Ateneo - UPO

French Language for Tourism. In line with the educational objectives of the Master's Degree Course in Languages, Cultures, Tourism (LM-49), the course aims to support students in acquiring linguistic, communicative, and intercultural knowledge and skills useful for working in the tourism sector (oral interaction; written comprehension and production; translation).

For the language course: Françoise Bidaud, Traduire le français aujourd'hui, Utet Univ. 2014; Anne Abeillé, Danièle Godard (eds.), La grande grammaire du français: 2 volumes, Actes Sud Editions, 2021. For the linguistics course: Domitille Hatuel, Tourisme en action : théorie, pratique, itinéraires, Recanati, ELI-La Spiga, 2015; complementary documents uploaded on DIR by the lecturer.

The course aims to develop students’ skills in oral interaction and written comprehension and production in French, particularly in the field of tourism. The French Language module will explore aspects related to phonetics, morphosyntax, and grammar, with the goal of achieving Level C1 in the various skills in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR); the Linguistics module, on the other hand, will be dedicated to the study of specialized vocabulary, communication strategies, and the most appropriate linguistic registers for addressing different contexts and audiences in the field of tourism. Classes for both courses will be conducted 50% in a lecture format and 50% in an interactive format and will be worth 3.8 CFU (language) + 1.2 CFU (linguistics); the remaining 2.2 + 4.8 CFU will correspond to self-study.

B2 language proficiency level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR: https://europass.europa.eu/it/common-european-framework-reference-language-skills).

Lectures (delivery-based teaching: approximately 50%); group work (text analysis, text production, translations) and interaction between participants and the lecturer (interactive teaching: approximately 50%). The course’s DIR page features exercises to be completed independently, as well as supplementary and in-depth teaching materials, which form an essential complement to the activities carried out in class.

The DIR platform will provide the detailed course syllabus, instructions and sample written exam questions, worksheets, and supplementary teaching materials. If you have any questions regarding the course programme, teaching materials, lecture content or the conduct of the examination, please contact the lecturer. Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via reference office consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/services-students-physical-or-learning-disabilities. Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, can refer to the lecturer to define the examination modalities.

For the evaluation of the integrated course, the grades for the two modules will be taken into account equally and jointly. For full details regarding the administration of the two exams (one for the Language module and one for the Linguistics module), please refer to the course descriptions for the respective courses. Please note that, for both exams, students with disabilities, Specific Learning Disorders, and Special Educational Needs will be provided with dedicated tools and services.
The language exam includes a written component and an oral component. The written exam consists of two independent parts, taken in two different sessions: a translation test from Italian into French, and a written composition test (essay). Duration of the written tests: 3 hours for each test. Translation: graded out of 30; essay: graded out of 30; final evaluation expressed out of 30. Minimum grade required in each of the two individual tests to access the oral exam: 18/30. Duration of the oral exam: approximately 15 minutes. To access the oral exam, students must submit the compulsory project before the oral test (to be agreed upon in advance). The oral exam consists of presenting and defending a point of view, based on a prompt assigned by the professors. Students will be given the opportunity to take an early oral exam, provided they submit the compulsory project, during the final classes of the course, before the start of the summer exam session. In this case, the complete dossier (see the specific guidelines uploaded on the course DIR platform) must be submitted to the teacher by May 2026. Anyone who does not submit the research project on time will not, under any circumstances, be allowed to take the early exam session. A maximum of 3 additional points can be awarded at the end of the oral exam. One point is awarded for appropriateness of speech and fluency, one point for morphosyntactic accuracy, and one point for phonological accuracy, taking into account the target objectives (CEFR C1 level). The overall grade for the French Language I course is obtained by adding the grade achieved in the written exam to the points earned in the oral exam.
L'esame di linguistica si comporrà di due prove, una scritta (comprensione-produzione scritta e traduzione: valutazione in 30 punti, sufficienza a 18 punti) e una orale (presentazione dei lavori di traduzione svolti in gruppo e risposta a 3 domande del docente di carattere teorico e metodologico sul programma del corso: valutazione in 30 punti, sufficienza a 18 punti). Le due prove potranno essere svolte in sessioni diverse ma a non più di 12 mesi di distanza l'una dall'altra. Per validare l'esame sarà necessario ottenere la sufficienza in entrambe le prove. Le valutazioni si articoleranno in 5 fasce: (1) Eccellente (30 e lode/30): conoscenza eccellente di tutti i contenuti del corso e piena padronanza di tutte le competenze attese; precisione, correttezza ed efficacia nell’espressione scritta e orale e nella traduzione. (2) Molto buono (30-28/30): conoscenza molto buona di tutti i contenuti del corso e raggiungimento di tutte le competenze attese; assenza di errori significativi nell'espressione scritta e orale e nella traduzione. (3) Buono (27-24/30): buona conoscenza dei contenuti del corso e raggiungimento soddisfacente di tutte competenze attese; espressione scritta e orale e traduzioni globalmente corrette. (4) Sufficiente (23-18/30): conoscenza accettabile dei contenuti del corso e raggiungimento sufficiente delle competenze attese; presenza di alcuni errori nell'espressione e nella traduzione. (5) Insufficiente (meno di 18): conoscenza parziale e superficiale dei contenuti del corso e mancato raggiungimento delle competenze attese; espressione scritta e orale e traduzioni viziate da numerosi errori.

The course aims to guide and support students in acquiring the linguistic, metalinguistic, and cultural knowledge and skills necessary to communicate and work in the tourism sector. Language instruction is based on the study of French grammar (CEFR Level C1), the development of written and oral production and comprehension skills at Level C1, the acquisition of idiomatic expressions, and the translation of sentences from Italian to French. Linguistics instruction, on the other hand, will be based on the analysis of tourism communication materials and the completion of practical activities (written and oral production; translation) using real tourism and informational materials (texts produced by the Drôme Department’s regional promotion agency and by various public institutions in the Vercelli area); Ample attention will be devoted to studying the sector’s vocabulary and relevant communication strategies for interacting in various contexts and with different audiences.

For the language module, the expected learning outcomes can be summarized as achieving level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) in the various skills (https://europass.europa.eu/it/common-european-framework-reference-language-skills). For the linguistics module, the learning outcomes can be divided into basic outcomes (the ability to communicate effectively in French in everyday situations relevant to professionals in the tourism sector; the ability to produce accurate and relevant translations and texts) and advanced outcomes (the ability to use vocabulary, idioms, and linguistic register appropriate to different types of contexts and target audiences).