Études françaises et québécoises

French: An Important Asset

French has played a prominent historical role in the formation of the Western civilization and it is the language of communication chosen by a large number of people and societies. Having a good knowledge of French and of its literature constitutes an important asset in a wide range of careers.

The Département d'études françaises et québécoises offers courses in three areas:

1. French language,
2. French literature and civilization,
3. Quebec and Acadian literature and civilization.

The objectives of these courses are to allow students to speak, read and write French correctly and with ease and to become familiar with the broad lines of French and Quebec literatures, while studying certain works or periods more thoroughly.

Why study French at Bishop’s?

At Bishop’s, it is easy to combine a French program with a large variety of other programs (English, Spanish, other modern languages, psychology, business administration, physics, chemistry, etc.). And our French programs are particularly flexible.

Program strengths

• Bishop’s location in a predominantly French speaking city and region provides our students with plenty of opportunities to be exposed to the French language and culture outside the classrooms.
• Our students can take courses at the Université de Sherbrooke.
• We do not exceed the number of 25 students per class in most of our courses.
• We have several teachers involved with the Basic French program for non-francophone students, thus providing our students with the opportunity to become familiar with different accents.
• The popularity of our language courses makes it possible to offer most of them on a regular basis.
• We have a nice variety of France and Québec literature courses, which are offered on a two or three year rotation.

Popular courses

• Our French 131, 132 and 133 courses – which are intended for students with little or no French and which put emphasis on oral skills – attract a lot of students each year. (Audiovisual and computer materials are used in these courses, which cover the structures and vocabulary of basic spoken and written French.)
• Our Français 204 course, in which our students learn how to write letters, reports and other documents in French, has been offered every year for more than 20 years and is taken by students of all disciplines.
• Our Français 289 course, which is about the different cultures in the French-speaking world outside the large centres (Sub-Saharan Africa, Maghreb, West Indies, etc.) and which offers the possibility of a pairing of our students in French and in Education with immigrant children to Sherbrooke in order to ease the integration of these children into the Canadian and Quebec cultures.
• Our Français 181-182 courses, in which the evolution of Quebec is approached not from a political perspective, but rather from a sociocultural standpoint through the observation of the consequences of the great historical events on ordinary people and on the evolution of the so-called popular culture. (Links are constantly established between the past, distant or not, and the contempary world.)