The Undergraduate Program in French offers a broad humanistic course of study
designed for students in the liberal arts. The orientation of the program is
multidisciplinary, where the study of literature is linked to critical,
cultural, and historical concerns. Courses reflect the faculty's interest in the
related disciplines of history, philosophy, anthropology, women's studies,
cultural studies, postcolonial theory and comparative literature, and express its conviction that
the study of French literature and culture is enriched by pursuing its relations
with other disciplines, fields, and cultures.
Lower-division language courses encourage students to participate in the
creative process of language, to think in French as they learn to understand,
speak, read, and write. These courses are taught entirely in French, and the
approach to teaching stresses the interdependence of the four basic language
skills and makes them mutually reinforcing. The Language Laboratory is used to
complement classroom activity.
At the intermediate lower-division level, texts of contemporary literary and
social interest provide the focus for advanced conversation, reading, and
composition. After the second year, advanced courses in conversation and writing
enable students to attain a greater degree of proficiency, preparing them for
further study in the multidisciplinary upper-division program.
All upper-division offerings are taught in the seminar mode. Because classes
are limited in size, they promote and encourage participation and discussion
and facilitate direct contact with professors. In the introductory courses in
literature, complete texts are studied in their historical context. The student
learns to analyze and interpret different types of creative literature and is
introduced to various critical concepts and vocabularies. At the more advanced
level, the multidisciplinary courses bring together material and methodologies
from the various disciplines in order to address interpretive problems of French
literature, culture, and history. In recent years, courses have been offered
in literature and political opposition, monsters and madness in Renaissance
literature, cubism in painting and poetry, ethnography and literature, French
cinema, autobiography, Francophone literature, and Albert Camus and Algeria.
The content of these courses changes yearly according to the interests of both
faculty and students. Here is a list of courses offered by the French Department.
In addition to these courses, the French department offers to its
undergraduate students a series of extra-curricular activities:
French plays and movies, lectures and group discussions on French
culture and society as well as a weekly French table organized by
the Graduate students.
Placement examinations will no longer be required for students who have
successfully completed French language classes in high school, although an
optional placement exam is available. Students will now be placed in French
language courses according to their years of previous study. In general, one
year of high school French is equated with one quarter of UCI work. Thus,
students with one, two, three, or four years of high school French will enroll
in French 1B, 1C, 2A, and 2B, respectively. Exceptions to this placement
formula must be approved by the appropriate course director. Students with
transfer credit for college-level French may not repeat those courses
for credit.
Students in the French department are encouraged to spend from one quarter to a
full academic year in a French university. Through the Education Abroad Program (EAP), UCI participates in several exchange programs with major French schools and universities
in the following cities: Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Grenoble and Lyon. To go to EAP's main website, click here.
As part of the Division of Undergraduate Education at the University of California,
the Center for International Education (CIE) also
helps students to find internships, summer programs, and volunteering opportunities in France.
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