School of Languages and Linguistics

Professional Development Course: VCE French Teachers

Saturday 18 March, 9.30am–3.30pm

This professional development program for VCE French Teachers is designed as a refresher course to further explore a topic related to French culture, specifically in relation to VCE Units 3 and 4. Eminent scholars from the Department of French will present key areas of study including literature, cinema, history, art history, and highlight a selection of appropriate primary source materials. This will enable VCE French teachers the opportunity to exchange best practice in French language and culture.

Before the commencement of the program there will be an online forum (Learning Management System) to enable registered participants to access sample scholarly articles and support material. These articles, plus the lectures, will form the basis for discussions. A pedagogical kit will be provided for each seminar.

Professional Certificates of participation will be offered upon completion of the course for use in relation to VIT procedures.

Historical perspectives: Humanism and new technologiesThis session will engage with the usage of new technologies in the teaching of French history and culture. Closely relating to the language and culture through texts theme of Units 3 & 4 of the VCE French Study Design, the session will offer an historical perspective on the Renaissance humanism. At the core of this intellectual movement born in Italy was optimism and an unquenchable belief that life was improving through the study of classical texts. French humanists however questioned the world and its evolution. Drawing on an innovative use of textual and visual material, this session will examine how Renaissance humanism still relates to today.

Professor Véronique Duché

A. R. Chisholm Professor of French, Véronique Duché has extensive experience in teaching French literature and linguistics. She has published many articles on French Renaissance literature and edited several 16th century novels. Her research explores theoretical problems and issues concerning genre as well as translation into French during the Renaissance.

Art history in the French classroomDrawing from a subject that I designed around the Edgar Degas: A new vision exhibition held in 2016 at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), this session will demonstrate how an art exhibition linked to a French or Francophile artist can serve as the point of departure for a full French language & culture course with a strong emphasis on art and history. It will show how students increased their oral and written language skills, while gaining a better understanding of Edgar Degas, his painting and more generally the historical context of late nineteenth century France. Finally, it will invite teachers to reflect and workshop how the up-coming exhibition Van Gogh and the Seasons (NGV) could be used in the same way to develop teaching material for their classes.

Dr Bertrand Bourgeois

Dr Bertrand Bourgeois lectures in French Studies at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of several articles on Flaubert, Goncourt and Huysmans’ roles in the definition of modern novel. He has written a book on the role of collecting practices in the aesthetics of various nineteenth century French novels.

French cinema: From the new wave to new mediaThis session will engage with the representation of contemporary French society in film. Closely relating to the language and culture through texts theme of Units 3 & 4 of the VCE French Study Design, the session will explore the study of films both as texts and as part of the machinery of cultural production that is the French cinema industry. The session will offer an historical perspective on French cinema from the New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s to the modern-day complexities of online film distribution. It will examine how cultural identity is often defined at the margins of French society, such as in the case of banlieue, migrant and multilingual cinema. In a world in which there is unprecedented access to an overwhelming array of mediatised images, pedagogical ideas and approaches will be workshopped in order to bring French film to life for participating teachers and their students.

Dr Andrew McGregor

Dr Andrew McGregor lectures in French Studies in the School of Languages & Linguistics at The University of Melbourne, where he obtained his PhD in French Studies. He completed a Masters in Film Studies at the Université de Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne and received a personal accreditation to attend the 52nd Cannes International Film Festival. Andrew is the founding co-editor of the Film Cultures series for Peter Lang Publishing, Switzerland. He lectures and publishes on French and European cinema and particularly on the representation and interpretation of cultural identities in film.

Food cultures in the FrancophonieThis session will engage with the representation of French and Francophone cultures through the exploration of food and cultural identity in the French-speaking world. Closely related to Units 3 and 4 of the VCE common themes, it examines how authors from different francophone communities and cultural backgrounds use food as a literary trope and metaphor to reflect on its role in shaping their individual and collective identity, and their relationship to others and the world. In the colonial, postcolonial and post-migration context, food and the act of cooking/eating have been exploited by French and Francophone authors as site of encounters and ruptures, exile and integration, resistance and memory, where the power relationship between dominant/dominated can be played out and (re)negotiated. Participating teachers will discuss how a variety of food related resources, such as texts, short stories, recipes, cookbooks, culinary blogs, films, documentaries, songs, visual media, etc. can be developed into class materials; how they and their students can take advantage of the strong presence of French food and culinary institutions in Melbourne and Victoria to enhance their teaching and learning of French language and culture through text.

Dr Tess Do

Dr Tess Do is Lecturer in French Studies in the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her teaching and research interests lie in the field of Francophone literature and deal with issues related to the colonization and decolonization, exile and migration, cultural identity and the relations between the migrants and their homeland. Focusing in particular on Indochina and the areas of food, memory and cultural heritage, her main publications include articles and book chapters on contemporary Francophone writers of Vietnamese origin.

Cost: $80Morning and afternoon tea provided.

9.30–10.45am Historical perspectives: Early modern history and new technologies Professor Véronique Duché 

10.45-11am Morning tea (provided)

11am–12.15pm Artistic heritage of the community: Art history in the French classroom Dr Bertrand Bourgeois

12.15-1pm Lunch

1–2pm Aspects of contemporary society: Cinema as a pedagogical tool Dr Andrew McGregor 

2-2.15pm Afternoon tea (provided)

2.15-3.30pm Francophone literature Dr Tess Do

Venue:Arts West Building, The University of Melbourne, Parkville https://maps.unimelb.edu.au/parkville/building/148

Registrations:http://arts.unimelb.edu.au/engage/extended-and-community-learning-programs/vce-programs-and-kits

Inquiries:Caterina Sciacca, Community Education Manager

p: 03 8344 3996 e: caterina.sciacca@unimelb.edu.au

arts.unimelb.edu.au/engage/community-education