Office Hours

New Cabell Hall 344

  • Mon & Wed: 2:30 - 3:00pm
  • Fri 2:30 - 3:30pm

Description

FREN 1000 is an ungraded reading class designed to prepare graduate students with some background in French or another Romance language for the French Department’s proficiency exam in particular, and for reading academic French in general. The focus is on reading literary and scholarly texts of interest to the students and on translating them accurately into idiomatic English. In the process, the students will become (re)acquainted with the fundamentals of French grammar, build an essential vocabulary, and learn to recognize and interpret common French grammatical forms.

Course Texts

  • E.M. Stack, Reading French in the Arts and Sciences, fourth edition (available as a course pack from N. K. Print & Design on the Corner & as PDF on collab)
  • A good French-English dictionary (e.g. Barrons, Langenscheidt, Larousse)
  • (Optional) a French grammar book; even the Dover “Essential French Grammar” will provide most of the forms and principles needed.

Assignments

  • Participation: Students should come to class having prepared the homework in advance and should contribute to class discussions.

  • Daily readings: Students are to read chapters of Stack by the date indicated on the syllabus.

  • Daily translation passages: In addition to the readings in Stack, students will prepare translations of texts (chosen based on students’ research interests). In class, we will review these translations and discuss any questions about the homework.

  • Mock Examination: Mid-way through the session and at the end of the session, students will complete a mock translation examination comparable to the one required by many graduate programs. This will not count toward the final grade, and is intended to help students gauge their progress.

French Department Reading Exams

  • The French Proficiency Exam
  • The French Mastery Exam
  • Information and online registration at: http://french.as.virginia.edu/graduate-reading-exam-0