Departmental Notes
Subject Code for French Language and Literature: FREN
Subject Code for French Studies: FRST
World Wide Web Address: https://www.queensu.ca/french/
Head of Department: Michael Reyes
Departmental Office: Kingston Hall, Room 300
Departmental Telephone: 613-533-2090
Departmental Fax: 613-533-6522
Undergraduate Office E-Mail Address: francais@queensu.ca
Chair of Undergraduate Studies: Stéphane Inkel
Undergraduate and Office Assistant: Angie Clark
Overview
At Queen’s, the Department of French Studies offers language instruction from beginner to advanced and a wide range of literature courses. Covering the areas of Francophonie, Québec and Canadian studies, culture and literature from the Middle-Ages to the present, the department also offers courses in film and media, translation, and critical thinking. Students will have opportunities to study or work in a francophone environment either in Quebec or Europe, through academic exchanges or work/study programs.
Departmental Policies
Credit for Immersion Courses
Students can receive credit for FREN 151 and FREN 152 if they have passed the exam of one of the Higher-Level courses listed below:
- AP French Language and Culture, with a grade of 4 or higher
- International Baccalaureate French A – Language and Literature OR French B, with a final grade of 5 or higher
To apply for transfer credits, please visit: High school transfer credits | Undergraduate Admission, Queen's University.
Advice to Students
Introductory French Language Courses
The French Department recognizes that students enter the University with a wide range of abilities in the French language. Students intending to take a 100-level French course must visit the department webpage Getting Started | French Studies to determine which level is suitable for them based on their background in French. The French Placement Test is used to help assess proficiency and is required for all students enrolling in FREN 118 and FREN 151 and FREN 152.
Once students have passed a course at a certain level of proficiency, they are not permitted to take a French language course at a lower level. Students pursuing a French Plan should note that FREN 118 may not be used a s credit towards the plan requirements. Please note that FRST 105, FREN 106, FREN 107, FREN 118, FREN 225, FREN 236, FREN 237, FREN 238, and FREN 239 are not being offered for the foreseeable future.
Communication and Culture Courses
The Department of French Studies offers a series of Communication and Culture courses (both online and on campus) for students wishing to develop and perfect their French language skills. These courses provide students with basic language skills to enable them to understand and use familiar expressions and basic phrases in everyday situations. Students will learn vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and explore various French cultures through interactive activities & group work. No auditors are permitted in these courses.
Special Study Opportunities/Cultural Activities
The Department of French Studies offers a range of cultural programs and educational opportunities for faculty, students, and the Kingston community.
Credit for Courses Taken at a French-Language University
In their third year, students in the French Major or Minor Plan may choose to study at a French-language university. To be eligible, they must have completed at least 60.00 units (with a cumulative GPA of 1.90) by the end of second year, including FREN 151, FREN 152, FREN 230, and FREN 231 (with a GPA of 1.90). Upon returning to Queen’s, student transcripts and syllabi for courses completed abroad will be assessed by the Undergraduate Chair and granted as transfer credits in French, as applicable.
For more information about exchange opportunities in French, please visit the French Studies webpage: Study Abroad | French Studies | Queen's University.
Ultimately, it is the International Programs Office (IPO) that coordinates exchanges and study abroad experiences for undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts & Science.
Certificate of Competence in French Language
Students who are not registered in a French Plan but have taken certain courses in French at Queen’s or received transfer credit for courses taken elsewhere are eligible for a Certificate of Competence in French Language. Courses include oral and written French, French literature, and French linguistics.
Note that this is not a Senate-approved Certificate Program and will therefore be noted as an Academic Milestone on the transcript. The Certificate will be issued by the French Department on behalf of the Faculty of Arts and Science.
Intermediate Level
Requirements: 18.00 units in French. Required courses include FREN 151, FREN 152, and FREN 231 plus 3.00 units from the Communication and Culture series as well as 6.00 units from the list of Option courses. All courses taken for the certificate must be at a level equal to or above FREN 118 (with a GPA of 1.9). No more than 6.00 transferred units can be counted towards the intermediate level certificate.
Faculty
For more information, please visit: https://www.queensu.ca/french/people-search
- Azouz Ali Ahmed
- Johanne Bénard
- Catherine Dhavernas
- Francesca Fiore
- Stéphane Inkel
- Julien Lefort-Favreau
- Michael Reyes
- Donald Sackey
- Isabelle St-Amand
Courses
French Language and Literature (FREN)
NOTE Only offered online, consult Arts and Science Online.
