Courses in departments of foreign languages have generally been reduced, with a concomitant reduction in personnel. In this article I wish to report on a type of individualized program at the third-year level in French inaugurated during the winter quarter of 1974.
Classes meet three times a week for a period of ten weeks per quarter.
Other students are more grammar-oriented and are better able to read and write. Such diversity in backgrounds, as well as in levels of competency, has resulted in problems that are not easily remedied in the traditional lock-step method of instruction. Conversation courses in French have tended to be one-sided, with the same few students participating during a given class period. The results have generally been frustration for the weaker students and boredom for those with a stronger background. In an attempt to cope with these problems, I inaugurated a 3-quarter program of individualized French composition and conversation during the winter quarter of 1974.