DELIVERY - Class times and locations

Internal students

Classes are scheduled on Mon/Wed 9-11, Mon/Wed 11-1, Mon/Wed 2-4, Mon/Wed 4-6, Tue/Thu 9-11, Tue/Thu 11-1, Tue/Thu 2-4, Tue/Thu 4-6. All Mon and Tue classes are held in W6B 207, which is a computer room, except for the Tue 2-4 class which is held in W6A 104. All Wed and Thu classes will be held in W6B 222, which is a regular seminar-style room. Please go to eStudent to register in one of the eight classes on offer. The eight classes are streamed; you are not allowed to attend classes indiscriminately.

If you have a clash and you are unable to swap classes because the class you are after is full, DO NOT TALK TO THE TUTOR. Go to the appropriate iLearn forum ("Je veux changer de classe/I want to swap classes") and make your wishes known there.

All classes start at five minutes past the hour. Arriving late is very disruptive. If you should arrive late, it is your responsibility to find out what you have missed. Please note that if you arrive after 20 past the hour, you may be noted absent for the hour.

External students

External students do not need to register in any particular classes. Just make sure you are enrolled in FRN122 on eStudent. Your only timetabled activity will evolve around the compulsory attendance of a number of live video-conferencing sessions to be held at mutually agreed times. See iLearn for more details and make sure not to miss these sessions.

ALL STUDENTS

Please do not consider the contact hours to be all there is to this unit! The work expected of you is of a very intensive nature. The unit is actually three-fold. It involves:

• approximately 2 hours of weekly preparation and exercises, which will prepare you for the contact hours or Echo 360 recordings mentioned below. We strongly encourage you to team up with some fellow students for your homestudy. This will motivate you and provide further practice.
• 4 compulsory contact hours in class (or recorded on Echo 360 for external students). These will be organised around oral participation, explanation, practice and reinforcement of what you have studied before coming to class (or listening to the Echo 360 recordings).
• approximately 8 hours of weekly home study, consisting of written, oral and aural practice using online material (Heinle and iLearn). For external students, this includes the attendance of any video-conferencing sessions scheduled for their benefit.

Attendance is compulsory. Those unable to attend classes (internal students) or video-conferencing sessions (external students) due to illness or other valid reasons should notify their tutor within 3 days of the beginning of the absence and provide relevant documentation. Medical certificates and other documentation handed in at the end of the session will not be accepted. Less than 80% attendance will incur a zero mark for all forms of participation (10% of the unit total).

RESOURCES - Required text and materials

All students will need to purchase the shrink-wrapped Contacts package, which includes the textbook (Contacts, ninth edition, by Valette & Valette, published by Cengage/Heinle) and a book key for access to all online materials (including audio and video files) on Heinle. The package is available from the Co-op Bookshop from the end of January. External students living outside the Sydney metropolitan area are urged to purchase the required package online (through the Co-op Bookshop website) BEFORE the start of session.

The online resources on iLearn (http://ilearn.mq.edu.au) are another essential part of the unit. Students have access to all materials (including recorded iLectures on Echo360) from the beginning to the end of the session.

Please refer to iLearn for announcements, amendments to the program, etc. It is your responsibility to know what is expected of you, what is required and when any assessable work is due. For external students, iLearn will be the only way to access instructions related to any work that is due for submission.

RESOURCES - Technology used and required

Standard requirements apply. You are deemed to have regular computer and internet access to interact with the teaching materials on iLearn. Computing skills required for this unit are limited to word processing skills and familiarity with the use of internet resources.

Besides making sure you have daily access to a desktop computer or any other equivalent technology, you should note that, for some assignments and exercises, you will need headphones as well as a microphone. External students will need to have access to a webcam as well (for use during the video-conferencing sessions). Please use Firefox rather than any other browsers, several of which have known problems with respect to media files (audio and video). No permission to resit tests will be granted on the basis of the use of an inappropriate browser during an earlier attempt.

