Intermediate French I

In French 130, you will be "parachuted" to Paris where you will choose where you want to live and explore your chosen neighborhood in depth. Every week we will discuss a different theme of Parisian life and French culture. As you discover your arrondissement, you will share information about it with your classmates and develop a collective knowledge of the French capital. You will tell your imagined experiences through your journal and therefore as a class, we will "raconter Paris". French 130 is the first half of the intermediate sequence designed to help you attain a level of proficiency that should allow you to function comfortably in a French-speaking environment. This course will build on your existing skills in French, increase your confidence and ability to read, write, speak, and understand French, and introduce you to more refined lexical items, more complex grammatical structures, and more challenging cultural material. As in other French courses at Penn, class will be conducted entirely in French. In addition to structured oral practice, work in class will include frequent communicative activities such as role-plays, problem-solving tasks, discussions, and debates, often carried out in pairs or small groups. Through the study of authentic materials such as articles, literary texts, songs, films, videos, you will deepen your knowledge of the French language and culture.