research topics in french language

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Journal of French Language Studies

Études de linguistique française.

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We’re delighted to announce that all research articles (i.e. Articles and Research Notes) accepted for publication in the Journal of French Language Studies from 29th September 2023 will be ‘open access’; published with a Creative Commons license and freely available to read online (see the journal’s Open Access Options  page for available license options). The costs of open access publication will be covered through agreements between the publisher and the author’s institution , payment of APCs by funding bodies, or else waived entirely, ensuring every author can publish and enjoy the benefits of OA. 

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• ISSN: 0959-2695 (Print) , 1474-0079 (Online)
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Recently published articles

The distribution of non , nenny and non fait in pre-classical and classical french.

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Philippe Selosse (dir.). Le Français préclassique (1500-1650) , 25. Paris: Champion, 2023, 262 pp. 978 2 7453 5841 7.

• Véronique Duché

McLaughlin Mairi. La Presse française historique : Histoire d’un genre et histoire de la langue . (Histoire et évolution du français, 7). Paris : Classiques Garnier, 2021, 407 pp. 978 2 406 10356 1

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Alisha Reaves, Discourse Markers in Second Language French . (Research on New Waves in Pragmatics). New York/London: Routledge, 2023, x + 167 pp., 978 1 03 234766 0

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• Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 3

In collaboration with the Association for French Language Studies

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211 Research Topics in Linguistics To Get Top Grades

Many people find it hard to decide on their linguistics research topics because of the assumed complexities involved. They struggle to choose easy research paper topics for English language too because they think it could be too simple for a university or college level certificate.

All that you need to learn about Linguistics and English is sprawled across syntax, phonetics, morphology, phonology, semantics, grammar, vocabulary, and a few others. To easily create a top-notch essay or conduct a research study, you can consider this list of research topics in English language below for your university or college use. Note that you can fine-tune these to suit your interests.

Linguistics Research Paper Topics

If you want to study how language is applied and its importance in the world, you can consider these Linguistics topics for your research paper. They are:

• An analysis of romantic ideas and their expression amongst French people
• An overview of the hate language in the course against religion
• Identify the determinants of hate language and the means of propagation
• Evaluate a literature and examine how Linguistics is applied to the understanding of minor languages
• Consider the impact of social media in the development of slangs
• An overview of political slang and its use amongst New York teenagers
• Examine the relevance of Linguistics in a digitalized world
• Analyze foul language and how it’s used to oppress minors
• Identify the role of language in the national identity of a socially dynamic society
• Attempt an explanation to how the language barrier could affect the social life of an individual in a new society
• Discuss the means through which language can enrich cultural identities
• Examine the concept of bilingualism and how it applies in the real world
• Analyze the possible strategies for teaching a foreign language
• Discuss the priority of teachers in the teaching of grammar to non-native speakers
• Choose a school of your choice and observe the slang used by its students: analyze how it affects their social lives
• Attempt a critical overview of racist languages
• What does endangered language means and how does it apply in the real world?
• A critical overview of your second language and why it is a second language
• What are the motivators of speech and why are they relevant?
• Analyze the difference between the different types of communications and their significance to specially-abled persons
• Give a critical overview of five literature on sign language
• Evaluate the distinction between the means of language comprehension between an adult and a teenager
• Consider a native American group and evaluate how cultural diversity has influenced their language
• Analyze the complexities involved in code-switching and code-mixing
• Give a critical overview of the importance of language to a teenager
• Attempt a forensic overview of language accessibility and what it means
• What do you believe are the means of communications and what are their uniqueness?
• Attempt a study of Islamic poetry and its role in language development
• Attempt a study on the role of Literature in language development
• Evaluate the Influence of metaphors and other literary devices in the depth of each sentence
• Identify the role of literary devices in the development of proverbs in any African country
• Cognitive Linguistics: analyze two pieces of Literature that offers a critical view of perception
• Identify and analyze the complexities in unspoken words
• Expression is another kind of language: discuss
• Identify the significance of symbols in the evolution of language
• Discuss how learning more than a single language promote cross-cultural developments
• Analyze how the loss of a mother tongue affect the language Efficiency of a community
• Critically examine how sign language works
• Using literature from the medieval era, attempt a study of the evolution of language
• Identify how wars have led to the reduction in the popularity of a language of your choice across any country of the world
• Critically examine five Literature on why accent changes based on environment
• What are the forces that compel the comprehension of language in a child
• Identify and explain the difference between the listening and speaking skills and their significance in the understanding of language
• Give a critical overview of how natural language is processed
• Examine the influence of language on culture and vice versa
• It is possible to understand a language even without living in that society: discuss
• Identify the arguments regarding speech defects
• Discuss how the familiarity of language informs the creation of slangs
• Explain the significance of religious phrases and sacred languages
• Explore the roots and evolution of incantations in Africa

Sociolinguistic Research Topics

You may as well need interesting Linguistics topics based on sociolinguistic purposes for your research. Sociolinguistics is the study and recording of natural speech. It’s primarily the casual status of most informal conversations. You can consider the following Sociolinguistic research topics for your research:

• What makes language exceptional to a particular person?
• How does language form a unique means of expression to writers?
• Examine the kind of speech used in health and emergencies
• Analyze the language theory explored by family members during dinner
• Evaluate the possible variation of language based on class
• Evaluate the language of racism, social tension, and sexism
• Discuss how Language promotes social and cultural familiarities
• Give an overview of identity and language
• Examine why some language speakers enjoy listening to foreigners who speak their native language
• Give a forensic analysis of his the language of entertainment is different to the language in professional settings
• Give an understanding of how Language changes
• Examine the Sociolinguistics of the Caribbeans
• Consider an overview of metaphor in France
• Explain why the direct translation of written words is incomprehensible in Linguistics
• Discuss the use of language in marginalizing a community
• Analyze the history of Arabic and the culture that enhanced it
• Discuss the growth of French and the influences of other languages
• Examine how the English language developed and its interdependence on other languages
• Give an overview of cultural diversity and Linguistics in teaching
• Challenge the attachment of speech defect with disability of language listening and speaking abilities
• Explore the uniqueness of language between siblings
• Explore the means of making requests between a teenager and his parents
• Observe and comment on how students relate with their teachers through language
• Observe and comment on the communication of strategy of parents and teachers
• Examine the connection of understanding first language with academic excellence

Language Research Topics

Numerous languages exist in different societies. This is why you may seek to understand the motivations behind language through these Linguistics project ideas. You can consider the following interesting Linguistics topics and their application to language:

• What does language shift mean?
• Discuss the stages of English language development?
• Examine the position of ambiguity in a romantic Language of your choice
• Why are some languages called romantic languages?
• Observe the strategies of persuasion through Language
• Discuss the connection between symbols and words
• Identify the language of political speeches
• Discuss the effectiveness of language in an indigenous cultural revolution
• Trace the motivators for spoken language
• What does language acquisition mean to you?
• Examine three pieces of literature on language translation and its role in multilingual accessibility
• Identify the science involved in language reception
• Interrogate with the context of language disorders
• Examine how psychotherapy applies to victims of language disorders
• Study the growth of Hindi despite colonialism
• Critically appraise the term, language erasure
• Examine how colonialism and war is responsible for the loss of language
• Give an overview of the difference between sounds and letters and how they apply to the German language
• Explain why the placement of verb and preposition is different in German and English languages
• Choose two languages of your choice and examine their historical relationship
• Discuss the strategies employed by people while learning new languages
• Discuss the role of all the figures of speech in the advancement of language
• Analyze the complexities of autism and its victims
• Offer a linguist approach to language uniqueness between a Down Syndrome child and an autist
• Express dance as a language
• Express music as a language
• Express language as a form of language
• Evaluate the role of cultural diversity in the decline of languages in South Africa
• Discuss the development of the Greek language
• Critically review two literary texts, one from the medieval era and another published a decade ago, and examine the language shifts

Linguistics Essay Topics

You may also need Linguistics research topics for your Linguistics essays. As a linguist in the making, these can help you consider controversies in Linguistics as a discipline and address them through your study. You can consider:

• The connection of sociolinguistics in comprehending interests in multilingualism
• Write on your belief of how language encourages sexism
• What do you understand about the differences between British and American English?
• Discuss how slangs grew and how they started
• Consider how age leads to loss of language
• Review how language is used in formal and informal conversation
• Discuss what you understand by polite language
• Discuss what you know by hate language
• Evaluate how language has remained flexible throughout history
• Mimicking a teacher is a form of exercising hate Language: discuss
• Body Language and verbal speech are different things: discuss
• Language can be exploitative: discuss
• Do you think language is responsible for inciting aggression against the state?
• Can you justify the structural representation of any symbol of your choice?
• Religious symbols are not ordinary Language: what are your perspective on day-to-day languages and sacred ones?
• Consider the usage of language by an English man and someone of another culture
• Discuss the essence of code-mixing and code-switching
• Attempt a psychological assessment on the role of language in academic development
• How does language pose a challenge to studying?
• Choose a multicultural society of your choice and explain the problem they face
• What forms does Language use in expression?
• Identify the reasons behind unspoken words and actions
• Why do universal languages exist as a means of easy communication?
• Examine the role of the English language in the world
• Examine the role of Arabic in the world
• Examine the role of romantic languages in the world
• Evaluate the significance of each teaching Resources in a language classroom
• Consider an assessment of language analysis
• Why do people comprehend beyond what is written or expressed?
• What is the impact of hate speech on a woman?
• Do you believe that grammatical errors are how everyone’s comprehension of language is determined?
• Observe the Influence of technology in language learning and development
• Which parts of the body are responsible for understanding new languages
• How has language informed development?
• Would you say language has improved human relations or worsened it considering it as a tool for violence?
• Would you say language in a black populous state is different from its social culture in white populous states?
• Give an overview of the English language in Nigeria
• Give an overview of the English language in Uganda
• Give an overview of the English language in India
• Give an overview of Russian in Europe
• Give a conceptual analysis on stress and how it works
• Consider the means of vocabulary development and its role in cultural relationships
• Examine the effects of Linguistics in language
• Present your understanding of sign language
• What do you understand about descriptive language and prescriptive Language?

