The monographic course in French Language I consists of two parts. The first part aims to achieve a twofold objective: on the one hand, to be able to analyse, in a contrastive manner (French-Italian), the fundamental structures of the French language, paying particular attention to the difficulties caused by interference between Italian and French for Italian-speaking learners of French; on the other hand, to put these analytical skills into practice in order to learn the L2 independently and to keep up to date with the continuous evolution of the language. The second part is aimed at analysing, understanding, recognising and categorising the main phenomena of phraseology and paremiology, with particular reference to ordinary speech and advertising language in French and Italian.

The B1-level language skills will be developed in special lectures, which are compulsory for passing the entire French Language 1 examination. For the programmes, objectives and modalities of the lectorates, please consult the lecture sheets.

As the training objectives are of a dual nature, the programme will also be divided into two parts.

Part 1: Translation of basic syntactic structures from Italian into French. The following aspects will be taken into consideration: determination in French (in particular, the use of partitives and the distinction between partitive articles and prepositions); indetermination in French; prepositions; expressions of time; disimmetrical constructions of certain verbs. For this part of the syllabus, in-class seminar exercises (in person or at a distance) will be fundamental, as will the tasks assigned by the teacher from time to time. It will therefore be the students' responsibility to carry out the assigned tasks seriously and consistently.

Part 2: Phraseology and paremiology; ordinary speech and advertising language.

Knowledge and understanding: recognising the most problematic basic syntactic structures, i.e. disymmetrical, in a contrastive key (Italian-French); knowing and recognising phraseological units and proverbs; knowing and understanding the basic linguistic mechanisms of advertising communication, with particular reference to the use of modified phraseologisms and proverbs in advertising.

Applying knowledge and understanding: acquire automatic translation skills for the most problematic syntactic structures in contrastive terms (Italian-French); know how to use idiomatic expressions and proverbs also in creative ways in order to pursue persuasive aims in the field of advertising in Italian and French.

Making judgements: reflecting on the language from a grammatical and contrastive point of view, but also from an idiomatic and cultural point of view. The student acquires the necessary tools to produce autonomous linguistic, grammatical and syntactic analyses in order to use the language correctly for different purposes.

Communication skills: learning to communicate correctly in French, using the basic structures of French, avoiding casts from Italian and using idiomatically, adequately and creatively crystallised expressions. Learning to analyse mainly advertising texts in a linguistic key and to present their observations from a scientific and linguistic point of view.

Learning skills: learning to develop autonomous strategies for analysing the use of morphosyntactic structures in French and Italian in order to express oneself idiomatically and grammatically in the foreign language, learning techniques for overcoming linguistic obstacles in French communication. Learning to analyse a text on several different levels: on a syntactic - grammatical level and on a linguistic - cultural level.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Teaching materials will be provided from time to time in class and on the Moodle platform.

The teacher is available to receive students on a weekly basis in order to resolve doubts and help them with their learning.

The "lettorato" course, although having different objectives, is an activity to support language learning, which is necessary for understanding the contents of this course.

Teaching

Lectures + practical exercises (seminars, translation of sentences from Italian into French, with corrections proposed by the teacher and discussed in class) and seminar lessons on the analysis of ordinary speech and advertising texts that will require the active participation of the students, who will be encouraged to express themselves in French. In order to encourage the active participation of the students, an initial questionnaire will be given to them. Their attitudes and expectations will be checked, and practical exercises will be proposed to reinforce their linguistic and communicative skills on the basis of the initial questionnaires.

Attendance

Attendance is not compulsory, although participation in the lectures (either face-to-face or distance learning, as foreseen by the University due to the health emergency), as well as in the lecture series, is highly recommended, given the highly practical nature of the course. The examination will be the same for both attending and non-attending students.

Course books

Merger, M.F., Sini, L. (1995). Côte à côte : préparation à la traduction de l'italien au français. Florence: La Nuova Italia.

Bidaud, F. (2015). Grammaire du français pour italophones. Turin: UTET.

Bidaud, F. (2015). Exercices de grammaire française pour italophones. Turin: UTET.

Further bibliographical information (in particular concerning the part of the course relating to proverbs, idiomatic expressions and advertising language) will be provided during the lessons. The on-line teaching materials will be made available on the Moodle platform.

Assessment

The exam will be oral and will consist of two separate tests that the student will have to pass in succession: a test of translation of some sentences from Italian into French and an oral assessment of the contents dealt with in class and prepared autonomously by the student on the basis of bibliographical indications and material indicated from time to time during the course. As regards the test of translation of the sentences, importance will be given not only to grammatical correctness in French, but also to metalinguistic and grammatical reasoning on the reasons for the students' translation choices. 

At the end of the course, the teacher will produce a PDF document that will be uploaded on the Blended Page, in which he/she will indicate everything that is to be brought to the exam (and which will be based on what has actually been done in class, as well as readings that will be done independently).

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

Non-attending students are asked to consult the texts indicated and/or uploaded onto Moodle by the lecturer in order to prepare themselves for the exam. Some of the materials developed in class, such as exercises, will be made available on the course platform. The lecturer is also available (which is also a suggestion) to meet with non-attending students to clarify any doubts about the bibliography or the course objectives.

Attendance

There is no obligation to attend. The examination will be the same for both attending and non-attending students.

Course books

Merger, M.F., Sini, L. (1995). Côte à côte : préparation à la traduction de l'italien au français. Florence: La Nuova Italia.

Bidaud, F. (2015). Grammaire du français pour italophones. Turin: UTET.

Bidaud, F. (2015). Exercices de grammaire française pour italophones. Turin: UTET.

Further bibliographical information (in particular concerning the part of the course relating to proverbs, idiomatic expressions and advertising language) will be provided during the lessons. The on-line teaching materials will be made available on the Moodle platform.

Assessment

The exam will be oral and will consist of two different tests that the student will have to pass in succession: a test of translation of some sentences from Italian into French and an oral assessment of the contents dealt with in class and prepared autonomously by the student on the basis of the bibliographic indications and the material indicated from time to time during the course. 

At the end of the course, the teacher will produce a PDF document that will be uploaded on the Blended page in which he/she will indicate everything that will be brought to the exam (and that will be based on what was actually done in class, in addition to readings that will be done independently).

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Part of the course will be given in French.

N.B. Students who do not attend the course are asked to obtain all the materials indicated, to keep up to date with what is done in class and with the teaching materials proposed during the course, which can be found on the Moodle platform. They are also invited to get in touch with the teacher before proceeding with the preparation of the exam.
N.B. NON-ATTENDING students are advised to get in touch with the lecturers, to obtain materials for the lectures and to come to the lectures periodically.