You must ensure that the equipment and the connection you use are both reliable and powerful. An Ethernet wired connection is recommended and is generally more robust than a wireless hook-up. When working from home or from a private residence, please use the best equipment available, refrain from using your network for any other purpose while doing work for this unit and arrange for others sharing your network not to take up any of your bandwidth as this will compromise the quality of your own connection. Internal students whose facilities do not meet our requirements are urged to use campus facilities instead.

IT and iLearn assistance is available via the iLearn login page or by clicking on the words "Help me" under the iLearn logo at the top right hand side of every iLearn window. Heinle assistance is available via the FRN122 iLearn page.

Please note that replies to e-mails will be automatically directed to the account they were sent from. All new threads will be sent to your University account, except in the case of bulk e-mails sent through Heinle, where you are free to supply the e-mail address of your choice. However, you are encouraged to use the University account rather than any private e-mail account you may already have, and you must access your University e-mail account at least once a week - and preferably more often.

FRN 122: Introductory French I - Semester 1, 2014

Schedule of classes

Please do not consider the contact hours (or Echo recordings for external students) to be all there is to this unit!

The work expected of you is of a very intensive nature. The unit is actually three-fold.

It involves:

·         Approximately 2 hours of weekly preparation and exercises, which will prepare you for the contact hours or Echo recordings mentioned below. We strongly encourage you to team up with one or more fellow students for your home study. This will motivate you and provide further practice.

·         4 compulsory contact hours in class (or recorded on Echo 360 for external students). These will be organised around oral participation, explanation, practice and reinforcement of what you have studied before coming to class (or listening to the Echo 360 recordings).

·         Approximately 8 hours of weekly home study, consisting of written, oral and aural practice using online material (Heinle and iLearn). For external students, this includes the attendance of any live online video-sessions scheduled for their benefit.

More information on what to do, when to do it, and where to find the resources, is available in various other documents on iLearn and on the iLearn page itself. The latter includes a link to the Heinle online platform to be used for most if not all of the activities and tests scheduled at various times.

Attendance is compulsory. Those unable to attend classes (internal students) or online sessions (external students) due to illness or other valid reasons should notify their tutor within 3 days of the beginning of the absence and provide relevant documentation. Medical certificates and other documentation handed in at the end of the session will not be accepted. Less than 80% attendance will incur a zero mark for class participation (10% of the unit total).

Individual teachers may make minor changes to the schedule below.

 It will be your responsibility to be aware of any amendments.

Throughout the unit you will be assessed in a variety of ways:

·         Participation (20% = 5 for preparation, 5 for participation, 10 for Heinle T-activities)

·         Flash tests = 20 vocabulary or conjugation questions;  5 minutes (6 for external students) – Don’t be late or you’ll miss out! (10%)

·         Heinle examens = online unit tests, except for examen 4. These examens assess your listening, reading and writing skills (20% =4x5)

·         Grammar examen (20%)

·         Oral comprehension test (15%)

·         End-of-session oral exam (15%)

There is no formal written exam at the end of FRN122 – but there will be one at the end of FRN123

Please note that HD and D are NOT the standard marks but are given for outstanding work ONLY. Students who fulfil the unit in a satisfactory but expected manner will usually get a high Pass or a Credit.

FRN122 is an intensive language subject designed for beginners, most of whom will choose to continue their studies in French. Students with no experience in French whatsoever may consider doing FRN119 Basic Spoken French instead, particularly if they do not intend to major in French. FRN119 is offered throughout the second session (July to November).

Students with a post-beginners level (equivalent to 4 or 5 years formal studies, HSC French Beginners bands 4 to 6 or HSC French Continuers bands 1 to 3) should seek advice about beginning in S2 with FRN123 Introductory French 2. More advanced students should enrol in FRN226 Intermediate French 1.

By the end of FRN122, students should reach level A1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages in all 4 skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). Level A1 is described as follows: "Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help." For more information, see the FRN122 iLearn page.