B.A French

Programme Title

B.A. FRENCH

Philosophy and objectives:

As one of the most human attributes, language is an indispensable adjunct that humans use to communicate and carry out their duties and obligation. It is the vision of the department to see to it that students acquire knowledge of the French language and have a masterful control of it. With knowledge and control, the mission of the Department becomes all the more clear to have students not only have knowledge and control of French, but also to put the language into use with the greatest confidence and mastery in such a way that the listener is taken into considerations.

LIST OF COURSES AND THEIR CREDITS

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

LEVEL 100

FRE 1201: LANGUAGE I (2 CREDITS)
The French verb; its form, use of modes (l’indicatif, le conditionnel le subjonctif, l’impératif, l’infinitif et le participe) and their tenses. The noun (its complements, attributes and determinants) and personal pronouns.

FRE 1202: TRANSLATION I (THEME) (2 CREDITS)
In this course, students will have to translate from English into French. The aim of the course is to provide students with basic skills and techniques of translation of independent sentences and simple passages.

FRE 1203: LITERARY EXPRESSION (2 CREDITS)
Using very simple texts of literature, the course will incorporate an introduction to critical methods: basic definition (literary text, novel and other genres); stylistic features (metaphors, metonymy, symbols, rhetoric…). This offers the students an insight into Francophone literature.

FRE 1204: LANGUAGE II (2 CREDITS)
This course is a continuation of Language I (FRE1201). Areas not covered in FRE 1201 will be considered here.

FRE 1205: TRANSLATION II (VERSION) (2 CREDITS)
This course is a continuation of Translation I (FRE 1202), but students will have to translate from French to English.

FRE 1206: 17TH CENTURY FRENCH LITERATURE (2 CREDITS)
This course introduces students to the history of the development and nature of the French Classicism (“L’ âge classique”). It also deals with the general definition and specificity of the 17th century French literature wherein everything is centered on Versailles and Roi-soleil (Louis XIV).

FRE 1207: LANGUAGE APPRECIATION AND UNDERSTANDING (2 CREDITS)
Reading and understanding more difficult passages, with some degree of abstraction. Further exercises in Comprehension, Dictation, Simple Text Analysis, Précis Writing (Compte Rendu de Textes).

FRE 1208: LABORATORY EXERCISE (2 CREDITS)
Intensive language laboratory practice, with emphasis on sound acquisition. Corrective audio-oral-aural exercises. Basic phonetics and phonology.

LEVEL 200

FRE 2201: LANGUAGE I (2 CREDITS)
The French sentence: its forms (l’affirmation, la négation, l’exclamation, l’expression du doute, etc.) will be studied.

FRE 2202: TRANSLATION I (THEME) (2 CREDITS)
In this course, students will have to translate from English into French of more complicated texts. Acquisition of basic principles of the theory of translation will also be reinforced.

FRE 2203: FRANCOPHONE AFRICAN LITERATURE (2 CREDITS)
This course is a general introduction aimed at familiarizing the students with Francophone African literature from its origins to date.

FRE 2204: AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT (2 CREDITS)
The course will incorporate three various periods, the crisis which started the philosophical revolution (with Montesquieu, presented as a representative of the feudal reaction), the philosophical age (with Voltaire) and the contradictions of rationality (with Diderot and Rousseau).

FRE 2205: LANGUAGE II (2 CREDITS)
The nominal group and verbal group in a simple French sentence will be studied in this course. Transitive, intransitive, pronominal and impersonal verbs will also be introduced.

FRE 2206: TRANSLATION II (VERSION) (2 CREDITS)
Translation in this course will be a follow-up of FRE 2202 but it will be from French into English.

FRE 2207: LANGUAGE APPRECIATION AND UNDERSTANDING (2 CREDITS)
Advanced Exercise in Appreciation and Understanding. Advanced Text Analysis (Explication de Textes) with the use of abstract material, Dictation, Auditive Comprehension Tests. Summarizations etc. Emphasis will be on the Abstraction.

FRE 2208: ORAL PRACTICE (2 CREDITS)
Oral practice will involve language laboratory work, as well as other auditive and oral exercises such as Dictations, Compte Rendu de Textes, Reading, etc.

LEVEL 300

FRE 3301: LANGUAGE I (3 CREDITS)
This course deals with the structure of complex sentence in French (la juxtaposition, la coordination et la subordination).

FRE 3302: STYLISTICS I (2 CREDITS)
Comprehension, essays, debates using authentic French source materials (“documents authentiques”). The aim of the course is to study and analyze these texts in order to appreciate the various nuances and to explore a variety of possibilities in language style corresponding to the various intentions of the author of the messages.

FRE 3303: TRANSLATION I (THEME) (3 CREDITS)
This course is designed to provide students with more skills and techniques of translation from English into French through practical exercise.