List of Research Topics in English Language

You may need English research topics for your next research. These are topics that are socially crafted for you as a student of language in any institution. You can consider the following for in-depth analysis:

• Examine the travail of women in any feminist text of your choice
• Examine the movement of feminist literature in the Industrial period
• Give an overview of five Gothic literature and what you understand from them
• Examine rock music and how it emerged as a genre
• Evaluate the cultural association with Nina Simone’s music
• What is the relevance of Shakespeare in English literature?
• How has literature promoted the English language?
• Identify the effect of spelling errors in the academic performance of students in an institution of your choice
• Critically survey a university and give rationalize the literary texts offered as Significant
• Examine the use of feminist literature in advancing the course against patriarchy
• Give an overview of the themes in William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”
• Express the significance of Ernest Hemingway’s diction in contemporary literature
• Examine the predominant devices in the works of William Shakespeare
• Explain the predominant devices in the works of Christopher Marlowe
• Charles Dickens and his works: express the dominating themes in his Literature
• Why is Literature described as the mirror of society?
• Examine the issues of feminism in Sefi Atta’s “Everything Good Will Come” and Bernadine Evaristos’s “Girl, Woman, Other”
• Give an overview of the stylistics employed in the writing of “Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernadine Evaristo
• Describe the language of advertisement in social media and newspapers
• Describe what poetic Language means
• Examine the use of code-switching and code-mixing on Mexican Americans
• Examine the use of code-switching and code-mixing in Indian Americans
• Discuss the influence of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” on satirical literature
• Examine the Linguistics features of “Native Son” by Richard Wright
• What is the role of indigenous literature in promoting cultural identities
• How has literature informed cultural consciousness?
• Analyze five literature on semantics and their Influence on the study
• Assess the role of grammar in day to day communications
• Observe the role of multidisciplinary approaches in understanding the English language
• What does stylistics mean while analyzing medieval literary texts?
• Analyze the views of philosophers on language, society, and culture

English Research Paper Topics for College Students

For your college work, you may need to undergo a study of any phenomenon in the world. Note that they could be Linguistics essay topics or mainly a research study of an idea of your choice. Thus, you can choose your research ideas from any of the following:

• The concept of fairness in a democratic Government
• The capacity of a leader isn’t in his or her academic degrees
• The concept of discrimination in education
• The theory of discrimination in Islamic states
• The idea of school policing
• A study on grade inflation and its consequences
• A study of taxation and Its importance to the economy from a citizen’s perspectives
• A study on how eloquence lead to discrimination amongst high school students
• A study of the influence of the music industry in teens
• An Evaluation of pornography and its impacts on College students
• A descriptive study of how the FBI works according to Hollywood
• A critical consideration of the cons and pros of vaccination
• The health effect of sleep disorders
• An overview of three literary texts across three genres of Literature and how they connect to you
• A critical overview of “King Oedipus”: the role of the supernatural in day to day life
• Examine the novel “12 Years a Slave” as a reflection of servitude and brutality exerted by white slave owners
• Rationalize the emergence of racist Literature with concrete examples
• A study of the limits of literature in accessing rural readers
• Analyze the perspectives of modern authors on the Influence of medieval Literature on their craft
• What do you understand by the mortality of a literary text?
• A study of controversial Literature and its role in shaping the discussion
• A critical overview of three literary texts that dealt with domestic abuse and their role in changing the narratives about domestic violence
• Choose three contemporary poets and analyze the themes of their works
• Do you believe that contemporary American literature is the repetition of unnecessary themes already treated in the past?
• A study of the evolution of Literature and its styles
• The use of sexual innuendos in literature
• The use of sexist languages in literature and its effect on the public
• The disaster associated with media reports of fake news
• Conduct a study on how language is used as a tool for manipulation
• Attempt a criticism of a controversial Literary text and why it shouldn’t be studied or sold in the first place

Finding Linguistics Hard To Write About?

With these topics, you can commence your research with ease. However, if you need professional writing help for any part of the research, you can scout here online for the best research paper writing service.

There are several expert writers on ENL hosted on our website that you can consider for a fast response on your research study at a cheap price.

As students, you may be unable to cover every part of your research on your own. This inability is the reason you should consider expert writers for custom research topics in Linguistics approved by your professor for high grades.

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The French Department’s doctoral program reflects the interdisciplinary priorities that have long defined the pursuit of knowledge here at Berkeley. We are committed not only to providing students strong coverage of the field of French and francophone literature and culture, but also to doing so through the critical application of innovative methodologies, and by continually bringing French studies into productive dialogue with developments in parallel disciplines. Our faculty’s interests are both historically and methodologically diverse; their strengths are complemented by a variety of programs—centers, working groups, and so on—that regularly bring scholars of the humanities together across campus. And the relaxed and non-hierarchical atmosphere lends itself to free and passionate inquiry. We invite you to explore our offerings.

A Short Description of the M.A./Ph.D. in French

The doctoral program in French is designed to train students to undertake original research, to engage in scholarly and critical writing, and to prepare for teaching careers at the college and university level. The following information is intended only to provide a brief overview of the program’s main features and requirements. For complete information, please see the  Guide to Higher Degrees in French . Visit our application page for  information on the application process . 

For students entering with a B.A. in French, the French doctoral program normally takes six years to complete. (Students entering with the M.A. will typically spend five years in the program.) This time may vary, depending on each individual student’s preparation; it is divided as follows:

The M.A. Phase

During the first three semesters of graduate study students complete a minimum of six courses, five of which must be graduate level (200-level). All M.A.-level coursework must be completed with at least a 3.5 GPA. In the third semester students take a written M.A. exam, based on a tailored list of representative works from the French and francophone traditions. Upon successful completion of coursework and the M.A. exam, candidates are awarded the M.A. and then considered for admission to the Ph.D. phase of the program.

Please note that the French Department does not admit applicants whose ultimate goal is the M.A. degree.

The Ph.D. Phase

In three semesters students complete four more courses at the graduate level (200-level). During the last semester in the Ph.D. phase students take their qualifying exams, based on a set of specialized reading lists developed in close consultation with faculty members. These exams, which contain both written and oral components, are intended both to test general knowledge of a period and to provide students with a chance to develop ideas that will be useful in the definition of the dissertation topic.

The Dissertation Phase

Following successful completion of the qualifying exams, students are advanced to candidacy and enter the dissertation phase of the program. Students first write a dissertation prospectus in consultation with their dissertation committee, and then proceed with the dissertation itself.

Program Features

Flexibility and broad competency.

The Ph.D. program in French has been formulated to allow students maximum flexibility to pursue their scholarly interests while guaranteeing the acquisition of broad competency in the discipline of French and francophone literature and culture. Students are expected to acquire expertise in works of all periods but are also encouraged to develop interdisciplinary and specialized perspectives.

Incoming students are assigned a faculty mentor as well as a graduate student “buddy” so as to ease their transition into departmental and professional life. We view student-faculty contact as one of the cornerstones of our program’s success.

In-Depth Pedagogical Training

The department provides all Teaching Instructors (TAs) with in-depth pedagogical training, including pilot classes and pedagogical theory. Many of our students find themselves wanting to do supplementary work in planning innovative new language courses, and are able do so through the resources provided by the  Berkeley Language Center . Many advanced graduate students develop their own reading and composition courses or serve as instructors in neighboring departments such as Art History, English, and Comparative Literature; these instructorships often offer the opportunity to plan and execute a literature or culture course of your own design.

The  GSI Teaching and Resource Center  provides weekly teacher-training workshops throughout the semester; individual teaching consultations; grants for GSIs to improve the quality of teaching at Berkeley; and a summer institute for preparing future faculty.

