The French language course is addressed to the first year students of the DFLTI and, among other things, aims at highlighting certain difficulties of French grammar through specific references. It  also aims at familiarizing the students with French discourse of different linguistic levels and forms (dialogue, letter, short presentation of ideas). In any case, the approach that is attempted is not a linguistic end but a transitory path to the act of translation.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Upon successful completion of the course, the students will:

• have strong foundations in the French language
• skillfully deal with translation difficulties posed  during the course “ Translation from Greek to French”  in the first semester
• be aware of the different grammatical and morphosyntactic phenomena of the French language
•  become familiar with  French  discourse of different linguistic levels and forms (dialogue, letter, short presentation of ideas)
• have comprehended the structures of the French language

1^st week: La structure des mots composés

This lesson highlights the structure and the compound words of the French language. When two words compound in order to form an new one, a hyphen is plashed between them and sometimes they have an irregular plural form

2nd week: Les paronymes

Paronyms do not pertain to the meaning, but rather to the morphology of words e.g. accident ou incident. Their similarities could either be arbitrary or it could be the result of common word origin.

3rd week: Les homonymes

Our goal is to learn homonymous words, i.e. words with same pronunciation, but different meaning like le bout/ la boue, le cahot/le chaos, l'air/l'ère, etc

4^th  week: Les antonymes

Antonyms or words with opposite meaning; The words“générosité” and “avarice” are the opposite of "l'aube" and "le crépuscule" or even "droit" and  "penché" or "droit" and "tordu’’

5^th week: Les expressions culturelles

Cultural knowledge and expression is defined as the assessment of creative expression of ideas, experiences   and feelings through art (music, theatre, cinema, dancing, visual arts). The awareness of the local, national and European cultural heritage along with their place in world culture is another aspect of cultural knowledge. This capacity helps us evaluate not only our own traditions and civilization, but also that of the European and world culture, while enabling us to communicate our ideas, feelings and opinions through art and mass media.

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6^th week: Les mots qui cachent la réalité. Euphemisms, acronyms, abbreviations and short forms of the French language.

7^th week: La culture dans les mots

The relation between language and culture, which is manifested as onomatopoeia and neologisms.

8^th week: Les registres de langue

Language register or style is a form of expression adapted to a particular communicative situation, which is defined by certain lexical and syntactic choices and by a certain style.

9^th  week: Les verbes polysémiques

Verbs’ polysemy is a challenging phenomenon, and if not comprehended, it could lead to low quality translations

10^th  week: Les expressions qui sont liées aux régions et aux pays.

In the French language there are expressions pertaining to countries and regions which are difficult to translate and so the translator has to come up with equivalent expressions. Example: filer à l'anglaise, bâtir des châteaux en Espagne, recevoir une douche écossaise

11th week: Les préfixes

Prefix. A vowel added in the beginning of words starting with a consonant or with a consonant cluster, which is not related to the word’s base. It is important to know how French words are formed.

12th week: Les suffixes

Suffix. A morpheme added at the end of the word

13th week: Révisions

Revision exercises in issues discussed during the semester. Answering the students’ questions.

Garnier Laurent (2019). Vocabulaire thématique. Ellipses.

Le Bellec Christien (2020). Le Grevisse vocabulaire, les mots du français, de leur origine à leur utilisation en context. De Boeck.

Miquel Claire (2019). Vocabulaire progressif du francais. Niveau avancé. Clé International.

Penformis Jean-Luc (2018). Vocabulaire Progressif du français des affaires. Clé International.

Wattier Stéphane (2019). Les mots de l’info : le vocabulaire de l’actualité. Publication indépendante.

DELIVERY: The lesson has the form of lecture, the structure of which is entirely based on the exercises of the students, their questions and their comments.

Use of ICT in teaching, laboratory education

STUDENT PERFORMANCE EVALUATION: Written exams or individual essay