The Summer Language Institute/MA in French Language Teaching has a unique curriculum designed by teachers to maximize your potential as a language teacher. Through courses on language acquisition and pedagogy as well as language and culture courses, you will improve both your language proficiency and cultural understanding while becoming a better teacher. The curriculum has three types of courses:
- Core required courses in areas such as second language acquisition theory, assessment, and teaching for proficiency
- Language and culture electives
- Pedagogy courses which accompany each language or culture elective and focus on practical application of various pedagogical practices.
The descriptions below give you more details on each of these types of courses.
Please note that syllabi are currently being revised to reflect the change to remote instruction for Summer 2020, and will be updated as they become available.
FR 504 - Action Research Presentation is offered in Session 2, but students may present during either session. We will contact our AR students to set up a time to present via Zoom.
Overview
The Summer Language Institute for French Teachers offers you the opportunity to earn a Master of Arts in French Language Teaching (a total of 48 quarter credits) over three summers. You may earn up to 18 credits each summer.
A minimum of 16 credits in Core Pedagogy Courses:
- FL 511 Second Language Acquisition: Theory and Practice (3 credits)
- FL 514 Action Research (3 credits)
- FL 512 Teaching for Proficiency: Methods and Strategies (3 credits)
- FL 513 Foreign Language Assessment: Principles and Strategies (3 credits)
- FL 515 Teaching with Technology (3 credits)
- FL 501 Data Exploration and Analysis (1 credit)
A minimum of 28 credits of French Language and Culture courses:
These elective courses vary each summer, providing students with a variety of options. They are designed to build students' linguistic and cultural knowledge and enhance their pedagogical skills. Each of these courses is accompanied by a pedagogy course (2 credits) The following are examples of courses taught in the past.
- Communicative Grammar (3 credits) with Teaching Grammar in Context (2 credits)
- French Heritage Cinema (3 credits) with Teaching Language with Film (2 credits)
- La France et ses immigrés (3 credits) with Teaching Culture (2 credits)
- Le Théâtre du 20è (3 credits) with Teaching Language through Theater (2 credits)
- Expression écrite (3 credits) with Teaching Writing (2 credits)
- Contes et nouvelles (3 credits) with Teaching Language through Literature (2 credits)
- Peinture du 19ème siècle (3 credits) with Teaching Language through Art (2 credits)
- La Phonétique française (3 credits) with Teaching Pronunciation (2 credits)
- Les Régions de France à travers le cinéma (3 credits) with Individual Differences (2 credits)
A minimum of 4 credits Action Research Project:
During the school year prior to your final year in the program, if you are a masters candidate, you will conduct an action research project with your own students/at your own school. You will write a 30-40 page paper (plus bibliography and appendices) documenting the project. The action research project, presentation and paper take the place of a thesis project, and are graded based on the AR project rubric and the AR presentation rubric.
NOTE: Students take the FL 514 Action Research class during the second summer. Beginning with students enrolled in Action Research in Summer 2019, students must enroll for 1 credit per term of FR 503 Thesis while working on their Action Research Project during the following year. During the final summer, they must register for 1 credit of FR 504 Action Research Presentation in order to present their Action Research project. Students who do not finish the Action Research Project during that academic year must register for 1 credit of FR 503 Thesis each term they continue working on the project until it is completed.
Core Courses
Summer Session 1 (June 21 - July 10, 2020)
FL 512 Teaching for Proficiency: Methods and Strategies
Explores how proficiency standards can be applied in the classroom in conjunction with state and local standards based on the national standards for foreign language education as established by the American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Students learn how to integrate the five Cs of foreign language education: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities, with clearly defined proficiency standards for foreign language performance.
