ENATE ? 

E . NAT 

. E C 

. OMMITTEE ON UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES 

NEW COURSE PROPOSAL - FREN 199-3 

?

.................................................................. 

Action undertaken by the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies 

at its meeting of June 30, 1981 gives rise to the following motion: 

"That Senate approve, and recommend approval to 

the Board of Governors, as set forth in S.81-102, 

the new course proposal F'REN 199-3 - Writing French." 

.

0. ,. 

Lniornac]on 

?

FREN ? 

Title of Course: Writing French 

Calendar Description of Course: 

An alternative to French.201-3 for francophone students who need practice in 

elementary grammar, composition and spelling. Offered as a correspondence 

course only; 

language 

Prerequisites (or special instructions): Fluency 

French. Students will be 

accepted after an interview with a French Division Faculty member. Students 

not get credit for both FREN 201-3 and 199-3. Successful completion 

normally gives entry into FREN 202-3. 

course (courses), 

is being dropped from the calendar if this coui!^-4t is 

approved: none 

2. Scheduling 

How frequently 

once 

year 

the

course will first be 

offered? 

Fall 82 

Which of 

possible? McDonald, Sawyer, Luu and others 

,.'. Oblectivesof the Course 

Students who speak French well (because their family is francophone or they 

have lived in a francophone district) but cannot write it and have no knowledge 

of formal grammar are difficult to place adequately in our present courses. 

This course will enable 

202 and further courses. It 

is hoped that some of them will become French minors or majors. Open to 

students on or off campus. 

4. Pudgetary 

(for information only) Also, see attached, for full 

details. 

Faculty none 

Staff DISC marker/tutor; bilingual (French) secretary, during preparatory stage only 

Library none 

Audio Visual cassettes 

none 

Aoril -2 

?

tment Chairman 

Chairman, 

SCUS 

Proposed basic syllabus (unordered topics) 

Spelling 

Principles of ortitoepy. Spelling of common words. Agreements in simple 

sentences. Conjugations of verbs. 

Morphology and syx 

Conjugation of verbs (most frequently used tenses). Irregular plurals and 

feminines. Personal, relative and interrogative pronouns. Use of common 

prepositions. A few common complex sentences. 

Basic grammar: noun, verb, etc.; subject, object, etc.; gender, number, 

ageiei, tenses. 

Vocabularly 

Elimination of the most obvious anglicisms. 

Precision in the choice of words. 

Pedagogical considerations 

A simple textbook including many exercises will be written for this course 

(sample lesson attached). Graduated dictations (on tape) will accompany the 

textbook. ? 

.

Objectives 

Basically, to achieve the standard of FREN 201 and, hopefully, to continue 

successfully to FREN 202 or FREN 202. The course will be sufficiently 

flexible to meet the basic individual needs of any student in this special 

category. ? 

.

Course proposal - ERENCEI 199 

Motivation and justification 

Students who speak French well but cannot write it are difficult 

to place in our presently available French language courses. 

We see several such students each semester, some born to a 

Francophone environment, others having lived in a Francophone area, who 

have never received any formal instruction in French. They take the 

Placement Test and do extremely well on the oral part but disastrously badly 

on the written component. If we then place them in French 201 (Intermediate 

French I), (which has a large oral component) or in a lower course, they are 

soon bored because they speak so much better and faster than the other students. 

At the same time, they do very poorly in the grammar component of the course, 

but, because they feel that they are more advanced than their fellow-students, 

they fail to study sufficiently and fall further and further behind. When they 

realize that they will not receive a good grade, they abandon the course. If, 

on the other hand, we place them in French 202 (Intermediate French II) or in a 

higher course, they are immediately discouraged because the level of overt 

grammatical knowledge expected of them now is well beyond their capabilities. 

They drop out, or, if they struggle to the end of the course, get poor grades and 

do not take further French courses. 

However, if these students are provided with courses that are more 

appropriate to their needs, they can receive special attention and in all 

probability,will continue in their French studies, possibly up to a minor or 

a major program in French. 

The French Division believes that there is a need for at least one 

course designed especially for. such students. Being located near Maillardville, 

SFU attracts students from French-Canadian families, who have never received 

format instruction in French. Students with the same problem also come from 

districts in Vancouver and elsewhere in the Province. Since their problem is 

clearly in the area of writing competence, a correspondence-type course will 

serve their needs extremely effectively and, furthermore, create an opportunity 

for out-Of-town students to take an S.F.U. French course, which may encourage 

-2-- 

them to take further French courses if they come to the university later on. 

This new course, then, is intended to be available to both on campus and 

out-of-town students and the only restriction on entry is that the candidate 

be classifiable in terms of the criteria of the French Division as 

Francophone. 

?

-

-3-

Frankly, we are not at the moment certain as to exactly how many 

students may be interested in this new course. However, from the number of 

students we see at the Placement tests, we have very good reasons to believe 

that the course, offered once a year, will attract initially, between 15 and 

20 students. The offering should be in the Fall, since this course will be 

one possible poiut of entry into the sequence of French courses which regularly 

start in the Fall semester of every year. 