To introduce students to key theoretical and conceptual debates within linguistics, namely sociolinguistics, phonetics, morphology, semantics, etymology, and syntax;

To develop students' abilities to apply theoretical and conceptual debates to the production of French in contemporary France;

To enhance students' skills of critical analysis and independent thinking;

To encourage a greater understanding of the French language which will, in turn, enhance students' capacity to learn and use the language.

(LO1) Students will have a greater understanding of the French language as a tool for communication, and as a system with its own rules and history.

(LO2) Students will learn how to produce phonetic transcriptions, enabling them to produce sounds in an internationally recognised form.

(LO3) Students will explore issues surrounding the creation of French, thereby enabling them to evaluate the developments of languages in general.

(LO4) Students will be able to trace the major themes within the study of meaning, covering any gaps in the study of their first language and equipping them to produce better, idiomatic French through the perspective of the semantics of a language.

(LO5) Students will gain an appreciation of the roles played by society, communities, speakers and governments in the development, use and abuse of language systems. They should also have a greater understanding of the part played by culture in all its guises in the life of a language, complementing their studies of literature, film and other related fields.

(LO6) Students will be able to understand the construction of languages within utterances, sentences and discourse, not only reaffirming the rules of French syntax but refreshing their comprehension of their first language with regards to acceptable sentence structure.

(S1) Communication (oral, written and visual) - academic writing (including referencing skills).

(S2) Global citizenship - cultural awareness.

(S3) Critical thinking and problem solving - critical analysis.

(S4) Personal attributes and qualities – independence.

The majority of teaching will be delivered face-to-face on campus. Online delivery will be used to complement the on-campus delivery and where technology affords a better learning experience.

Lecture:
The lectures will outline the main theories, principles, and applications of the topic under discussion.

Seminar:
Seminars will consist of tutorial worksheets to be completed ahead of the class, allowing discussion of the topics and themes from an informed position.

This module will tackle the various linguistic elements that, collectively, make up the French language. As such, this will not only assist with language learning, but give students a deeper understanding of the workings of the language. The module will look at six principal topics: sociolinguistics, semantics, phonetics and phonology, etymology, morphology, and syntax.

Topics covered during the module may include:

Prise de contact and Sociolinguistics 1;

Sociolinguistics lecture;

Sociolinguistics seminar;

Phonetics: Consonants;

Phonetics: Consonants;

Phonetics: Vowels;

Phonology;

Etymology;

Word formation;

Morphology;

Syntax I;

Basic syntactic trees;

Syntax II;

Complex syntactic trees;

Phonology 2.

Sociolinguistics is concerned with how language affects society, and how society affects language. We will look at the way in which French is produced differently based on your age, gen der, ethnicity, geographic origins, and social class. We will also look at how French is used differently, depending on mode, field and style.

Semantics examines questions of meaning, and we will try to understand why in French one can talk about a fleuve and a rivière in French, but only a river in English. We will also get to the bottom of what exactly ‘As-tu du sel, s’il te plait?’ means.

Phonetics and phonology invite us to look at the ways in which sounds are produced in French, and how they are put together in a system. We will work out how to transcribe the sounds of French using the IPA.

Etymology will give us an overview of how French got to where it is today in terms of the language - who knew that balcon is an Italian loanword, whereas brouillard is inherited from Gaulish. Everyone knows that English has given French weekend, walkman, and wifi but what about those people who don't like anglicisms?

Morphology is linked to etymology, as it examines how words are constructed, and how French increases its word stock using just a couple of strategies.

Finally, syntax is the assessment of word order - we will look at why sentences are constructed the way they are in French, and we will all become experts in syntactic trees.