Romance Languages and Literatures Program

The  Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures (RLL)  is a doctorate in three Romance languages and literatures (French, Italian and Spanish, including Spanish-American), prepared with emphasis in the literature or in the linguistics or philological history of one of the three. The RLL Program offers students the opportunity to tailor a course of study in French, Spanish and Italian to their interests. Applicants to the RLL program with a French emphasis are evaluated by French Department faculty and the program’s requirements are different from those listed above.

If you have any questions regarding the graduate program in  Romance Languages and Literatures  with an emphasis in French, please contact the  Graduate Student Services Advisor .

The Designated Emphasis

Students may consider the option of pursuing a Designated Emphasis (DE) in areas such as  Critical Theory ,  Film Studies ,  Women, Gender, and Sexuality ,  Renaissance and Early Modern Studies ,  European Studies , Indigenous Language Revitalization , or  New Media . Students pursuing a Designated Emphasis take certain prescribed courses within these disciplines, and write a dissertation that partially encompasses the chosen field of study. In addition to providing students an institutional mechanism for incorporating this sort of work into the Ph.D. program, the Designated Emphasis assures prospective employers that you have demonstrated expertise in an auxiliary field, and it will appear on your final degree. The  Program in Medieval Studies  also offers a joint degree in French and Medieval Studies. Students can also pursue graduate certificates in fields such as  Applied Data Science and Teaching and Learning in Higher Education .

Interdisciplinary Centers and Working Groups

A number of interdisciplinary centers and groups regularly bring noted scholars and artists to campus. The  Center for the Study of Sexual Culture , brings together researchers with a common interest in the ways sexuality takes on different meanings in different cultural contexts.

The French Studies Program  organizes lectures, visits by scholars, and conferences involving France and the French tradition(s) across the disciplines of the Humanities and the Social Sciences.

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies  promotes the interdisciplinary study of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at the University of California, Berkeley, and beyond, raising public awareness of the region’s diverse peoples, languages, cultures and their connection to wider global contexts.

The  Townsend Center for the Humanities  promotes research and ongoing conversation among and within academic disciplines. It hosts art exhibits, lectures, and conferences and sponsors a large number of  working groups , which meet informally and are run and attended by both graduate students and faculty. The Center also provides funding to support student journals.

Fostering intellectual life among students is a priority. Click here for information on  current student interests .

Job Placement

The Department is committed to helping graduates secure employment. This includes workshops on aspects of the job market in both spring and fall, reviewing and editing of curriculum vitae and letters of application, mock interviews, and works-in-progress talks that help candidates learn to present their research.

The Department has an  excellent record in placing students  who apply nationally and internationally for positions within the academy and beyond; in the last several years our students have been offered tenure-track appointments at Northwestern University; Duke University; University of Pennsylvania; Georgetown College; Vassar College; Emory College; Williams College; EDC Paris Business School; Maynooth University; Reed College; Columbia University; Middlebury College; Davidson College; College of William and Mary; Skidmore College; Austin College; San Francisco State University; University of Georgia; University of Michigan; University of Minnesota. Students interested in careers outside of academia have also had successful placements as Program Director; Equitable Assessment Consultant; Content Marketing for AI-platforms; Teacher; Senior Academic Programs Coordinator in Paris; and more . 

Financing Graduate Study

The Department offers a number of resources for financing graduate study, including fellowship packages, fellowships for continuing students, and Graduate Student Instructorships . It also awards grants for summer study and travel.

UC Berkeley also provides funding support on a competitive basis to humanities students at various points in their graduate career. The  Graduate Division Summer Grant  provides summer financial support. The  Doctoral Completion Fellowship  provides a full year of fellowship support for students who advance to candidacy within normative time (four years in humanities departments). The  Townsend Center  funds a competitive dissertation fellowship for humanities students.

Applicants should note that there are a few non-UC Berkeley sources of funding for graduate education. These include the  Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowships , the  Hispanic Scholarship Fund , the  Jack Kent Cooke Foundation , the  Javits Fellowship Program , and the  Soros Fellowships for New Americans .

Exchange Programs and Travel Fellowships

Graduate students in French are encouraged to spend time studying in France or another Francophone region or country. The Department has three yearly exchange programs — with the École Normale Supérieure, the Université Paris Cité or the Université de Tours. The Department usually selects advanced students to participate in these exchange programs, but from time to time students who have fulfilled almost all of their other requirements and have not yet taken the Qualifying Exam are selected.

These programs have always been sufficient to assure every student the opportunity to study in France .

These programs have always been sufficient to assure every student the opportunity to study in France.

Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) Exchange

One student may be selected for the academic year for the Department’s exchange program with the École Normale Supérieure (ENS). The ENS position will require the student selected to use their DCF during that year. Since the ENS exchange includes free housing, the DCF Fellowship stipend will not be supplemented by the department. Students who have already utilized the DCF will not be eligible for the ENS fellowship.

Paris VII Exchange

Students selected to participate in the Paris VII exchange are hired by Paris VII to teach English language courses. Students are paid a monthly salary in euros for 12 months. Students also receive health coverage under the general conditions of the National French Health Insurance System. Unlike the ENS exchange, Paris VII participants must make their own housing arrangements. Only native English speakers are eligible for this exchange program.

Université de Tours François-Rabelais

Students selected to participate in the Tours exchange are hired by Tours to teach English language courses. Students are paid a monthly salary in euros for 12 months. Students also receive health coverage under the general conditions of the National French Health Insurance System. As in the Paris VII exchange, Tours participants must make their own housing arrangements. Only native English speakers are eligible for this exchange program.

Additional Opportunities for Research/Travel in France

Fulbright IIE Fellowship Applicants must be U.S. citizens holding a B.A. degree or equivalent before the beginning date of the grant. Provides round-trip travel, tuition, books, and stipend for one academic year. Approximately 1,300 awards are available for study in over 140 countries. Applies to coursework, master’s or dissertation research.

Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Grants This program provides grants to colleges and universities to fund individual doctoral students who conduct research in other countries, in modern foreign languages and area studies for periods of 6 to 12 months.

Georges Lurcy Fellowship Program for Study in France This fellowship is for advanced Ph.D. students who are citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. and whose research topic is unique to France and can only be pursued in that country. The fellowship provides a stipend (currently $25,300) to cover educational fees, necessary travel, and living expenses while in France. Students must be enrolled at UC Berkeley or at an educational institution in France during the tenure of the fellowship. Interested students should submit their application materials to the Graduate Fellowships Office (318 Sproul Hall) by the deadline. One UC Berkeley graduate student is nominated for this fellowship each year.

Walter J. Jensen Fellowship for French Language, Literature, and Culture This fellowship provides a stipend of at least $10,000 for a minimum of six months of study in France. Phi Beta Kappa will also cover a single round-trip, economy-class ticket for the recipient to travel to France; some additional support may be available to those with dependents. The purpose of the award is to help educators and researchers improve education in standard French language, literature and culture and in the study of standard French in the United States.

Degree Requirements

Course requirements.

Students in the doctoral program must complete ten courses, including one course in the history of French language (French 201) and one course in literary criticism (French 270 or French 274). Courses completed at Berkeley for the M.A. phase count toward the ten-course requirement.

Students must also fulfill a historical comprehensiveness requirement. This entails completion of a graduate seminar in Medieval literature; two seminars in 16th-, 17th-, 18th-century or early modern studies; two seminars in 19th-, 20th-century, Francophone Studies, or Modern Studies. Outside of these requirements, students are allowed, and indeed encouraged, to pursue their interests in other departments. Students wanting to improve their general background are also permitted to take up to two undergraduate courses for credit towards their degree.

The first French proseminar (French 200A) is taken during the first semester of graduate study at Berkeley. This one-hour-a-week class, which does not count toward the Ph.D. requirement, is designed to give new graduate students a broad view of the Department’s faculty, the courses they teach, and their fields of research. In addition, it introduces students to aspects of their graduate career, issues pertaining to research methodologies, and critical debates across the profession.

The second French proseminar (French 200B)   gives first-year graduate students a general introduction to reading, analyzing, and writing about French texts. The selection of works is intentionally diverse and reflects both the traditional canon as well as current interests and trends in French studies.  At the end of the course, students produce a final reflection which will serve as a starting point for their own preparation for the M.A. exam.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students may fulfill the foreign language requirement either by demonstrating a reading knowledge of two languages (Option I) or by demonstrating an exceptionally thorough reading knowledge and an adequate knowledge of the grammatical structure of one language (Option II). If you have questions about how to fulfill the foreign language requirement, contact the Graduate Student Services Advisor at  [email protected] .

