French: Language and Culture

6 ECTS credits
150 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1021037BER for all students in the 1st semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.

Semester

1st semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Possible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Taught in

Faculty

Faculty of Languages & Humanities

Department

Linguistics and Literary Studies

Educational team

Sabine Hillen (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

26 contact hours Lecture
26 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
52 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

This course offers a history of culture and focusses more specifically on modernity in France and its neighbouring countries. Students prepare episodes of 18th, 19th or 20th centuries by means of chapters written by Gérard Noiriel, Philippe Aries, Gita Deneckere and others. Bibliography is in French or French translation. Will be considered among others: "La vie politique de 1870 à 1914", "Le choc des deux guerres mondiales", "La France dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle","La France, puissance mondiale, ascension et déclin".

Besides this, students read one novel on one particular episode of History (representation of colonial History, post-colonial events, Holocaust etc).

Students discuss one movie representing one episode of History (this can be a political event, a broader scale of tendancies, one year in History, a revolution, a war or cultural and artistic movement).

At the end, students know how to use digital tools but also how to work in the VUB library in order to find the appropriate documentation. Sources in print are separated in the bibliography from the digital ones. Quotes are used in both papers (see planning on Canvas). Knowledge of oral and written French at intermediate or advanced level is needed.

Course material

Handbook (Required) : Histoire de la France, Claude Lebédel, Rennes, Editions Ouest-France, 9782737350443, 2010
Handbook (Required) : Notre Histoire en couleurs, Xavier Mauduit, Paris, Les Arènes, 9782711201877, 2019

Additional info

Theory and literature will be available in VUBtiek and on Canvas at the start of the academic year. Movies at disposal or at good rates available online in archives or shops.

After contact times or after having settled for an appointment by mail.
More information can be found on Canvas (planner and studyguide). These are updated each year.

Learning Outcomes

Objectives

Students know the time axis cultural history and political history of France.
Students can organise their thoughts in short written assessments according to general guidelines available on Canvas. Level C1.
Students can rephrase academic texts during communicative and written skills (lecture and preparation of 2 or 3 hours at home is needed).
Students can describe the political and social events in a novel and/or movie with minimum three secondary sources in print and refer to these sources.
Students can use historical and cultural knowledge to confront context and corpus (of their novel/movie) to one another.
Students might get in touch with cultural events in and around Brussels (with possibly extra costs).

Competences

The student has developed a cultural awareness of language use and
language attitudes in French. • He understands the cultural connotations
specific to French • He can produce a text on the subject that is
correct in both content and language: • He has knowledge of the social,
artistic and cultural structures of France.
Has achieved level C2 of the European reference framework

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 30% of the final mark.
Written Exam determines 70% of the final mark.

Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

zittijd 1 en 2 with a relative weight of 33 which comprises 30% of the final mark. This is a mid-term test.

Note: Mondeling tijdens contactmomenten of indien afwezig tijdens les in zittijd 2

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

zittijjd 1 en 2 with a relative weight of 34 which comprises 70% of the final mark. This is a mid-term test.

Note: mondeling examen met schriftelijke voorbereiding

Additional info regarding evaluation

Oral presentation and assistance to the courses is necessary. This is not a class for students combining work and study.

A novel and/or movie need to be discussed during the written examen (in first and second sit). Level C1.

This written exam also focusses on Histoire de France (Lebédel), de la Belgique (Deneckere), Histoire des mentalités (Aries/Mauduit) and Histoire populaire. It questions on the readings during the courses.

Second sit: if students fail to attend classes, an extra oral exam is organised about these topics discussed in class.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context