FRE 3304: INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS (3 CREDITS)
A study of basic but general concepts in linguistics. Approachment of this to French in particular. The sounds of French (voyelles orales simples, voyelles orales composées, “e” muet, voyelles nasales, semi-voyelles, consonnes)

FRE 3305: THE FRANCOPHONE AFRICAN LITERATURE (3 CREDITS)
This course is a development of FRE 2203. It deals in greater details with the origins and growth of the Negritude movement, and treats such subjects as the influence of Afro-American and Caribbean writers in a historical perspective. An attempt will be made to analyze the common themes associated with Negritude movement.

FRE 3306: FRENCH ROMANTIC POETRY (3 CREDITS)
This course should incorporate a study of romanticism (origins, themes, foreign influences from Britain and Germany) in relation to social developments in France (rise of the bourgeoisie, decay of the nobility) and a study of the poets who wrote after the 1848 revolution, explaining their new conceptions of art and forms (Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud…).

FRE 3307: LANGUAGE II (3 CREDITS)
This course aims at the study of the grammar of contemporary spoken and written French; the written language and its specificity.

FRE 3308: STYLISTICS II (3 CREDITS)
Oral expression, conversion, exposé: a continuation of FRE 3202 but with variations in degree of difficulty of texts and in subject matter.

FRE 3309: TRANSLATION II (VERSION) (3 CREDITS)
A continuation of FRE 3303 but the translation is from French into English.

FRE 3210: AFRICAN POETRY IN FRENCH (2 CREDITS)
This is a course on the major literary trends of African poetry in French on some major literary works (its nature and specificity).

FRE 3211: FRENCH NOVEL (19TH CENTURY) (2 CREDITS)
Based on selected French fiction prose, this course introduces students to the anatomy of French novel of the 19th century, its main features and its aesthetic elements.

FRE 3212: FRENCH NOVEL (20TH CENTURY) (2 CREDITS)
This is a continuation of FRE 3211; from the end of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century.

FRE 3213: FRENCH POETRY (20TH CENTURY) (2 CREDITS)
This is a continuation of FRE 3306; i.e the study of French poetry from the beginning of the 20th century to date.

FRE 3214: ORAL EXPRESSION (2 CREDITS)
One of the areas to be emphasized in the year-abroad programme is the oral expression, which should include Exposés, Reading, Conversation, Debates, on a variety of topics drawn from Literature, History, Politics, Sociology, Current Affairs, etc. Regular weekly language laboratory exercises are important components of the course.

LEVEL 400

FRE 4301: LANGUAGE I (3 CREDITS)
The aim of this course is to bring students to a very good level of fluency and comprehension of the French language through intensive exercises in production and comprehension of complex sentence patterns.

FRE 4202: ADVANCED TRANSLATION I (THEME) (2 CREDITS)
Translation from English into French at an advanced level.

FRE 4303: LINGUISTICS (3 CREDITS)
This course is a continuation of FRE 3304 with emphasis on French phonetics and phonology.

FRE 4304: LITERARY CRITICISM (3 CREDITS)
Baudelaire, Taine, Lanson, Sainte Beuve will be evoked as representatives of past tradition. The links between criticism and ideologies will be explained. The French formalism and the sociological approach of L. Goldman must be studied in-depth.

FRE 4205: SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE (2 CREDITS)
This course traces the history of the French language from the original Indo-European source to Modern French. It shows its growth through the influences of Gallic, Latin and Germanic. It gives a basic introduction to Latin in relationship with French; the evolution of French from Latin to Old French and Modern French.

FRE 4206: NATIONAL LITERATURE (2 CREDITS)
This course aims at a detailed study of the National literature of one of the following countries: Cameroon, Congo, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire

FRE 4307: 19TH CENTURY FRENCH LITERATURE (3 CREDITS)
This course introduces students to the literary schools “le romantisme, le réalisme le postivisme and le symbolisme”

FRE 4208: CARIBBEAN LITERATURE (2 CREDITS)
This course aims at introducing the literature of the Francophone Antilles and Haiti with emphasis on some authors such as Césaire, Roumain, Depestre, Fanon, etc.

FRE 4209: SPECIAL AUTHOR (2 CREDITS)
This course aims at an in-depth study of the works in French of a given writer.

FRE 4610: DISSERTATION (6 CREDITS)
A dissertation written in French of 3,500 to 5000 words on subject preferably original related to any area of French studies.

FRE 4211: 20TH CENTURY FRENCH LITERATURE (2 CREDITS)
This is a study of the major trends on 20th century French literature as illustrated by representative literary works.

FRE 4312: LANGUAGE II (3 CREDITS)
This course is a continuation of FRE 4301

FRE 4213: ADVANCED TRANSLATION II (VERSION) (2 CREDITS)
Translation from French into English at an advanced level.

FRE 4214: ORAL/AURAL APTITUDE (2 CREDITS)
Practice use of the French language in concrete situations. Oral expression will receive maximum attention. Intensive laboratory practice and text (phonetic distinction discrimination etc.). Listening Comprehension based on abstract texts; Advanced passages for Dictation.

FRE 4215: ADVANCED COMPOSITION (2 CREDITS)
Further studies in Practical Writing. Advanced essay-writing (Dissertation française) advanced report writing, faits divers, Advanced correspondence, etc