The language(s) will be chosen after consultation with the Head Graduate Advisor, and in view of the student’s intended Ph.D. Program Proposal. For example, for students intending to work in the Middle Ages or Renaissance, it could be advisable to choose Latin, Italian, or Spanish. For students interested in modern philosophy, German might be wise. Arabic might be a sensible choice for students interested in Francophone literature. Whatever the choice, it should have an intellectual or scholarly relationship to the student’s area of specialization, or with the field of Romance languages more broadly.

Additional Requirements

Doctoral students must fulfill additional requirements, including passing the Qualifying Exams and composing a dissertation prospectus, which must be approved by the student’s dissertation committee. For more information on additional requirements, consult the  Guide to Higher Degrees in French .

• M.A. / Ph.D In French
• Ph.D In Romance Language and Literatures (RLL)
• Applying to The Graduate Program
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• Guide to Higher Degrees in French
• Commencement

• Bodleian Libraries
• Oxford LibGuides
• French Language and Literature
• Dissertations and theses

French Language and Literature: Dissertations and theses

• Web resources

French dissertations and theses

There are a number of different resources available for finding French dissertations. 

• Atelier national de Reproduction des thèses Also known as tne National Center for the Reproduction of PhD theses
• SUDOC Le catalogue du Système Universitaire de Documentation
• Thèses en ligne (TEL): serveur de thèses multidisciplinaire Although multidisciplinary the majority of theses are in scientific disciplines.
• thèses.fr This research tool is maintained by ABES (Agence bibliographique de l'enseignement supérieur) and records titles of theses in preparation in French universities and higher education institutions

Belgian dissertations and theses

• Répertoire commun des thèses électroniques des universités de la Communauté Française de Belgique Portal to access French-language theses through relevant University repositories

General resources for dissertations and theses

• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global The world's most comprehensive collection of full-text dissertations and theses. As the official digital dissertations archive for the Library of Congress and as the database of record for graduate research, PQDTGlobal includes millions of searchable citations to dissertations and theses from 1861 to the present day together with over a million full-text dissertations that are available for download in PDF format. Over 2.1 million titles are available for purchase as printed copies. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full-text coverage for older graduate works. It also includes content from PQDT UK & Ireland (aka Index to Theses).
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination and preservation of electronic analogues to the traditional paper-based theses and dissertations.
• DART-Europe E-theses Portal DART-Europe is a partnership of research libraries and library consortia who are working together to improve global access to European research theses.
• Top 100 Dissertation and theses references on the web
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• Last Updated: Sep 19, 2024 6:02 PM
• URL: https://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/frenchresources

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Research in French studies

Our research in French and Francophone studies is global in outlook and diverse in approach, covering history, politics, literature, film, cultural studies, translation and publishing histories and networks.

We address contemporary, real-life challenges facing postcolonial, multicultural societies, using historical, textual and practice-based perspectives to advance current thinking on international philanthropy, conflict and nationalism, landscape change, and children's literature.

Areas of research

Our research specialisms include:

• Francophone postcolonial literatures
• Disability studies
• Women’s writing, feminist theory, and history
• War studies
• Nationalism and identities
• The classical tradition in the modern world
• Philosophy and literary theory
• Education 
• Children’s literature
• Publishing history
• Translation studies
• Landscape change and loss

Research centres

St The Women’s Hammam: an Experienced Space of Representation in Maghrebi Literature & film’ aff contribute to several of the University’s major research centres, including:

• Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing
• Centre for Film Aesthetics and Cultures
• Centre for Health Humanities
• Beckett International Foundation
• Samuel Beckett Research Centre
• Ways of War Centre

Staff research activities and collaborations

Dr marjorie gehrhardt.

Dr Marjorie Gehrhardt is a member of the Centre for Health Humanities . Her current research focuses on the rehabilitation of WW1 disabled veterans, and the role of philanthropic organisations in this process.

She is interested in the history of philanthropy in the British and French context more specifically, including the work of the Salvation Army and the Red Cross. She has also been collaborating with a number of French and British charities, including Changing Faces , Face Equality International and the French disfigured veterans' organisation Association des Gueules Cassées .

Dr Sophie Heywood

Dr Sophie Heywood is co-founder and co-director of the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing at the University of Reading. She specialises in the history of French and comparative children’s literature and publishing, and has published extensively on these subjects in French and English.

She is on the editorial board of the French children’s literature journal Strenae , and is a member of the editorial team for the Edinburgh Companion to Women in Publishing .

In her work on children’s literature in translation she collaborates with Outside in World , the organisation dedicated to promoting and exploring world literature and children’s books in translation, with whom she runs a popular webinar series. In 2016-17 she led the Children's  ’68 project, funded by LE STUDIUM/ Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellowship and the Mayor of Paris.

She is currently working on a book exploring transatlantic children’s publishing in Cold War France.

Professor Catherine Léglu, Visiting Research Professor

Professor Catherine Léglu works on Medieval French and Occitan literature from an interdisciplinary perspective. She has published extensively on satirical and didactic texts, as well as more recently on the translation and adaptation of historical and literary texts into vernacular writings and word-and-image schemes.

Her most recent work is on genealogical schemes as a form of historical writing, with reference to Occitan-language texts, and on translation and adaptation of the biblical story of Samson in post-conquest England, looking at word, image and music.

Dr Athena Leoussi

Dr Athena S. Leoussi is Associate Professor in European History, and is a member of the Ways of War Centre . Her research explores issues and problems of nationalism and national identity, race, anti-semitism, the representation of the nation in the visual arts, and the place of the Classical tradition in the modern world.

She is a founding chair of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN) and a founding editor of the journal Nations and Nationalism . She is also Editor-in-Chief of the open-access journal Genealogy .

She is a member of the Advisory Board of National Movements and Intermediary Structures in Europe (NISE) , an international platform for research and heritage on national movements in Europe, created by the ADVN Archives of National Movements, funded by the Belgian government.

Dr Leoussi initiated and curated with Dr Ian Jenkins the major British Museum exhibition Defining Beauty: The Body in Ancient Greek Art (2015). 

Dr John McKeane

Dr John McKeane’s  research focuses on French literature and philosophy. He co-organised international conferences on Maurice Blanchot (2009) and Sarah Kofman (2019), each of which led to a collective publication. His work has won numerous prizes including the Society for French Studies prize fellowship 2021-22, and an AHRC/ESRC Library of Congress Fellowship.

Dr McKeane is a prolific translator from French. His practice has led to in-depth collaboration with publishers in the UK and US, and to publications on translation theory. He also acts as a translation reviewer and consultant for publishing and media organisations. 

He has also collaborated with French film-makers, gaining funding from Reading’s  Centre for Film Aesthetics and Cultures  for a collaborative translation with Sam Ferguson of the feature-length film on French-Russian thinker Alexandre Kojève,  Knowingly .

Dr McKeane is a member of the editorial board of  Barthes Studies  and  Espace Maurice Blanchot . His research, including archive visits, has led to publications casting light on little-known texts by prominent French thinkers Roland Barthes, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, and Blanchot, including the latter’s unpublished novel  Thomas le solitaire .

Professor Julia Waters

Professor Julia Waters  is Professor of Contemporary Literature in French and President of the Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies (SFPS) . She is General Editor of Liverpool University Press’s Francophone Postcolonial Studies series and sits on the editorial board of several international journals.

Her groundbreaking research on postcolonial Marguerite Duras explores the relationship between colonial propaganda and postcolonial literature and film, focusing on silenced histories of colonial violence and territorial loss.

Professor Waters’ many influential publications on Mauritian and Indian Ocean cultures include an open-access monograph on the Mauritian novel. Her research on issues of translation in postcolonial, multilingual contexts is informed by her translation practice, including for the Mauritius-based publishing house, Éditions Vizavi .

Professor Waters’ current research, on creative and community responses to landscape change in Mauritius, involves collaboration with Mauritian artists, writers, film-makers, conservation NGOs, cultural institutions and private sector activists.

She co-organised an international conference on ‘Rethinking Postcolonial Landscapes in the Francophone World’ (SFPS, 2021); and contributed to the collective cultural-societal project, Maudrigosa!, coordinated by the novelist Carl de Souza.

Dr Marine Orain

Dr Marine Orain’s research focuses on French intellectual history and the Algerian War. Her interests include modern and contemporary French thinkers, and their modes of intervention in response to crisis and armed conflict.

Recent and current doctoral research projects

A study of children’s literature in translation using data from outside in world.