(3 credits) Dr. Sébastien Dubreil
11:50 AM - 1:10 PM PST, MTWRF
FL 513 Foreign Language Assessment: Principles and Strategies
The goals of the course are to equip participants with up-to-date knowledge of best practices in assessing foreign language development and to provide them with meaningful opportunities to practice creating assessment tools and evaluation criteria in a collaborative setting. The approach to assessment emphasized in this course is multidimensional and Standards-based. Course participants complete a portfolio of assessment tools for classroom use, including an Integrated Performance Assessment.
(3 credits) Dr. Lauren Goodspeed
11:50 AM - 1:10 PM PST, MTWRF
FL 513 - Remote Course Syllabus
FR 504 Action Research: Presentation, Session 1
During the school year prior to your final year in the program, if you are a master’s candidate, you will conduct an action research project with your own students/at your own school. You will write a 30-40 page paper (plus bibliography and appendices) documenting the project. The action research project, presentation, and paper take the place of a thesis project and are graded based on the AR project rubric and the AR presentation rubric.
(1 credit) Dr. Kristin Hoyt
Online Courses
FL 515 Technology in the Classroom (Winter Term)
Transforms knowledge into practice about Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and pedagogy, while focusing on the use of technology in the foreign language classroom. Fosters professional development as students formulate critical skills for creating, integrating, and assessing technology into the classroom. Topics may include interactive and non-interactive hypermedia technologies, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), language testing and technology, distance learning, online discussions, and software selection.
(3 credits) Dr. Brianna Jannsen Sanchez
FL 501 Data Exploration and Analysis (Winter Term, Five Weeks: February 11 - March 15)
Provides a brief introduction to data analysis with the goal to help you analyze the data you gather for your Action Research Project.
(1 credit) Dr. Kristin Hoyt
FR 503 Thesis (Fall, Winter, and Spring Terms)
Beginning with students enrolled in Action Research (FL 514) in Summer 2019, students must enroll for 1 credit per term of FR 503 Thesis while working on their Action Research Project during the following year. During the final summer, they must register for 1 credit of FR 504 Action Research Presentation in order to present their Action Research project. Students who do not finish the Action Research Project during that academic year must register for 1 credit of FR 503 Thesis each term they continue working on the project until it is completed.
(1 credit each)
Summer Session 2 (July 12 - July 31, 2020)
FL 511 Second Language Acquisition
Provides students with an overview of the most current theories of second language acquisition and the teaching methodologies that result from these approaches. Students will detail differences between and similarities among the various models of second language acquisition as they learn how to identify and integrate them into the foreign language classroom.
(3 credits) - Dr. Heather Willis Allen
8:30 - 10:10 AM PST, MTWRF
FL 514 Action Research
Introduces students to research methodologies that pursue action (change) and research (understanding) concurrently. Students will learn how to do a systematic inquiry into the teaching/learning environment of a classroom with the goal of developing reflective teaching practices. This course is intended as preparation for an action research project that students will conduct over the course of the following year.
8:30 - 10:10 AM PST, MTWRF
FR 504 Action Research: Presentation, Session 2
Presentation of Action Research projects. This course is open to students presenting their final Action Research project. The course should be taken during the session when students present their project.
(1 credit) - Dr. Kristin Hoyt
12:50-2:30 PM PST, TR
2020 Electives
Students must choose both "a" and "b" of one course-grouping.
Summer Session 1 (June 21 - July 10, 2020)
1a. FR 528 Women, Marriage, and Family
In this course, we will study the status of women, marriage and maternity in France over the last centuries and analyze the evolution and regression of women’s rights and emancipation using historical, political, sociological and literary texts, as well as films. We will cover topics such as the status of women and Christianity, the Napoleon Code, abortion, rejection of maternity, breastfeeding policies, and the evolution of the traditional couple and gender.
Students will record a presentation on a proposed topic, write two reaction papers on the assigned movies, and a final project on one, or a combination, of the topics discussed in the course.