NOTE Only offered online. Consult Arts and Science Online.
NOTE Students who are fluent French speakers cannot enrol in this course, and will need to sign a solemn declaration to this effect at the start of the course.
NOTE Only offered online, consult Arts and Science Online.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the essential grammar rules of the A2 proficiency level.
- Determine appropriate strategies to understand and respond to short written or audio documents relating to daily activities and common social situations.
- Write short, grammatically accurate texts which communicate ideas, opinions, and summarize information to solve common communicative problems.
- Communicate orally about familiar topics and express feelings, opinions, and desires, employing low-intermediate level vocabulary and grammatical concepts.
- Describe aspects of societies and cultures in French-speaking countries, especially with regards to interpersonal relationships, health and well-being, leisure activities and travelling, arts and media.
NOTE A placement test is recommended prior to registering in this course, please visit the French Studies webpage for more information.
NOTE Also offered at Bader College, UK (Learning Hours may vary).
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Identify the structure of a sentence in order to apply rules of agreement and to select appropriate verb tenses.
- Justify these choices in the context of producing basic analyses of literary texts and films studied in class.
- Extract the principal ideas from a text or from a film sequence.
- Appreciate and describe the different francophone cultures under study.
NOTE Students who have completed Grade 12 Core French, International Baccalaureate French, French Immersion, French-as-a-Foreign Language (or the equivalent of these) should take the Placement Test prior to registering for the course to assess for possible placement in FREN 152 or upper-year French courses (200-level and above).
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the main rules of French grammar.
- Choose appropriate strategies to improve your understanding of a written or oral text, and evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies.
- Compose structured descriptive or narrative written texts with correct use of verb tenses, using the indicative and imperative modes.
- Interpret a literary text by developing reading and analytical strategies.
- Express your opinion, in writing or orally, on a given issue or on cultural themes covered in class and/or in your tutorials.
- Express yourself orally in both informal and formal settings.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the main rules of French grammar.
- Compose complex sentences, including subordinate clauses.
- Choose appropriate strategies to improve your understanding of a written or oral text, and evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies.
- Compose structured descriptive or narrative written texts with correct use of verb tenses and different modes (indicative, infinitive, subjunctive, etc.).
- Interpret a literary text by developing reading and analytical strategies.
- Express your opinion, in writing or orally, on a given issue or on cultural themes covered in class and/or in your tutorials.
- Express yourself orally in both informal and formal settings.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Communicate clearly with a degree of spontaneity and fluency with native French speakers on a variety of everyday topics and subjects relating to French and Francophone culture.
- Present opinions, positions, and arguments as demonstrated in debates and classroom discussions.
- Apply vocabulary and idiomatic expressions with a high level of grammatical accuracy in daily and formal conversations.
- Recount and narrate experiences and events using the correct past tenses and adverbs of time.
- Identify and understand the main ideas of concrete or abstract topics in complex texts as expressed in audio materials.
NOTE Only offered online. Consult Arts and Science Online.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Apply textual analysis tools to a variety of literary texts.
- Become familiar with the methods of reading and interpretation required to construct a textual analysis.
- Acquire and apply various tools for literary analysis.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Identify and apply different writing and editing strategies in different types of texts and practice implementing them in your work.
- Develop mastery of textual organization, including structure, idea development, and transitions, to create work that is coherent, persuasive, and stylistically as well as grammatically accurate.
- Use the features of the Antidote corrector for writing and revising texts.
- Take ownership of your learning by maintaining attendance, managing time and effort, staying focused, and exercising sound judgment to identify, organize, and integrate the materials necessary for success.
NOTE Language is the principal focus of this course. Prior experience or professional knowledge in the field is not necessary.
NOTE Only offered online. Consult Arts and Science Online.
NOTE Language is the principal focus of this course. Prior experience or professional knowledge in the field is not necessary.
NOTE Only offered online. Consult Arts and Science Online.
NOTE Language is the principal focus of this course. Prior experience or professional knowledge in the field is not necessary.
NOTE Only offered online. Consult Arts and Science Online.
NOTE Only offered online. Consult Arts and Science Online.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Communicate effectively and fluently with native French speakers on a variety of complex subjects relating to French and Francophone culture and current affairs.
