French
Learning Objectives
1. Ability to speak French in a way understandable to native speakers in everyday situations and routine work requirements
2. Ability to understand the main ideas of spoken French in a standard dialect in everyday situations
3. Ability to read with almost complete comprehension French texts encountered in everyday situations as well as a variety of literary texts
4. Ability to write routine social correspondence, narratives and descriptions in French with a minimum of errors
5. General knowledge of French and francophone cultural traditions and informed attitudes toward cultural differences
Measures
Near the end of the quarter before the student plans to graduate, the student is to give an ORAL PRESENTATION ("recital"), lasting approximately five minutes, entirely in French, on a topic of the student's choice, approved beforehand by Dr. Finn and/or Dr. Dufault. The faculty members of the department, as well as other presenting students, form the audience. After the presentation, audience members possessing sufficient skills in French will ask general questions of the presenter. Following the presentation and question and answer session, the student's performance will be evaluated as "Pass", "High Pass", "Pass with Distinction", or "No Pass."
Criteria for performance are 1) ability in French at least at a High Intermediate level (as put forward by the ACTFL), 2) content of reasonable interest and sufficient complexity to demonstrate the student's skills, and 3) comprehension and reasonably coherent responses to questions.
Annual Reports on the Assessment of Student Learning
Follow the links below to view the full text of the reports for each academic year.