French in Action
French in Action is a French language course, developed by Professor Pierre Capretz of Yale University. The course includes workbooks, textbooks, and a 52-episode television series. The television series — the best-known aspect of the course — was produced in 1987 by WGBH, Yale University, and Wellesley College, and funded by Annenberg/CPB, and since then, has been aired frequently on PBS in the United States, developing a cult following for its romantic comedy segments interspersed among grammar and vocabulary lessons. In 2010, Yale University hosted a 25th anniversary reunion in celebration of the programme's success . Origins. During the Second World War, Yale Professor Emeritus of Romance Languages Jean Boorsch, had produced for the American ASTP (Army Specialized Training Program) and the Navy V-12s (V-12 Navy College Training Program) an approach to oral French learning. He used a language immersion technique that he published in 1944 as the ""Méthode Orale de Français"". It had two main characters "Mireille" and "Robert". Between 1960 and 1961, Boorsch and Capretz worked on an oral teaching method (never published) in which they retained the names of these two characters. Capretz maintained these names in tribute to the "Method Boorsch" in  each of the versions of his own "methods" before developing his "French in Action" course. He had the opportunity to progressively develop the characters themselves during this evolution. Format. Each episode is half an hour long. Early episodes have four main elements: In later episodes the introductory classroom segment is omitted, and the episode begins immediately with an excerpt from the ongoing story. The series uses context and repetition, rather than translation, to teach the meanings of words. With the exception of a brief English-language introduction at the beginning of each episode, the series is conducted entirely in French . TV and movie clips. Some of the sources for French TV and movie clips Controversy. In 1990, three female students at Yale University filed a grievance claiming that the university's introductory French course was sexist in its use of the "French in Action" television series. In particular, the students objected to watching a scene in which the character Jean-Pierre harasses Mireille as she sits in a park and then being required to "pretend you were trying to pick up a pretty woman in a park". Some also objected to camera angles focusing on Mireille's legs, or breasts  when she isn't wearing a bra. Its creator, Capretz, a French native who has taught at Yale since 1956, said [he] "wouldn't change any of it". To teach French effectively, he said, "you have to make the students observe the language being used by native speakers, in real situations". In response, the French department at Yale determined that the course would be changed by developing supplementary materials to be used in the course. However, the television programs themselves were not altered.