• Emma D. Page (SWW DTP)
• Supervisors: Dr Sophie Heywood and Dr Catherine Butler (Cardiff)

The Arabic subtitling of BBC series His Dark Materials (ongoing) 

• Nouf Alsayed (Ministry of Education, Saudi Arabia)
• Supervisors: Dr Sophie Heywood and Dr Simone Knox  (Film, Theatre and Television, Reading)

Exploring post-colonial translation strategies in the English translation of Arabic fiction (ongoing)

• Nawal Sulamain AlFozan (Ministry of Education, Saudi Arabia)
• Supervisors: Professor Daniela La Penna  and Dr John McKeane  

Changes in the English to Arabic subtitling of TEDx videos (ongoing)

• Lena Alsohebani (Ministry of Education, Saudi Arabia). 
• Supervisors: Dr John McKeane  and Dr Simone Knox (Film, Theatre and Television, Reading)

Female Subjectivity and Embodiment in Black Speculative Fiction (ongoing)

• Amel Ghenam 
• Supervisors: Prof Julia Waters ; Dr Ellen Pilsworth  (German, Reading); Dr Nicola Abram  (English Literature, Reading)

The Welsh Tradition of the Seven Sieges of Rome (ongoing) 

• Carys Gadsden
• Supervisor: Prof Francoise Le Saux 

The Heath-Pompidou Paris 1971 summit: Franco-British European honeymoon or marriage of convenience? An actor-centred study (2020)

• Patrick Robert
• Supervisors: Prof Hilary Footitt and Dr Athena Leoussi

Breaking the Silence? Representing female bodily experience in women's literature from Algeria, France, and Mauritius (2018) 

• Maria Tomlinson (SWW DTP)
• Supervisors: Prof Julia Waters  and Dr Siobhan Shilton (Bristol)

Pro-European groups and the French, Belgian and British empires (1947–1957) (2013)

• Laura Kottos (AHRC)
• Supervisor: Prof Andrew Knapp

The cultural memory of the Second World War: D-Day veterans and commemoration in Britain (2012)

• Gregory Tinker (AHRC)
• Supervisor: Prof Hillary Footitt

‘ The Women’s Hammam: an Experienced Space of Representation in Maghrebi Literature & film’  (ongoing)

• Assya Belahamar Louazani
• Supervisor: Dr John McKeane  

‘Landscape Art: Teaching Children Environmentalism and Democracy through Art in Britain, 1938-54’ (ongoing)

• Christos Salatelis
• Supervisor:  Dr John McKeane

Recent and ongoing PhDs in French studies span a broad range of periods and topics, and we welcome enquiries and proposals relating both to discrete specialisms and to interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary work.

Find out more about studying for a PhD 

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French Linguistics

Our French Linguistics faculty bring their expertise in a broad range of fields, including not only the core areas of linguistics, such as syntax, semantics, phonology, morphology, but also history of the language, lexicology and lexicography, sociolinguistics, dialectology, pidgins and creoles, second language acquisition and applied linguistics/pedagogy.

This breadth of scholarly expertise is combined with the research programs of our faculty members, who specialize in the following areas:

• Sentence processing (information integration in second language processing) and development of interpretive knowledge (phrasal semantics, lexical semantics and grammatically computed pragmatic inferences)
• Syntax and history of French (including Occitan)
• Sociolinguistics, variation, morphosyntax, phonology, and Québec colloquial French
• Language contact (Louisiana French, Welsh, Breton), lexicography, pidgins and creoles, and endangered languages
• Phonetics, foreign language pedagogy and computer-assisted language learning

Meet our French Linguistics faculty Learn about our graduate program

Second Language Acquisition group

The Second Language Acquisition of French Laboratory offers a dynamic environment to engage in second language acquisition research on French. It supports the production of dissertation research, class projects and group research mentoring. Joint-authored papers have been published in open access venues and in archival journals such as Second Language Research and Studies in Second Language Acquisition , and as book chapters.

Current research investigates the role of real-time syntactic analysis (parsing) in sentence comprehension by native and non-native language users. This is done through psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic means. The goal is to better understand the role of parsing in acquisition and to understand the neuro-cognitive foundations of a continued ability to acquire second languages.

The Second Language Acquisition of French Laboratory supports various research studies including moving window silent reading experiments, cross-modal priming experiments, forced-paced reading aloud with picture classification, word monitory as well as eye-movement research with a portable Eyetech V2 mini Lab that allows off-site research and classroom demonstrations. Our neurolinguistic work takes place at the Imaging Research Facility .

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School of Modern Languages and Cultures

Current research projects in french studies, contemporary projections of french as a world language.

Professor Jeremy Ahearne is currently exploring the very different ways in which French has been represented or ‘projected’ as a world language across the last two decades. He is tracing such projections across the work of language theorists, French governments, language observatories attached to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, and selected literary and philosophical writers from across the francophone world.

Staging Napoleonic Theatre

Benefiting from AHRC follow-on funding for 12 months (2016-17) to engage with new audiences, Professor Katherine Astbury’s Napoleonic theatre project team have been working with theatre practitioners and musicians on workshops to further our understanding of the performance of theatre during the period, using the manuscript scores of melodramas to reproduce the music that would have accompanied the speech and action to better understand the relationship between form and content. The project culminated in two performances, one a collaboration with the Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond and the other with English Heritage at Portchester Castle.

French T-Shirt Slogans and Gender

Plenty of us nowadays see French words and phrases on t-shirts sold in well-known high street shops. Along with Dr Gilles Baro at the University of the Witswatersrand in Johannesburg, Dr Will Amos Link opens in a new window is exploring the gendered nature of French t-shirt slogans sold in the UK and South Africa. This sociolinguistic research demonstrates that love, relationships, and fashion are key themes in the women’s lines, whereas men’s t-shirts rarely feature French; but when they do they evince broader themes of place-names and generic political slogans. The project asks how far t-shirt French can be described as a ‘feminine language’, and what this says about how retailers seek to define women and girl consumers.

Translation and Untranslatability in Medieval French Texts

Dr Emma Campbell Link opens in a new window is completing a project on 'Translation and Untranslatability in Medieval French Texts', which received funding from the AHRC. Emma has published a co-edited book and several articles connected to the project; the final output will be a monograph. 'Translation and Untranslatability in Medieval French Texts' considers how medieval translation might be brought into productive critical dialogue with contemporary debates in translation studies by examining how a key concept in translation theory—that of untranslatability—might inform an analysis of medieval French texts.

The Politics of Psychedelics

Professor Oliver Davis Link opens in a new window is currently working on political questions arising from the ongoing ‘psychedelic renaissance’ (the rediscovery by biomedical science, psychiatry and the wider culture of the therapeutic efficacy of psychedelic substances). Some of this work in the critical medical humanities is collaborative, with Dr Alex Dymock Link opens in a new window (Goldsmiths). In the French context, Professor Davis’s research on the psychedelic renaissance in the present is also informed by analysis of the remarkable five books and one film documenting the self-experiments with mescaline and other psychoactive substances conducted by writer, visual artist and reluctant psychonaut Henri Michaux in the 1950s and 60s.

Secrets Unlocked

Prof. Ingrid De Smet is working on a monograph Secrets Unlocked: Locks, Keys, and Seals or the Instruments of Secrecy in Early Modern France. From Object to Metaphor. Stemming from foundational research conducted during a three-year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2011–2014, ‘Secrets and their Keepers in Renaissance France, 1560–1620’), the book examines the conceptualization and practical implementation of secrecy and semi-secrecy versus public knowledge in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century France (and beyond). The study draws on a broad range of sources in French and Latin, from technical treatises and juridical texts to emblem books, poetry and confession manuals. It investigates the ways in which locks, keys and seals moved from quotidian and ancillary objects to metaphors and highly-charged, but also ambivalent, symbols of secrecy.

African intellectual history

Professor Pierre-Philippe Fraiture ’s current research focuses on African intellectual history. Recent publications include books on VY Mudimbe (funded by the British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship), edited journals on ‘Francophone African Philosophy’ and ‘Translating African Thought and Literature’. He has been commissioned by the National Gallery of Denmark to write on ‘African Art: from Primitivism to Arts Premiers’. His latest monograph, Past Imperfect: Time and African Decolonization, 1945-1960 , was published in May 2021. He has been awarded an ERC Senior Research Fellowship (2020-2025) and participates in a project entitled ‘Philosophy and Genres: Creating a Textual Basis for African Philosophy’. As part of this project, he is editing a volume of essays [to be published by Leuven UP] on the cultural legacies of the Belgian empire in the DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Belgium.

French Theories of the Anthropocene

Building on previous studies, Professor Seán Hand is developing a series of related readings of interventions and implications raised by a number of French writers, including Christophe Bonneuil and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, Philippe Descola, Bruno Latour, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Luc Nancy, Michel Serres, Isabelle Stengers, and Bernard Stiegler, for philosophical conceptualisations associated with the Anthropocene, among them agency, becoming, death, dissemination, information, memory, residence, responsibility, technology, temporality, therapeutics, and waste.

Embodiment in European film and television after the digital revolution

The current moment is increasingly seen as one typified by the loss of connection with our bodies (as well as the Earth). Mary Harrod Link opens in a new window ’s research project considers how such anxieties are negotiated by contemporary posthuman and ‘post-European’ film and television. Considering the intersection between liminal industrial positioning and narrative-aesthetic elements, it suggests that while embodied specificity (in terms of gender, sexuality and race) is apparently elided in many contemporary screen fictions, in fact this returns with a vengeance in the age of advanced digital technologies.