(3 credits) Dr. Marianne Golding
9:20-11:00 AM PST, MTWRF
2a. FR 528 Ecology in France
This course proposes to discover the mechanisms and the reasons of an ecological awareness becoming today a sort of dominant thinking in France. Ecology is “the economy of nature,” according to the naturalist Carl von Linné—that is to say, the awareness that the planet is unique and that it has limited resources.
This perception of life and society, though marginal 50 years ago, has gradually become central in political and media discourses, partly through controversial means of struggle. Electricity production, urban planning, transport, purchases of everyday products, or waste management, agriculture, and food ... are just a few examples of the many areas impacted by the demand for environmental respect. However, some decisions to protect nature sometimes trigger heated controversy.
The evaluation for this class will include attendance, an individual oral presentation, a test on specific points discussed in class, and an essay.
(3 credits) Dr. Nicolas Gigant
9:20-11:00 AM PST, MTWRF
1a. FR 516 Pédagogie sociale et pédagogie du social: Enseigner le FLE à travers les grandes questions de société
In this course, we will examine how to structure learning activities through the lens of social issues in contemporary French culture. Overall, we will focus on some of the most important topics that French people are concerned about, and more importantly, topics that are at the core of the current and future preoccupations of Western democratic societies:
How does France strive to achieve greater equality among its diverse population? How is a language marked by gender trying to cope with a more fluid, non-binary definition of gender? How is French society striving to reduce the gender gap between men and women? How are issues of ecology and sustainable development asserting themselves as central to the cultural and political landscapes? To what extent are any and all of these efforts successful?
Using these questions as a point of departure, we will endeavor to design pedagogical interventions that seek to engage with the nuances and complexity of these phenomena in a manner that takes the measure of how sensitive these topics can be. We will also examine how to transform our learners into speakers-actors, that is to say citizens who exercise a certain agency on their social contexts, so that a pedagogy of social issues also becomes a pedagogy of social action.
This course is a workshop and students will be evaluated on the project (activity) they design for their own students/school.
(2 credits) - Dr. Sébastien Dubreil
1:20-3:00 PM PST, MWF
Summer Session 2 (July 12 - July 31, 2020)
3a. FR 528 À Table Citoyens! Gastronomy, Culture, and Identity
In this course, we will study the role of food and gastronomy in France. Beginning with a historical approach, we will review the development of French cuisine and how food culture contributes to the French national identity. We will focus primarily on the role of food and cuisine in contemporary French culture based on articles, excerpts from literary texts, films or video clips, and class visits by those who work in the food industry. We will also visit some local food-related businesses in the community: the market, a bakery, and a chocolate factory, to take full advantage of being in France. The final project will be a research project, presented to members of the class the last week of the course.
(3 credits) Dr. Daniel Morris
10:20 AM-12:00 PM PST, MTWRF
3b. FR 516 Integrating the Gastronomy of the Francophone World into the French Classroom
This course will bridge teaching theories and practices by exploring the possibilities that the food and gastronomy of the Francophone world offer a French language classroom. Specifically, students in this course will develop instructional materials and practices to foster language learners’ intercultural communicative competence by investigating, explaining, and reflecting on diverse perspectives about food (products and practices) from the cultures studied and their own while using the target language. Expected course outcomes include a Standards-based instructional unit, comprised of two lessons incorporating a range of student learning activities and assessments. Coursework will be built around the readings and discussions from FR 528: À Table Citoyen! Gastronomie, Culture, et Identité. To expand upon FR 528 content linked to the gastronomy of France, FR 516 students will additionally investigate and consider food and eating practices across the Francophone world.
(2 credits) Dr. Kristin Hoyt
12:50-2:30 PM PST, MWF
Optional Courses
Summer Session 1: FR 511 Advanced French Grammar
Addresses selected topics in French grammar, with particular focus on grammatical difficulties for English speakers with the goal of helping students improve proficiency in the language. Course conducted entirely in French.
(1 credit. Up to 3 credits may be applied to degree requirements.)
Dr. Elise Merlet
8:20-9:10 AM PST, MTWR
