How do foreign language classes work?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
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<p>What is the general content/setup of a language class? For example, Elementary French or Continuing French (if you already knew some French): </p>

<p>How many people are in the class,
how much do they meet,
what do they actually do in class (i.e. overview of grammar, vocab, or discussions/activities),
what homework consists of (easy exercises on grammar, or long papers?),
what tests consist of,
and how much time it would take up if you learn languages fast/already know another romance lang?</p>

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<p>idk about french, but im going to take mandarin and someone gave me the link to the mandarin course guide page thing online. they meet 8x a week (3 lecture, 5 discussion where only mandarin can be spoken and no notes can be taken) and have audio books they have to listen to, tests like every week or something? i forgot and lots of practice stuff. im sure if you search cornell for hte french curriculum you could find out what 2008 had to tod</p>

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<p>elementary french is mostly textbook work...they meet daily with tests coming from the textbook...very standardized </p>

<p>continuing french meets 4x a week...this is more learn on your own with more writing and grammar :<</p>

<p>you will do everything in both grammar, vocab, speaking, skits/activities</p>

<p>knowing another language will help you if you're familiar with the tenses but spanish has a lot more tenses than french does</p>

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<p>How easy will french be with a pretty good background in spanish? </p>

<p>I'm taking intro french as well, but can speak spanish. Not fluently, but I can speak it.</p>

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<p>do continuing spanish and intermediate spanish compare to this format?</p>

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<p>yes rftennis. </p>

<p>i'm a native speaker of spanish and find that i have no problem understanding the professors but that doesnt mean i can breeze by a french course. still gotta know the vocabulary and grammar which is not like spanish. </p>

<p>in fact i often would get confused on an exam and think to myself in spanish.</p>

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<p>Haha. I don't know spanish that well...</p>

<p>I guess I'm hoping that knowing general spanish structure and grammar will help me pick up French a little easier, and that maybe some of the vocab will be similar, and assuming I don't mix them up, help me remember that as well.</p>

<p>At least I want to learn French though... I absolutely did not want to learn Spanish, and I think it showed in the amount of it that I picked up.</p>

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<p>french is like spanish and english mixed with a bunch of fancy grammar...it aint all it cut out to be :O</p>

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<p>Do you ever have to write essays or anything annoying that even a fluent speaker would be bothered by? Can you give some sample questions that might be on a test? I'm trying to see how easy it would be and how much time it would take up. Would a test question maybe be fill in a blank using the correct tense of a verb?</p>

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<p>i've only taken FREN2090, but you had to write 10 "ecrits" (100-300 words, depending on assignment) throughout the semester and about 3-4 essays. part of your final grade was also an in-class essay based off of a subject you talked about in class. you also have group projects/presentations.</p>

<p>this will all be presented in the syllabus that you receive at the beginning of each class. test questions will be very similar to homeworks from the workbook. no tricks, very straightforward.</p>

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<p>yes you have to do a couple papers typed (with correct accents) </p>

<p>tests are similar to workbook exercises (if you used a workbook in high school) </p>

<p>language in college is time consuming...homework every night 1-2hrs i would say to learn it well</p>

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<p>Assuming you put some decent effort into intro French, and you do the work and do fairly well in the class, how proficient are most people by the end of the first year?</p>

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<p>i heard somewhere that 1 semester of college language is like 1-2 years (depending on the quality of your HS) of high school language</p>

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