Undergraduate French 2018-2019

This course offers students who are registered for the Beginners' course in French language an introduction to twentieth and twenty-first century French culture and society through the study of films, short prose texts and poetry. The course is organised around the broad themes of childhood and adolescence, gender, sexuality and love and marginalisation in contemporary France. The texts will be studied in translation or with subtitles.

This course offers students with intermediate or good knowledge French language an introduction to twentieth and twenty-first century French culture and society through the study of films, short prose texts and poetry. The course is organised around the broad themes of childhood and adolescence, gender, sexuality and love and marginalisation in contemporary France. 

This intensive language course is designed for students who have little or no previous knowledge of French.

This course is intended for students who have studied French to Higher or equivalent level, but whose knowledge may be rusty.  It will enable them to consolidate and extend their knowledge of French, written and spoken.

This course is intended for students who have studied French to at least Higher or equivalent level, or beyond to A level or Advanced Higher.   It will enable them to consolidate and extend their knowledge of French, written and spoken.

This course builds on the work done in FR1023, providing students with an adequate command of French language to allow them the possibility of continuing their studies into level 2 and Honours. 

This course is intended for students who have studied French to the equivalent of Scottish Higher or beyond.  Building on the work done in the first semester in FR1024 or FR1025, it seeks to enable students to consolidate and extend their knowledge of French, written and spoken.

This course offers students with intermediate or good knowledge French language an advanced introduction to twentieth and twenty-first century French and Francophone culture and society, focusing on the occupation of France during World War II and the experience of colonialism and post-colonialism.

This course offers students who are registered for the beginners' course in French language an advanced introduction to twentieth and twenty-first century French and Francophone culture and society, focusing on the occupation of France during World War II and the experience of colonialism and post-colonialism. Written texts will be studied in translation or with vocabulary help and films will be studied with subtitles.

Students being admitted to a French degree programme, or intending taking a French course, should first take the language diagnostic test. The test can be taken at any time and is completed online. On the basis of this diagnostic test you will be allocated to the appropriate level 1 language course. The test helps to ensure you are on the course that is most appropriate for your level of knowledge and experience.

Please go to www.abdn.ac.uk/mycurriculum to access the French Diagnostic Test.

Having completed the test you should select the appropriate course when making your curriculum choices.

This second year French language course which runs in the first half-session is only open to students who have passed FR1524. It will improve their written, oral and aural skills, and is one of the two second year French language courses (with FR2502) that one has to have passed to be allowed into the French honours Programme.

This second year French language course which runs in the first half-session is only open to students who have passed FR1523. It will improve their written, oral and aural skills, and is one of the two second year French language courses (along with FR2512) that has to have passed to be allowed into the French honours Programme.

This course will introduce students to a variety of texts which focus on the theme of relationships between the individual and society in France from the 18th century onwards. The course will involve lectures and tutorials and will include the study of novels, a play and a film.

This course will introduce students to a variety of texts which focus on the theme of relationships between the individual and society in France from the 18th century onwards. The course will involve lectures and tutorials and will include the study of novels, a play and a film.

This second year French language course which runs in the second half-session is only open to students who have followed FR2002. It will improve their written, oral and aural skills, and is one of the two second year French language pre-requisite courses (along with FR2002) that one must have passed to be allowed into the French honours Programme.

This course will look at

-  the French sound system (with the spin-off of helping you to improve your pronunciation). 

-  word meaning and also speaker meaning (what a speaker means by, e.g., "were you born in a barn?")

-  how new words are formed

-  how sentences can be analysed

-  how French has developed from the Middle Ages up to the present

-  how French spread throughout the world (including French-based creoles)

-  how French varies according to the person using the language, and the purpose for which they are using it

This second year French language course which runs in the second half-session is only open to students who have followed FR2012. It will improve their written, oral and aural skills, and is one of the two second year French language pre-requisite courses (along with FR2012) that one must have passed to be allowed into the French honours Programme.

This course will introduce students to a variety of texts which focus on the theme of relationships between the centre and periphery in France and the Francophone world from the 17th century onwards. The course will involve lectures and tutorials and will include the study of a play, poetry, postcolonial theory and a film.

