources.
Students will be taught 4 hrs a day in : vocabulary and civilization (3211); Introduction to literature (3212); Oral activities (3213); and Grammar.

The following texts are required:
- Grégoire M et Thievenaz O, Grammaire progressive du français Niveau intermédiaire (600 exercices) (CLE International 2003) ISBN 2090338482 ;
- Thievenaz O, Grammaire progressive du français Niveau intermédiaire : Corrigés (CLE International 2003) ISBN 2090338490
- Le Robert Micro, dictionnaire d'apprentissage de la langue française (Edition Poche, Édition 2006). ISBN 2849022527
- Blondeau N, Allouache F, Né M-F, Littérature progressive du français, Niveau débutant, avec 300 activités, CLE International 2003. ISBN 2090338843

Level III: Upper Intermediate

Level Three is for students who have had significant previous instruction in French and who are already able to function independently in full immersion. Typically, students at this level demonstrate textual/writing ability beyond the sentence level. The individual components of the program are designed to complement one another, and all include intensive study of the language. Students will also arrive at a broader appreciation of French and Francophone cultures and literatures. N.B. All four courses are required.

3305S Apprendre le français en jouant / Learning French through acting
(.5 unit)

Instructor: Charles Fathy Abdi

This course is designed to study French through acting. " Pour un oui ou pour un non", the play of Nathalie Sarraute will be one of the pieces on which groups of two students will work. In the first half of the course, students will work on different acting methods (Meisner, Stanislavski). The emphasis will be put on associating French words with actions and emotions. Students will have to do some research and to compose a character that they will describe and present in class. They will be also introduced to the Commedia Dell’Arte with an emphasis on the neutral mask. Then we will compare the importance of the text and the subtext in different styles of theatre. In the second half, the students will rehearse the play by pairs and perform at the end. Students will have to memorize lines, depending on how they are comfortable without the "text in hand", according to the extract they choose. The whole play will be performed by a multiple cast. The students will receive a grade based on their language progress rather than on their acting skills.

3306S Voyage dans l’écriture/Journey in Writing
(.5 unit)

Instructor: Maria-Antonietta Garcia

This French composition course features a creative approach to process writing. Learners, in groups of two or three, select a genre, a mini-novel, skits or epistolary novel, and construct a story with embedded grammatical, rhetorical, and stylistic constraints. User-friendly instructive tools intended to stimulate creativity and facilitate language accuracy are readily available on the instructor's website. There, learners have access to a panoply of descriptive and narrative excerpts featuring various genres, moods, and registers. They also find pedagogically relevant reference works such as lexical and semantic webs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, grammatical descriptions, and literary, historical and Francophone civilization links. This carefully orchestrated course is a natural environment for 'scaffolding' and 'noticing' the gap between the language they experience from the various sources of input and their own output. It also aims at targeting 'avoidance' and 'overuse' strategies that often immobilize learners' language development and creativity.

3301S Production orale et prononciation / Oral Production and Pronunciation

(1 unit)

Instructor : Aya-Claire Rémon

The objective of this course is to acquire the means of communication using contemporary oral French for everyday social situations.

Through various activities organized around a daily conversation theme, students will develop and perfect their oral production and comprehension skills.

Each class will include systematic work on French phonetics. The different exercises will allow students to practice and correct their French pronunciation, rhythm, and intonation.

3320 Grandes questions contemporaines françaises à travers le cinéma / France’s Contemporary Issues through its cinema (1 unit)
Instructor: Michel Gueldry

This course surveys about 10 issues in contemporary France, including immigration, multiculturalism, feminism, unemployment/economic crisis, social mores, etc., through contemporary films. We will watch about 10 films. Each contemporary topic will be presented by a group of students, I will help you finding sources, interpreting and structuring information for your oral presentation. After the students’ presentation on a given theme, we watch the relevant film on the same topic, and we debate and discuss it. Students will write short essays (with multiple drafts so as to improve their written French and grammar) based on our debates and your personal interpretation.

No book purchase required. Instruction will provide reader + webography

Level IV: Advanced

3411S Écrire: de la grammaire au texte / Advanced Grammar and Composition
(.5 unit)

Instructor: Maria-Antonietta Garcia

This course enables students to construct progressively a repertoire of textual forms (narrative, descriptive, expressive, and argumentative) in order to communicate flexibly and fluently in writing. Concurrently, students will review fundamental grammatical structures and principles through numerous and varied exercises

Texts: Boularès & Frérot, Grammaire Progressive du français, Niveau avancé (CLE Internationnal, 2004); Girardet et Frérot, Panorama de la langue française, Méthode de français 3 (CLE International, 2001).

Recommended: Delatour et al, Grammaire du français (Hachette, 2004); M.P. Caquineau-Gündüz, Y. Delatour, J. P. Girodon, D. Jennepin, F. Lesage-Langot et P. Somé, 500 exercices de grammaire (Paris, Hachette FLE).

3401S Production orale avancée et prononciation / Advanced Oral Production and Pronunciation

(.5 unit)

Instructor : Aya-Claire Rémon

The objective of this course is to acquire the means of communication using contemporary oral French for everyday social situations.

Through various activities organized around a daily conversation theme, students will develop and perfect their oral production and comprehension skills.

Each class will include systematic work on French phonetics. The different exercises will allow students to practice and correct their French pronunciation, rhythm, and intonation.

3435S Communication interculturelle: les rites, mythes, tabous et vaches

sacrees des Francais / Intercultural Communication : French Rituals, Myths, Taboos and Sacred Cows

(1 unit)

This class explores the following questions: How was French identity created? What is the French worldview on a number of key political, economic and social issues? How does one negotiate with the French? How does one account for French anti-Americanism, old and new? This course examines the historical, economic, social and cultural forces that shape/d contemporary French identity and looks into numerous comparisons with the United States, for instance comparing the role of the state/government, attitude toward capitalism, the role of religion, gender relations, the concepts of pleasure and big C- Culture, etc. Students will read texts, answer questions and share their ideas and interpretation in class. We will also watch videos and significant film clips. Students will write several short essays (with multiple drafts to improve their written French and grammar).

No book purchase required. Instruction will provide reader + webography

3430S Panorama du théâtre français du XXème siécle / Panorama of XXth Century French Theatre

(1 unit)

This course will provide an overall approach to XXth Century French Theatre so that students can read plays critically but also understand and analyze them in the context of the evolution of theatre throughout the century. The course will consider the four major theatrical movements: traditional (Giraudoux), surrealist (Cocteau), existentialist (Sartre), and absurdist (Beckett, Ionesco, Tardieu). The second part of the course will focus on this last peculiar movement in order to understand how the overriding concern of its playwrights with linguistic experimentation generates a paradox: on the one hand they seem to show the arbitrariness and sterility of language while on the other, they also seem to demonstrate its infinite potential for regeneration and expansion.

Texts to be bought at the bookstore : Jarry, Ubu Roi; Giraudoux, La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu; Cocteau, Les mariés de la tour Eiffel; Sartre, Huis Clos; Beckett, En attendant Godot; Ionesco, La cantatrice chauve; Tardieu, Les Amants du métro.


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