The Ethics of Violent Action in Political Struggle

In this project Professor Nick Hewlett engages with some major left and left-leaning thinkers whose work relates to the question of violence in pursuit of a fairer world, and whose writings have often influenced on-the-ground struggles. He considers among others the work of Marx, Engels, Sorel, Fanon, Sartre, Guevara and Benjamin, who are often seen as to offer legitimacy to the taking up of arms in the pursuit of emancipation. Others, meanwhile, such as Arendt, Gandhi, Camus and Ruddick, argue various cases against the use of violence - or at least for the strictly limited use of violence - for progressive ends.

Circulus vitiosus deus: Klossowski, Nietzsche, and the Deconstruction of Christianity

Professor Leslie Hill is currently completing a book-length study of Pierre Klossowski's dialogue with Nietzsche and Heidegger, focusing on his original reinterpretation of Nietzsche's doctrine of eternal return and on the relationship between Christianity and atheism in the writer's work, set against the backdrop of Jean-Luc Nancy's project of the deconstruction of Christianity.

Toxic masculinity and the literary establishment in contemporary France

Dr Douglas Morrey ’s current research project asks how it is that, at a time of increasing public awareness of feminism and social acceptance of women’s autonomy, the French literary sphere has continued to be dominated by men expressing openly misogynistic views. Such men hold influential positions in the publishing field, and enjoy prominent media profiles as well as critical and commercal success. Combining methodologies of gender studies, close reading and the sociology of literature, the study looks at three figures who came to prominence broadly around 1968 (Philippe Sollers, Serge Doubrovsky, Gabriel Matzneff) and three from the subsequent generation who began publishing in the 1990s (Michel Houellebecq, Frédéric Beigbeder, Yann Moix). The project explores how social and political changes have shifted the latter generation’s relationship to gender and sexuality while arguing for the persistence of a core of virile misogyny that can be traced to deeper historical roots in French culture.

The Power of Play: Satire in Modern French Political Culture

Play is a dangerous political game — whether it involves a caricature in Charlie Hebdo or a revelation in the satirical Canard enchaîné . Drawing on new archival work, Dr Jessica Wardhaugh Link opens in a new window ’s current research project explores how political play develops in France in the years 1870–1940. She is particularly interested in how play (whether verbal, visual, or physical) influences political actors in their choices and behaviour, how it adopts national, regional, and social specificities, and how it operates through strategic and symbolic borrowings across political and geographical boundaries.

Morphine in the Modern French Imagination

Dr Susannah Wilson has recently held a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for a monograph project with the working title, Morphine in the Modern French Imagination: Pains, Pleasures and Pathologies . This book will be the first and only comprehensive survey of morphine and its cultural representations in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century French culture. The book tackles an ambitious but carefully defined corpus of material from popular literary texts, medical treatises, the press, and judicial archives in order to offer original reflections on the French “opioid crisis” of the 1880s-1890s.

• University of Michigan Library
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French Language and Literature

• Getting Started

Highly Recommended Databases

Other databases, selected french studies journals.

• Dictionaries & Reference
• Dissertations
• Digital Collections & Libraries
• Web Resources
• Language Learning

Use the following databases to find articles on your topic.

• MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window Indexes books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and film. Brief tutorial in French: https://youtu.be/2wqEgPb0smw
• CAIRN This link opens in a new window Collection of French and Belgian journals covering topics in General Interest, History, Literature, and Philosophy.
• Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts This link opens in a new window Indexes literature in linguistics and related disciplines.
• IBZ (International Bibliography of Periodical Literature) This link opens in a new window Multilingual bibliography that indexes over 8,700 periodicals primarily in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
• PASCAL and FRANCIS This link opens in a new window Indexes 4,200 European-language journals in science, technology, medicine, humanities & social sciences, 1972-2015.
• International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) This link opens in a new window Indexes journals, as well as conference proceedings, essay collections and Festschriften on all aspects of medieval studies from 300 to 1500 for Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
• JSTOR This link opens in a new window Provides full-text access to the archives of core scholarly journals in the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences
• Web of Science This link opens in a new window Identifies articles and cited references in leading journals in all disciplines.
• Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new window Electronic index to the contents of thousands of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues to 1995/1996. The scope is international, including many journals in French.

Dalhousie French Studies This publication is devoted to the study of French and Francophone literature of all periods, and presents critical essays in French and English on a quarterly basis.

French Studies   This journal publishes articles and reviews spanning all areas of the subject, including language and linguistics (historical and contemporary), all periods and aspects of literature in France and the French-speaking world, thought and the history of ideas, cultural studies, film, and critical theory.

French Studies Bulletin This is the sister journal to French Studies, published four times a year (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) with articles (in English or French) spanning all areas of the subject, all periods and aspects of literature and France and the French-speaking world, French thought and the history of ideas, cultural studies, politics, film, and critical theory.

Journal of French Language Studies Journal of French Language Studies , sponsored by the Association for French Language Studies, encourages and promotes theoretical, descriptive and applied studies of all aspects of the French language.

Sixteenth Century Journal Formerly Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies , this journal is geared toward Renaissance and Reformation students and scholars.

Seventeenth Century French Studies This journal publishes high-quality original articles in English and French on a broad range of literary, cultural, historical and theoretical topics relating to early modern France.

Nineteenth Century French Studies A scholarly journal devoted to the study of 19th century French literature and related fields.

Sartre studies international: an international journal of existentialism and contemporary culture This is the official journal of the combined North American Sartre Society and the UK Sartre Society, publishing articles of a multidisciplinary, cross-cultural and international character reflecting the full range and complexity of Sartre's own work. It focuses on the philosophical, literary and political issues originating in existentialism, and explores the continuing vitality of existentialist and Sartrean ideas in contemporary society and contemporary culture.

Yale French Studies This journal represents the oldest English-language journal in the United States devoted to French and Francophone literature and culture. Each volume is conceived and organized by a guest editor or editors around a particular theme or author, and is published twice yearly.

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Research in French

• Faculty Home
• About French
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• Information for Undergraduates overview
• Part Ia overview
• FRB1: Use of French overview
• FRB1 Programme du trimestre
• FRB2: Translation from French
• FR1: Introduction to French literature, linguistics, film and thought
• Part Ib overview
• FRB3: Translation into French and French through the Media
• FR2: Structure and varieties of French
• FR3: Inventing French Literature
• FR4: Rethinking the Human: French Literature, Thought and Culture, 1500-1700
• FR5: Revolutions in writing, 1700-1900
• FR6: Innovation and Upheaval: deformation and reformulation in the 20th and 21st centuries
• Part II overview
• FRC1: Translation from and into French
• FRC2: French: Text and Culture
• FR7: Bodies in Space
• FR8: Wondrous forms in the age of Montaigne
• FR9: Reason, experience, and authority: French literature, thought, and history, 1594-1700
• FR10: Enlightenment and its limits
• FR11: Desire and power in 19th-century French culture
• FR12: Ethics and experience: literature, thought, and visual culture of the French-speaking world (1900 to the present)
• FR13: The French Language: Variation and Change
• FR14: Theatre: theory and practice.
• FR15: Voices of Desire
• FR16: Colonialism, empire and globalisation: technologies of space in French culture from 1700
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The French group at Cambridge produces world-leading research in a very wide range of areas in French Studies (French literature from early medieval texts to contemporary French writing, the history of the language and linguistics, early modern and modern French thought, cultural history, and cinema).

Cutting-edge international research is fostered in an environment that provides exceptional research facilities and extensive opportunities for exchange and debate in seminars and colloquia. Mentoring and close collaboration have facilitated the cohesion of a changing and dynamic community of researchers who carry forward a long tradition of excellence. The intellectual breadth of Cambridge French is reflected in its various thriving research areas:

History of the French Language and French Linguistics; Early and Late Medieval French and Occitan; Renaissance and Neo-Latin studies; Early Modern French; Nineteenth-century Cultural History; Modern French Thought and Philosophy; Film and Visual Culture.

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Research Projects

• Poetic Knowledge in Late Medieval France  AHRC 
• Observations and Remarks on the French language  AHRC
• Palliative Art: Mortality in Moving Image Media and Photography
• The Family at War in French Culture, 1870--1914 (FAMWAR) EU Marie Curie

Medieval Francophone Literary Culture Outside France

​ This project was awarded a substantial research grant of £850,652 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to investigate the nature of multiple francophone literary cultures, centred not on France (often meaning Paris) but on two other important axes for the transmission of francophone textual culture: one that goes from England across Flanders, Burgundy and beyond; and another across the Alps to Northern Italy, into the Mediterranean and further afield to Cyprus and the Levant.  