This course will introduce students to a variety of texts which focus on the theme of relationships between the centre and periphery in France and the Francophone world from the 17th century onwards. The course will involve lectures and tutorials and will include the study of a play, poetry, postcolonial theory and a film.

This course is open only to Single Honours students of French currently completing the third year of a four-year programme and fulfilling their residence abroad requirements in a French-speaking country. This is a correspondence course. It runs over the second half-session.

This third year French language course which runs for the whole term is only open to Francophone Erasmus students during their residency at the University of Aberdeen.

This third year French language course which runs in the first half-session is only open to Francophone Erasmus students during their one half term residency at the University of Aberdeen.

The course offers an introduction to French linguistics in, so far as possible, a non-technical way. Three major areas are explored: language and society (e.g. tu/vous, language and sex, slang and swearing); aspects of grammar (written and spoken French, grammatical gender); words and meanings (the development of French vocabulary, franglais). Each of these areas is considered from two points of view: first, that of the overall structure of contemporary French, which will occupy the majority of class time; second that of the historical developments in each area (generally from around 1650), which have made the language what it is today.

France underwent a rapid series of changes during the post-war period as it lived through the twin dramas of modernisation and decolonisation. This course explores how cultural production during the period responds to, captures and portrays the changes affecting the country, including emergence of new technologies, the rise of mass consumerism, urban development, and the challenge to traditional social structures. A range of material will be studied, including films, literature, and photography and philosophical writing.

This Junior Honours French language course, whose pre-requisites are FR2502 or FR2512, runs over the full session and is only open to Single and Joint Junior Honours degree in French students. 

Building on the skills gained during their first two years of study of French, this course will improve the students' French language skills in all four areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing, whilst increasing their grammatical and lexical knowledge, as well as their sensitivity to linguistic variety.

It carries 15 credits and is assessed by way of four equally weighted assignments. 

This Non-Honours Level 3 French language course, whose pre-requisites are FR2502 or FR2512 , runs over the full session and is open to students following a Designated Degree in French Studies, LLB (French or Belgian law), European Studies (with one language) or any Degree with French language as a minor .

This course will improve French language skills in all four areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing, whilst increasing grammatical and lexical knowledge, as well as sensitivity to linguistic variety.​

It carries 30 credits and is assessed by way of six equally weighted assignments.

This Non-Honours Level 3 French language course, whose pre-requisites are FR2502 or FR2512 , runs over the full session and is open to students following European Studies (with TWO languages), as well as any Degree with French language as a minor.

Building on the skills gained during the first two years of study, this course will improve French language skills in all four areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing, whilst increasing their grammatical and lexical knowledge, as well as their sensitivity to linguistic variety.​

The course, which carries 15 credits, is assessed by way of four equally weighted assignments.

This course will introduce students to the literature of Francophone Africa from the colonial period, the struggle for independence from the former colonial power and the aftermath of Independence. The main themes will include: literature as historical document; the colonial experience; education and identity; alienation; irony as a form of resistance, and gender issues.

This course is open only to mode B Junior Honours students of French fulfilling their residence abroad requirements in a French-speaking country. An intensive programme of written language exercises is designed to develop competence in a variety of different registers.

This course is open only to Mode B Junior Honours students of French (Joint Honours) fulfilling their residence abroad requirements in a French-speaking country. This is a correspondence course. It runs over the second half-session.

An introductory overview of the history of the French cinema will be followed by detailed study of a number of films. The introduction will look at the status of film in France and the position of the French cinema in relation to that of the rest of Europe and Hollywood. It will study the cinema's response to and reflection of the major historical events of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The detailed study will be organised chronologically, from the 1930s up to the 2000s, but will concentrate on the aesthetic and formal aspects of the films to be studied. These will change from year to year, but might include films by, for example, Carné, Renoir, Truffaut, Resnais, Malle and Buñuel.

This course will involve critical study of a number of significant demographic, cultural and social changes in contemporary France, focusing on the ways in which the French political system has been called upon to respond to phenomena such as mass migration, regionalism, feminism and changing perceptions of the family from the 1970s onwards.

