Course Information

• Course Number: FREN 210
• Course Title: Intermediate French
• Semester: Fall 2013
• Class Day/Time: MW 7:20 - 8:35 pm
• Instructors: Nadia Duchelle
• Textbook: Voilà! An Introduction to French, Sixth Edition, Heilenman/Kaplan/Tournier, Heinle, Textbook Website
• Catalog Info: FREN 210

My Experience With This Course

I first studied French when I was in high school. I really enjoyed learning a new language and it has been one of my life goals to become fluent in French. So when I enrolled at GMU it was as a French major.

My French 210 class met on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 7:20 till 8:35. There was quite a wide range of ability among the class members and that caused some problems at the beginning of the semester. The professor addressed this by offering a “pre-class” at 6:00 where students could go for extra help. Many students (myself included) took advantage of this extra help.

This class covered a variety of topics. The always challenging irregular verbs were introduced and/or reviewed each week. Reflexive and reciprocal verbs were also taught, along with future, conditional and subjunctive verb tenses. Pronouns were also covered in much detail. Each lesson introduced vocabulary with a specific theme (travel, entertainment, relationships, etc.)

Many types of learning activities were included as part of this course. The textbook included an on-line version with many different on-line exercises. One of the more surprising exercises to me involved recording audio responses and submitting them for the instructor’s review and assessment. There were also the more traditional written and listening exercises. In-class activities included the professor’s lectures, students’ speaking, tests/quizzes and compositions.

The highlight of the class was the end-of-year student oral presentations. Students chose a French-related topic of their choice and prepared a presentation for the class. All the presentations were interesting and enjoyable, but one of them was definitely the class favorite. A few students teamed up and presented their version of a French café. Crepes were made, served and happily consumed by the class!