Learning Goals in the French Major

French specialists (majors and minors) and non- specialists who are nevertheless interested in seriously studying French are expected to:

• Demonstrate proficiency in writing and speaking the language. In speaking, they are expected to reach, as a minimum, the proficiency level designated in the ACTFL standards, as “High Intermediate.” In writing they are expected to be able to write in clear, grammatically correct and cogent French 8-12 page analytical papers on literary, filmic or more generally cultural topics (linguistic proficiency)
• Demonstrate proficiency in French and Francophone literature, French and Francophone cinema and French history, including knowledge of contemporary France and its troubled relationship with its colonial past (cultural proficiency)
• Demonstrate proficiency in French contemporary theory. French students should be able to think critically, to analyze a cultural text (be it literary or cinematic) and to demonstrate some degree of familiarity with the major trends of contemporary French theory: structuralism, semiotics, deconstruction, postmodernism and post-colonialism (theoretical proficiency)
• Demonstrate a thorough and nuanced understanding of France’s evolving status in an increasingly globalized world.