The Web Site's not there!

If this doesn't work, try again a couple of hours later or on the following day. If you still can't connect, send a message to the instructor so he or she can check and repair the link, and let others students know. 
 

Inputting Accents

Installing the keyboard is easy, and once installed on your own computer, you can change to it at any time by clicking on a little blue indicator in your system tray (bottom right). 

Windows 98, ME

To install, go to the Control Panel (Start > Settings > Control Panel), choose Keyboard, then click on the Language tab. Click the Add button and find Portuguese Brazilian on the drop down list (you have to scroll a lot). Then click ok. You might be asked for you original Windows CD. If you don't have it, you should be able to give as an alternate place to look the subdirectory c:/windows/options/cabs. 

Windows 2000 and XP

In Windows XP you need to install the US international keyboard.  To install it, go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options, and click on the Languages tab at the top.  Click on the Details button.   Then click on Add.  In the dialogue box that appears (Add Input language), leave English (United States) as the Input language and in the Keyboard layout/IME drop-down list, choose US International.  Then click OK as many times as necessary to get out.  You should then have the right keyboard. You can choose it from the little popup that appears somewhere (top, bottom...) on the screen. 

To type accents with this keyboard, use the apostrophe for acute accents (as in é), the back apostrophe (just under the Escape key) for grave accents (as in à, ù) and the circumflex key (above the number 6) for circumflex accents (as in û, ô, î). You type the accent, then the letter. To get the apostrophe (as in it's, George's), you type apostrophe, then space. The same keyboard can also be used to obtain accents for Spanish, Italian, German and of course Portuguese. 

If you are working on a university machine (outside of the language departments where the keyboard is already installed), it might not allow you to install the keyboard. In that case, you need to use an Alt + number pad combination. For more information on this, and also for the Option combinations needed for Macintosh, go to this page. 

Using the Side Menus

	Click on the Reading French logo at any time to return to the Reading French Home Page.
	Click to go to the specific course Home Page
	Overview of all Lessons
	Reference Materials
	Brings you here...
	A quick and dirty translation service
	On-line dictionary for more difficult words.

Bookmarking

Because the Reading French Website uses frames, it is not possible to bookmark many individual pages. The bookmark will bring you back to the main page of each section. This is one of the disadvantages of frames. (The big advantage is being able to have the side menu there all the time so you know where you are.) 

Sending e-mail

Let the instructor know if your e-mail address changes, and check from time to time that you have enough room in your quota to receive incoming messages.

Printing

Exercises

Shockwave

The usual procedure for PC's is to go to the Macromedia site and select Downloads, then Shockwave, then Download Now. This will install a little installation programme on your computer. When prompted where to save it, choose the Desktop to make things easier. Then once it's there, quit your browser and double-click the Shockwave installer, which will be an icon on your desktop. Then follow the instructions. It doesn't take very long usually. Once Shockwave is installed, you don't need to worry about it: it will load itself automatically each time you need it. 

Highlight Exercise

In the highlight exercise, you are asked to click on certain words in a text, for example all the nouns, or all the verbs, or all the cognates. The total number to be highlighted is shown under Total. You can see all the words by clicking Reveal, and you can start from scratch again by clicking Reset.  It's important not to think of this as just a test, as it would be if you did it on paper. Because of the interactive nature of the exercises, they are better seen, not as tests, but as interactive learning experiences. If you don't feel very confident about finding all the nouns, for example, click on Reveal first and see what they are. Then Reset, and try yourself. Whatever works for you is good. If you do have trouble the first time, it's probably a good idea to come back to the same exercise later and try again though.

Multiple Choice Exercise

Click on the best answer. You can change as many times as you like. Clicking the red x and green check mark (top right) will indicate which of your answers are correct. Clicking it again will remove the indications.  It's important to note that only three questions usually fit on one page of a multiple choice exercise. This means that most of them have several pages, indicated by the Page 1 of 2 in the top right. To do the whole exercise, you must click on the purple arrows (top right) to go to the next page.

Matching Exercise

The Notebook

To access the notebook, you need to enter your student number, and a password which will be supplied. To make entries, simply click on the Notebook button, choose the lesson and activity, and enter your responses. Your work will be saved as a text file and you can come back and make changes later. The instructor has access to your Notebook at any time and will check from time to time to make sure your submissions are on time and that you are progressing well. 