- Present opinions, hypotheses, and arguments as well as improvise in professional and academic dialogues such as interviews and debates.
- Apply advanced vocabulary, expressions, and grammatical and syntactic structure in daily and formal conversations.
- Avoid and self-correct false translations and anglicisms.
- Identify and explain cultural references, abstract and complex topics, and nuances as expressed in audio materials.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Develop critical thinking around the conceptualization of the human body.
- Identify different theories of the human body.
- Analyze different representations of the human body in fiction and poetry.
- Integrate and to expand the concepts explored in class through oral and written expression.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Identify major historical periods and determine their incidence for the study of the literature of these periods.
- Examine the principal themes and writing styles in several representative works illustrative of the thought and writing of the ancient regime.
- Produce written texts on the subject matter of the course and read aloud from materials in the course.
- Distinguish the various literary genres and situate texts appropriately in this framework.
- Use linguistic tools and historical perspectives to analyze and interpret a literary text.
- Acquire the appropriate vocabulary and tools in order to produce a dissertation or a commentary.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Identify and describe critical and creative works by Indigenous scholars, writers, filmmakers, and other thinkers and creators across North America.
- Explain key critical approaches developed in Indigenous literary studies, with a focus on comparative approaches to literatures.
- Apply the close reading methodologies and other techniques of comparative literary analysis presented in this course.
- Interpret and analyze critical and creative Indigenous works in relation to one another and to the historical, political, and cultural contexts in which they are created and circulated.
- As part of a final essay, communicate effectively the constitutive elements of a comparative critical analysis on at least two works or elements of the material studied.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Consider the social, political, cultural, and economic value of a literary text in relation to its historical and national context.
- Analyze and discuss literary merit both orally and in written form.
- Understand the role of prize culture in the economy of literary art.
- Debate the relative value of diverse literary works with respect to both personal taste and defined assessment criteria.
- Develop a critical vocabulary about literature and the economics of books.
- Improve reading, writing, and speaking skills in French at an advanced level.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Develop a general understanding of the different types of specialization covered by the field of translation.
- Use different strategies, approaches, techniques and resources depending on the type of translation.
- Articulate and justify a thoughtful translation strategy aimed at minimizing the loss of relevant elements in a text or any other document, and compensating for their absence in a subsequent translation.
- Produce translations that are grammatically accurate, culturally sensitive and adapted to the objectives of the source text or document.
- Engage with different cultural contexts and reflect on the intrinsic limits of translation.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Gain a foundational knowledge of the topic.
- Describe the key concepts related to the topic.
- Engage in respectful discussions on issues pertaining to the topic.
- Critically reflect on the issues pertaining to the topic.
- Respond creatively to a theme discussed on the topic.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
NOTE Taught in English together with FRST 290. Students concentrating in French submit written assignments, tests, and examinations in French.
NOTE Only offered online, consult Arts and Science Online.
NOTE This course is offered in French. Students registered in FREN 394 will read texts in their French original version and write their quizzes, essay and exam in French. Those registered in FRST 294 may read texts in translation, and write their quizzes, essay and exam in English. English version of PowerPoint presentations will be available on onQ. Students registered should understand oral French at an intermediate level.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Identify relevant research issues and define a problem on one of these issues.
- Conduct independent research from a critical and/or theoretical perspective, using an appropriate methodology.
- Formulate concisely the results of their research.
- Orally communicate and defend their research work effectively.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Independently construct a collection of literary works raising pertinent questions on a given issue.
- Conduct independent research on a literary work.
- Orally communicate and defend a paper based on this research.
- Exercise critical thinking by discussing literary texts based on their research.
- Prepare and organize an academic conference.
NOTE This course is exclusively for Concurrent Education students who have completed the Con-Ed prerequisites in the Faculty of Education and who have completed an application and been interviewed in the spring prior to the year in which they will be enrolled in the course.
French Studies (FRST)
NOTE Only offered online. Consult Arts and Science Online.
NOTE Only offered online. Consult Arts and Science Online.
NOTE This course is offered in French. Students registered in FREN 394 will read texts in their French original version and write their quizzes, essay and exam in French. Those registered in FRST 294 may read texts in translation, and write their quizzes, essay and exam in English. English version of PowerPoint presentations will be available on onQ. Students registered should understand oral French at an intermediate level.