Project outputs will include an online database, a series of seminars and conferences, publications, and an exhibit at the Cambridge University Library. It will run until September 2014 and includes four investigators: Simon Gaunt (PI, King's London), Bill Burgwinkle (Cambridge French), Jane Gilbert (University College London), and Paul Vetch (Centre for Computing in the Humanities, KCL); two Research Associates: Nicola Morato (Cambridge) and Dirk Schoenaers (UCL); and a Research student, David Murray (MML alumnus in French and German, now at KCL).

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Latest News

Prof Wendy Ayres-Bennett: New handbook combines wide coverage with cutting-edge research

22 July 2024

22 July 2024 Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett (University of Cambridge) and Professor Mairi McLaughlin (UC Berkeley, Cambridge alumna) have co-edited the newly published Oxford Handbook of the French Language , featuring 32 chapters by different specialists on French from a range of fields and disciplines. In this interview...

Cambridge Emerita Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett co-edits Oxford Handbook of the French Language

11 July 2024

11 July 2024 Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett (University of Cambridge) and Professor Mairi McLaughlin (UC Berkeley) are pleased to announce the publication of The Oxford Handbook of the French Language , featuring 32 chapters by different specialists on French from a range of fields and disciplines. This volume provides the...

Professor Gilby interviewed about her Leverhulme Fellowship

10 June 2024

Professor Emma Gilby, Professor of Modern Literature and Thought and Bye-Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, has been awarded a three-year Major Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust for her project ‘Women and the Making of Modern Languages: A New Modernism’. Around the turn of the twentieth century, two social...

Dr Solange Manche awarded Society for French Studies Post-Doctoral Fellowship

22 May 2024

Congratulations to Dr Solange Manche, who has been awarded The Society for French Studies 2024-25 Post-Doctoral Fellowship. Her project includes both the reworking and publication of her doctoral thesis and the development of a new postdoctoral project provisionally entitled ‘Planning for a Better Life in the Anthropocene...

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• Finding Ivy: A Life Worthy of Life - Panel Discussion & Exhibition Viewing - German Historical Institute London Tuesday, 3 September 2024 - 5:30pm
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French : Scholarly Articles

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Main French Databases @Dickinson

• MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association) with Full Text This link opens in a new window Search for scholarly, international journals, books, and more, covering language, literature, composition, folklore, and film. Coverage: late 19th century to present. Some full text.
• Pascal and Francis This link opens in a new window Search for articles, patents, maps, conferences, books, reports, and theses in exact sciences and technology, biological and medical sciences, art, archaeology, economics, ethnology, geography, history of science and technology, literature, linguistics, administrative and legal sciences, education and religion sciences. Coverage: 1972-2015. Citations only.

French Culture: Literature, Film, & TV (Interdisciplinary)

• Film and Television Literature Index with Full Text This link opens in a new window Access scholarly and popular information covering the spectrum of television and film studies. This collection includes articles on film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews. Coverage: 20th century to present. Full text.
• FIlm Studies Guide More databases to use for Film Studies.
• French XX bibliography REF PQ305 .F7 - An index listing books, articles, and book reviews concerned with French literature and cinema.

Explore an authoritative source of literary criticism, summarizing authors' lives and works and including excerpts from scholarly articles. IMPORTANT NOTE: Because this source is an encyclopedic work, it should NEVER be directly cited. Always look up the original source of the excerpted and reprinted articles. Coverage: varies. Mostly full text.

Access this implementation of the FRANTEXT database, which consists of texts ranging from classic works of French literature to various kinds of non-fiction prose and technical writing. Coverage: 12th-20th centuries, contains primary sources. Full text.

Language Studies

• SocIndex with Full-Text This link opens in a new window Access sociology research encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study, including anthropology, criminology & criminal justice, demography, ethnic & racial studies, gender studies, marriage & family, political sociology, religion, rural & urban sociology, social development, social psychology, social structure, social work, sociological history, sociological research, sociological theory, substance abuse & other addictions, violence and many others. Coverage: 1900s to present. Full text.

Databases for the Interdisciplinary Humanities Research

Explore the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from the 15th century to the present, including military history, women's history, history of education, history of science, and more. This collection includes secondary source articles from journals, as well as books and book reviews. Note: for United States history, use America: History and Life ; for medieval history, use Iter ; for ancient history, use JSTOR . Coverage: varies. Full text.

• Humanities Source This link opens in a new window Access journals, books and other published sources from around the world in all aspects of the humanities, including archaeology, area studies, art, classical studies, dance, film, gender studies, history, journalism, linguistics, literature, music, performing arts, philosophy, and religion. For citation searching: click "Cited References" at the top of the search screen. Coverage: late 1800s to present. Some full text.

Articles in French

• Cairn.info Access to French scholarly journals.
• Érudit Online scholarly articles from Canada and North America in French.
• Fabula Online scholarly articles about language and literature.
• Glottopol Sociolinguistics online journal maintained by the University of Rouen, France.
• Google Scholar
• Persée Offers free access to over 800,000 scientific publications in a variety of fields.
• OpenEdition Journals Open access publishing for journals in French.

Multidisciplinary Databases

Explore historical and recent journals, books and images in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, with some natural science coverage. Coverage: varies - historical up to 1-5 years from current date, contains primary sources. Full text.

• Project Muse This link opens in a new window Access scholarly journals and ebooks in both the humanities and social sciences. Most journals covered are up to date. Ebooks include titles in Global Cultural Studies, Poetry, Fiction & Creative Non-Fiction. Coverage: historical and current. Full text.

Open Access

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Marquette University

Raynor Library

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French Language & Literature: Article Search

Scholarly sources for language, literature & culture, scholarly sources for history, databases for french language sources, getting the articles.

• Book Search
• Dictionaries ...
• Encyclopedias
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• Middle East & North Africa (MENA)
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• Everywhere else

Why Articles?

Articles appear in magazines, journals, periodicals, and newspapers.  Use articles for:

• most recent research on a topic
• coverage of very narrow topics
• coverage of current events
• contemporary accounts of past events and research

Search Strategies

Write down research questions for your topic and underline key concepts and keywords.  Think of broader or narrower terms depending on what search results you retrieve from those concepts and keywords.

Think of synonyms and alternative terms to search and refer to a Thesaurus for more ideas.

Remember that most databases have a list of suggested subject terms.  By choosing these, you can focus your search on articles most closely related to what you are searching for.

The databases below provide strong coverage of scholarly journals in the fields of language and literary studies (some are already indexed in Quick Search, but some are not).

Many contain material in foreign languages, including French.  For more databases that provide access to material in French, click here .

• BHA and RILA Comprehensive bibliography of scholarly writing about the history of Western art from late antiquity to the modern age. Covers material published from 1975 - 2007. more... less... BHA indexes and abstracts articles, books, conference proceedings, dissertations, exhibition and dealers' catalogs on the fine arts—painting, sculpture, drawing, prints, and architecture—as well as decorative and applied arts. Foreign publications are included. List of journals indexed . Through 1989, entries in this database are drawn from RILA ( International Repertory of the Literature of Art ). In 1990, RILA merged with RAA ( Repertoire d'Art et d'Archeologie ) to form BHA. It is produced by the Getty Research Institute and the Institut de l’Information Scientifique et Technique in France.

• International Medieval Bibliography from University of Leeds This link opens in a new window Index of articles, reviews, and notes on medieval studies. A comprehensive, standard source. 1967-2003. more... less... Using familiar, multilingual terminology defined by professional medievalists for medievalists, this database employs 120,000 index terms classified into six types (subjects, persons, texts, places, manuscripts, etc.). Covers publications in over 30 languages. Relevant to Classics, English language and literature, History and archaeology, Theology, Philosophy, Medieval European languages and literatures, Arabic and Islamic studies, Art history, etc.. Coverage begins in 1967.
• MLA International Bibliography from EBSCO This link opens in a new window Index of scholarship on modern languages, literature, folklore, and linguistics. 4,000+ journals and 1,000+ book publishers covered. Some full-text. 1925-present.

The two big databases are America History & Life and Historical Abstracts :  both index articles about history going back to 1492, but they are complimentary in their geographic scope.  America History & Life covers the 'new world' of the North American colonies and their later emergence as nations.  Historical Abstracts covers the 'old world', Europe and Africa.

In addition to these two databases, below you'll see information about some specialized resources.  Some are only in print (apologies!).

• Bibliographie Annuelle de l'Histoire de France Only available in print -- here's a link to the Marqcat record . Call number: DC 1 .B5x. Location: Memorial Level 2. This bibliographic index is probably the most complete resource available for researching French history. Covers the historical period of the 5th century through 1958.
• International African bibliography Only available in print ; here's a link to the Marqcat record . Call number: Raynor Ref DT 1 .I5x. An index to "current books, articles and papers in African studies".
• Persée A free portal to French "scientific journals in the field of the humanities. The entire printed collection of journals is digitized and published online ..." There are also theses, dissertations, and other formats of material. Dates of coverage vary; in addition, the publisher or journal distributor may choose to determine a recent time span, between 2 and 5 years, during which the issues will not be freely available on the internet. more... less... Roughly analogous to JSTOR ...

