• Program Dates: June 1 – June 28, 2013
  • Application Deadline: February 1, 2013
  • Apply on-line

Picture yourself studying in the “City of Lights,” the “museum without walls,” immersed in history and surrounded by some of the world’s finest art, architecture, and an incredible diversity of cultures. For four weeks, Paris will be your classroom as you see history where it was made, attend concerts and plays, write in cafes where Fitzgerald and Hemingway wrote, and take daily intensive language classes and participate in afternoon workshops in the heart of the city.

Program Description

The Summer Program in Paris is designed to improve students’ linguistic proficiency in French and to deepen their cultural understanding of French culture. The students will have full immersion in the language through classroom courses and workshops at the Alliance Française (http://www.alliancefr.org/en/), a home stay with Parisian residents, and daily encounters with French students and other native speakers throughout the program.

The goals of this summer program are:

  • To improve students’ proficiency in French by immersing them in the language
  • To allow students to study various  aspects of French civilization—politics, art, literature, film, history
  • To bring students into direct contact with French life over an extended period, heightening their awareness and understanding of French society and thought, as well as increasing their understanding of the United States in relation to other countries and cultures

Program Structure

The various components of the program—taking French language courses and intensive oral practice at the Alliance, living in French homes, participating in extracurricular activities with French people, and visiting various sites in Paris and France—are intended to bring them into contact with contemporary French life and to make their experience in Paris as rich and valuable as possible.

Course Selection

Credits earned will apply towards a Drew degree – the foreign language requirement as well as the requirements for the French major or minor. All students take a total of 8 credits: a French language course (4 credits) and an Intensive Oral Practice course (4 credits). Students may fulfill their language requirement by taking FREN 182 and FREN 283.

French Language Course & Intensive Oral Practice

Classes are scheduled over five days each week, allowing students ample opportunity to explore the city and its rich cultural resources. Prior to departure, students take the Alliance Française on-line placement test and will be placed in the appropriate level. The Alliance aligns itself with European proficiency standards (A2, B1, B2, C1, C2  etc) that are roughly equivalent to the ACTF proficiency standards placing students are the Novice, Intermediate or Advanced Levels.

Language course (choose one in this category):

FREN 182 – Fundamentals of Oral French II in Paris (4)
FREN 281 – Intermediate French in Paris (4)
FREN 381 – Advanced French in Paris (4)

Intensive oral practice (choose one in this category):

FREN 183- Beginners Intensive Conversation  Practice (4)
FREN 283 -Intermediate Intensive Conversation  Practice (4)
FREN 383 – Advanced Intensive Conversation  Practice (4)

Visits and Excursions

In addition to regular in-class activities, we will arrange for tutors to meet with students twice a week.  The tutors are students from Paris universities and they organize outings and cultural activities based on current resources in Paris.

Cultural activities, speakers, and excursions within and around the city will supplement course work. Examples of past excursions are weekend visits to Normandy, Versailles, and Chartres.

Homestay

Students will be staying with Parisian families for the duration of the program which is the best way for students to have regular, long-term contact with Parisians and to offer them a unique means to encounter and observe French behaviors while taking part in everyday Parisian life.

Students are housed in the homes of Parisians. The room and board fee covers the price of their room, laundry, breakfast every day, and dinner every week day and one  during the weekend  with the host family.

Jean-Come Renaudin, our contact in Paris, has provided hometays for Drew students for many years now. The families are carefully chosen and most of them are used to welcoming American students for short stays. There will only be one student per family.  Students have breakfast and dinner with their families during the week and they can arrange to eat meals with their families on Sundays.

Orientation and Re-entry

Orientation:

Students will meet with me three times during the spring semester, mostly for the group to get to know each other.

Session 1:  The City of Paris:  students will be familiarized with the history of Paris, the city’s geography and layout.  This session will also include a Cross-Cultural training. 

Session 2:  Practical preparation of our program: Orientation on a city map/web activities, discussion of the classes, home stays, tutors, and presentation of our schedule. I will invite students who participated in the summer programs in Venice or Barcelona for a Q & A session.

Session 3:  Level test:  This session will be a placement test. Students will take an online test for their placement in either Intermediate French I or II.

Session 4 and 5:  These sessions will take place in Paris during the first week of the program. Students will learn about the city’s public transportation system, its postal services and banking institutions, libraries, museums and galleries, clothing markets, etc.

Re-entry:

Participants will organize a campus-wide activity during French National week (usually in November) to share their experiences in Paris with the Drew community.

Program Director

Marie-Pascale Pieretti

Program Cost

The fee for the program: $3,900.

  • 8 credits of tuition (the two courses taken at Alliance Francaise)
  • room in the home of a host family
  • breakfasts and dinners with host families
  • local transportation
  • cultural excursions organized by the program
  • books

Airfare, lunches, incidentals, additional weekend travel and personal expenses are not included.

Students will pay for their own airfare to Paris although the director will get a group rate for those who wish to travel together.

Prerequisite

Students must have completed French 101 (previously French 1) prior to the program.

For additional information on the Paris Program, contact:

Professor Marie-Pascale Pieretti
French/Italian Department
Drew University
mpierett@drew.edu