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Whitman College French
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Mary Anne O'Neil The Provinces of France Date Awarded: Stipends
were awarded for the summers of 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Other Participants: URL: http://people.whitman.edu/~oneilma/ Description of Project: The purpose of this project is to create multi-media materials that will enable second-and third-year American students of French to learn more about the provinces of France. Each lesson contains a general introduction followed by sections on the geography, important places, history, traditions, cuisine and literature of each province. These lessons will give students additional practice in reading and writing French, provide subjects for class discussions as well as give students a greater exposure to the varied cultures of France. At present, three lessons on Alsace, the French Basque country, and Normandy have been completed. A fourth lesson on Burgundy is under construction. Project Goals and Objectives: To create a text of cultural readings that focus on the French provinces rather than on Paris. To create a French cultural reader with a varied subject matter that can be used not only by students of French literature but also by students of history, geography and anthropology who can read French. To make these lessons available via computer so that illustrative maps, pictures, music and video clips are immediately available to students. Process: The first step in each lesson was the collection of materials. These included pictures, video cassettes, music tapes, maps and tourist information collected during three trips to France but also information obtained from books on French history, geography and literature. Upon my return to the United States, I wrote the text for each section and organized the multimedia material. I filmed demonstrations of French cooking at Whitman College with the help of my student assistants. The final step was to assemble the web pages and locate them on my home page. In general, it took about a month to assemble each section of each lesson. Francoise Goeury-Richardson and I collaborated very closely on the Alsace lesson, correcting and modifying each other's work. We worked more independently on the next two lessons. I would not have been able to create the web pages without the help of three student assistants, Piers Barry, Ben Leitch and Amy Phillips, all of whom received training in web page creation during the summer at Middlebury College. Outcomes: Please see the introduction to Le Pays Basque for a sample of my project. Thus far, I have used this material to provide a background in French history and geography to my literature students. When I teach intermediate French next year, I will use the lessons more extensively. Both students who have used the lessons and others who have visited my home page have commented that the lessons are clear, if challenging, and that they provide an excellent study of the different provinces. I have certainly increased my own knowledge of France and French culture during this project. If anything, the project has spurred my interest in popularizing the lesser-known provinces of France for an American audience.
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