This course will examine texts from the late nineteenth century onwards to explore French poetry in its interactions with the visual arts, music and philosophy. In the process, the idea of poetry as a self-enclosed genre will be challenged, and reassessed as a fascinating cultural interface. Different paradigms for thinking about poetry in dialogue with other media will be envisaged, from rivalry to translation.

The course offers an introduction to French linguistics in, so far as possible, a non-technical way. Three major areas are explored: language and society (tu/vous, language and sex, slang and swearing); aspects of grammar (written and spoken French, grammatical gender); words and meanings (the development of French vocabulary, franglais). Each of these areas is considered from two points of view: first, that of the overall structure of contemporary French, which will occupy the majority of class time; second that of the historical developments in each area (generally from around 1650), which have made the language what it is today.

France underwent a rapid series of changes during the post-war period as it lived through the twin dramas of modernisation and decolonisation. This course explores how cultural production during the period responds to, captures and portrays the changes affecting the country, including emergence of new technologies, the rise of mass consumerism, urban development, and the challenge to traditional social structures. A range of material will be studied, including films, literature, and photography and philosophical writing.

This Senior Honours French language course, whose prerequisite is the Junior Honours French Language course, is run over the full session and is only open to Single and Joint Senior Honours degree in French students.

Building on the skills gained in their third year of study of French, this course will help the students' French language gain very high skills in all four areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing, whilst increasing their grammatical and lexical knowledge, as well as their sensitivity to linguistic variety.

This Non-Honours Level 4 French language course, whose pre-requsite is the Non-Honours Level 3 French language course, is run over the full session and is only open to students who are following LLB (French or Belgian law), any Degree with French language as a minor subject, or any other Degree with the addition of French to its prescribed courses.

Building on the skills gained in their third year of study of French, this course will help the students gain higher skills in all four areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing, whilst increasing their lexical knowledge sensitivity to linguistic variety.

This course is only open to students who are Senior Honours students in French Studies (Single/Joint). It requires a good level of written and oral French as all the assessments will be produced in French. 

Candidates will write a dissertation of 8,000 words on a subject to be decided in consultation with the Course Co-ordinator, to be researched and written (under supervision by a member of staff) during Junior Honours, and submitted at the beginning of Senior Honours.

This course will introduce students to the literature of Francophone Africa from the colonial period, the struggle for independence from the former colonial power and the aftermath of Independence.  The main themes will include: literature as historical document; the colonial experience; education and identity; alienation; irony as a form of resistance, and gender issues. In addition, students will extend their understanding of the subject by means of independent research, setting the topics treated in their wider context and synthesizing material from a range of sources.

An introductory overview of the history of the French cinema will be followed by detailed study of a number of films. The introduction will look at the status of film in France and the position of the French cinema in relation to that of the rest of Europe and Hollywood. It will study the cinema's response to and reflection of the major historical events of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The detailed study will be organised chronologically, from the 1930s up to the 2000s, but will concentrate on the aesthetic and formal aspects of the films to be studied. These will change from year to year, but might include films by, for example, Carné, Renoir, Truffaut, Resnais, Malle and Buñuel.

This course will involve critical study of a number of significant demographic, cultural and social changes in contemporary France, focusing on the ways in which the French political system has been called upon to respond to phenomena such as mass migration, regionalism, feminism and changing perceptions of the family from the 1970s onwards.

This course will examines texts from the late nineteenth century onwards to explore French poetry in its interactions with the visual arts, music and philosophy. In the process, the idea of poetry as a self-enclosed genre will be challenged and reassessed as a fascinating cultural interface. Different paradigms for thinking about poetry in dialogue with other media will be envisaged, from rivalry to translation. and will conduct independent investigations using basic research methodology.

By examining a collection of texts from the last 150 years, both texts specifically about photography and literary texts in which photography or a photograph figure prominently, the course will examine the history of the medium, changing cultural practices and attitudes associated with it, and the ways in which photography is used thematically and stylistically by the writers on the course.