Inside the Notebook, you have access to the Vocabulary List feature, which allows you to add entries to your own personal Vocabulary List, and also view the list.  See this page for more about the Vocabulary Lists. 

At the mid-point and just before the end of the course, your Notebook entries, including the Vocabulary Items,  will be given a grade, as noted in the course information sheet. The evaluation will concentrate on quantity (have you done all the work required), and on the quality of selected responses.  This normally means that one complete lesson, or a couple of activities from two different lessons, will be marked in detail, and the rest looked at for completeness and general accuracy.
 
 

What am I marked on in the Notebook and the Exams?

Understanding 75%

Your English should reflect the exact meaning of the French. 

"Réservez votre billet". Correct rendering: "Reserve your ticket." Inaccurate: "Register your ticket", "Reserve your tickets", "Buy your ticket".When translating a specific word or phrase, include just the right amount of information, not more, or less. 

You are asked to find in a text the French phrase which corresponds to "a rental of 14 consecutive nights". Correct answer: "une location de 14 nuits consécutives". Too much: "pour une location de 14 nuits consécutives et plus". Too little: "14 nuits consécutives". 
When replying to questions, make sure all the information you give is based on the text or can be deduced from the text. Do not add your own details and interpretations, or leave important details out.

The text reads: "Les 26 matelots ont pu être évacués". You are asked what happened to the "matelots". Correct answer: "They were evacuated". Overinterpretation: "They were lucky enough to be rescued" or "Their evacuation was a great success".Make sure your tenses and moods are accurate. Make sure the participants in the text are correctly identified. Elle = she or it, Ils = they, etc.Make sure modalities such as negation, interrogation, and hypothesis are correctly rendered. 

Communication 25%

1. In a summary, be sure to focus on the main information and leave out the details. 

You are asked to summarize the following text, using less than half the words:"Il y avait une fois un homme qui avait de belles maisons à la ville et à la campagne, de la vaisselle d'or et d'argent, des meubles en broderie, et des carosses tout dorés; mais par malheur cet homme avait la Barbe bleue." 

Here the details obscure the essential: "Once upon a time, a man had a lovely house in the town and another in the country, silver and gold crockery, embroidered and gilded furniture, but he had the misfortune to have a blue beard." 

Here is a good summary: "Once upon a time, a man lived surrounded by luxury, but unfortunately he had a blue beard. 

You are asked to describe a French web page in one or two sentences. 

The following is not bad, but the details are emphasized at the expense of the gist: "This is a site that provides all the information for travelling on a cruise or arranging for airline tickets, accommodations and transportation." 

Here the main purpose is emphasized, and the rendering is idiomatic: "Interested in taking a vacation? This site will allow you to find the best deals with the lowest prices to anywhere you want to go." 

Text: "L'Erika s'est littéralement brisé en deux, libérant plusieurs milliers de tonnes de fioul dans la mer." Questions: What do you think fioul is? What happened to it? Direct answer: "Fioul is probably fuel oil. The oil was spilt into the sea." Indirect and incomplete answer; "The fioul is in the sea."

Translate "Ils n'ont que dix ans". Good translation: "They are only ten years old." Ambiguous translation: They have only ten years. [This could be non standard English for "They are only ten years old", but it could also mean "They have only ten years [seniority / left]" etc.]

Original French: "3 000FF.* Tarif en cabine double." Good rendering: 3,000 French francs.* Price based on double occupancy." Calques to be avoided: "Double cabin price.", "Fare in double cabin."

About Required Course Materials

The required dictionary is the Collins-Robert French > English, English > French Dictionary, Fifth Edition (or later), London/Paris, Collins/Dictionnaires Le Robert, 1998.  This is not cheap, but it is accurate, clear, up-to-date, and very extensive.  It also contains complete verb tables at the back and an innovative Language in Use section in the centre.  This dictionary is produced by a team of French and English lexicographers, based on a corpus of 250 million words. This is the dictionary you will need to use to do the many Dictionary Skills exercises in French 237 and 337.

Test Grading and Corrected Versions of Examinations 

Some past examinations are provided below for your information.  Beginning in 2001-2002, examinations  also include a preliminary vocabulary test for which a dictionary may not be used.