In addition to the databases listed above for language and literature, below are some other databases that have foreign language content.  Their subject emphases vary.

Here's a short video showing how Find it @ MU works . (About 4 minutes long.)

Two common ways to find out if the Libraries have access to the articles you need:

1) You are searching in an article database, but it doesn't have the full-text:  

• Links indicating Find it @MU may have located one or more sources for full text of the article. Click on the links and follow the trail to the article. 
• Links to search MARQCAT by the journal title or its ISSN number. The journal may be available in print or electronically through a source not searchable by Find it @MU .

2) You already have a specific citation and aren't currently searching in a database:

• Search for the journal title in MARQCAT , the library catalog;
• Do not search the title or author of the article, MARQCAT doesn't contain article level information.

The MARQCAT record will indicate what years we have in print and/or online, providing call number locations for the print and links to the e-journal.  Once at the e-journal, navigate to the volume, issue and page that you need.

Didn't find the article/journal using Find it @MU or MARQCAT?  Request the article through Interlibrary Loan (ILL) by clicking on the link at the bottom of the Find it @MU window or tab.  Learn more about ILL here .

Ever wonder why the full-text isn't there?  Watch this short video about the Business of Information .

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LANGUAGES: Research Guide | Find Articles: French

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Your Librarian

In This Section

In this section, you'll find:.

• Databases to search for scholarly articles in French, and for articles on French language, history, and culture
• Selected journals

Find Articles

Search these databases for scholarly articles in French, as well as articles about French language, culture, history, and more.

Covers scholarly publications from the early 20th century to the present for the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore, and film.

Scholarly research, trade journals, and popular news/magazines covering all disciplines. A good place to start for most research topics.

Or, try browsing these selected journals!

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French and Francophone Studies: Journals

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Journals A-L

This list contains journals about everything pertaining to France and Francophonie in either French, English, or multi-lingual formats. The majority of these journals emphasize an interdisciplinary and international perspective. In the case of journals with long traditions, the founders and their vision were provided in an effort to place the journal's current existence in a proper historical and intellectual context. Other titles reflect publishing initiatives of university departments of French, and their goal is to provide a platform for diverse, current scholarship, selected upon the trending research directions in academia. Also, information on changes of title (and when) and the vision of the founder(s) is given whenever available. With few exceptions, many editors consider changing over time in accordance with new trends, or adapting an existing vision to more contemporary tastes, as being more important than preserving an agenda that served well in their beginnings. After all, if it no longer draws a large readership, evolve to meet them.

Founded in 1963 by Roger Läufer (1928-2001), the journal originally sought to publish essays in textual explication, linguistics and articles of literary history about all significant  French social and cultural  aspects.  Läufer raised funds from French companies in Melbourne to launch it and pushed for a strong international stance in his journal. In the late 1960s, the journal renounced its commitment to linguistics as a new field of applied linguistics came into being, however, it maintained an eclectic approach up to present. Special numbers were devoted to the pedagogy of cultural studies and practice sin French-speaking contexts, as well as to Francophone literature and French cinema. Australia hosted the famous George Rudé Seminars in French History and Civilization were held every two years since 1978. Recently, the journal included translation studies. 

The Bibliography of French Literature , as the title translates into, is known in the German world as "the Klapp," called after its creator, the German Romanist librarian and bibliographer, Otto Klapp (1922-1986), and it is a comprehensive survey of French literature since 1956. It is useful for finding references to monographs and articles and complements well the MLA International Bibliography. The a uthors and subjects are separately listed and can be accessed by multiple indexes. The Klapp  contains essays and articles separated by the main periods of the French literature.  Recent volumes can contain up to 15,000 entries. The reviews listed appear in the corresponding volume as well as repeatedly by other entries in other volumes. Since it was first published, the Klapp remains the most efficient working tool for scholars and students. It enables a comprehensive search for all publications in Romance languages, with its accuracy and detail being enhanced by its online availability and searchability .

Founded by André Bazin, this journal  known for its Marxist film criticism, is the continuation of the Revue du Cinéma , established in 1928. Its appearance is groundbreaking in the sense that it redefined the concept of film criticism and theory.  As fundamental for the rise of the New Wave-style of cinema this journal is, many credit it also for its impact on the growth of world cinema. 

This journal  was founded by Georges Batailles (1897-1962) with the hope to convey the essential of the human thought captured in the best of the books, as Batailles himself would say it. A much older journal,  Le Journal des Savantes,  dating since the seventeenth century, held an exact similar mission: to provide critical commentaries on the books of the moment.  Scholars will find in its pages books and articles published in France and abroad, and written in a style that makes them more than simple descriptions. The selection covers the domain of literary creation, philosophical research, and explores historical, scientific, political, and economic  works . It is an exchange platform in the spirit of erudition, pluri-disciplinarity, and accessibility to experts and non-experts alike.

The volumes of this collection seeks to offer the seventy-five notebooks that Marcel Proust wrote between 1908 and 1922 while he was working on Contre Saint-Beuve   and  À la Recherche du Temps Perdu.   These notebooks  are part of the Marcel Proust Collection at the National Library of France. The diagram and facsimile of each notebook on one page and the transcription and critical apparatus on the on the other page provide readers with matching content for guidance in reading the manuscripts. The diagram shows the order of textual units, allowing to trace characteristics of writing style and trace Proust's notes in his manuscripts.

Published under the auspices of the University of Connecticut, this online journal  is a forum for academics and non-academics, like novelists, photographers, journalists, filmmakers, poets, artists to publish their work related to French and Francophone Studies. It is multi-disciplinary and bilingual, French and English.

Current Research in French Studies at Universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Founded in 1979 in the Department of French in the Dalhousie University of Halifax, Canada, this journal  seeks to appraise French and Francophone literature through essays and book reviews. 

Since November 2011, the  Dix-Neuvième Siècle  was replaced by  Magasin du Dix-Neuvième Siècle   and serves as the bulletin of the  dix-neuviémistes (the society known as the SERD) who pursue interdisciplinary studies of literature, arts, and sciences, cultural history and linguistics.

Early Modern French Studies   is the successor of  Seventeenth-Century French Studies   and focuses on groundbreaking research in early modern France, in its bewildering diversity ranging from popular culture to royal courts history, ghosts and gossip, monuments and visual landmarks.

Founded in 1932 by the French philosopher Emmanuel Mounier (1905-1950), who inspired the Personalist movement around which L'Esprit was conceived,  "Tout homme, sans exception, a le droit et le devoir de développer sa personalité." (Any man, without exception, has the right and the duty to develop his personality). In its pages, readers can find a general stance on the politics, society, and culture of France and the world, a stance that is situated between current events and scholarship.  L'Esprit   takes an international approach to issues, being connected with international networks of writers and seeking to connect the European spirit and Western values with the rest of the world.  

This journal, founded in 1961 by John Erickson at the University of Minnesota, is devoted to the French and Francophone literature, film, and culture from medieval times all the way to the present, it opened its pages to criticism, gender studies, eco-criticism, and postcolonial theories.

Founded in  1856, this journal was originally entitled  Études de théologie, de philosophie et d’histoire (Studies of theology, philosophy, and history) by two Jesuits, Jean (Ivan) Gagarine and Charles Daniel and sought to publish especially articles in theology, but slowly, at the turn of the past century, it opened its pages to  a broad variety of cultural themes. Gradually the journal was edited by lay people, men and women and was centered on the idea of dialog between groups, peoples, and religions, as well as major questions afflicting the contemporary world. 

Founded in 1923 by the French writer Romain Rolland this literary and cultural journal  was shaped in numerous ways by its rich legacy under the auspices of the Association of Europe's Friends (L'Association des Amis d'Europe). If your tenet is that dreams and reflections are necessary to each other when representing the world, you will find in this journal fields of knowledge and artistic forms that would make you believe even stronger in this vision.

It is an annual survey of the research published in the respective year in the field of the seventeenth-century French studies. With its penchant for descriptive and complete renditions of books, articles, and book reviews that appear in literary history and criticism, as well as in the arts, religion, philosophy, science, and linguistics.

Founded in 1990, this journal  focuses on literature but, in recent years, it opened its pages to cinema, television, media and the press. Authors interested in a peer-review journal will find in  French Cultural Studies a medium thriving on intellectual, cultural, and popular culture debates on all aspects of contemporary French culture.    popular culture , and cultural and intellectual debate on all aspects of modern French culture.

As the official voice of the Society for French Historical Studies , this journal  is a leading journal in French history, covering all periods from the Middle Ages to the present. In its pages one can find forums, review essays, special issues,  bibliographies, and bilingual abstracts. 

This journal is sponsored by the Institute of French Studies at the New York University  s part of its service to the scholarly community in French and francophone studies, the  Bulletin  publishes short articles, as a rule not substantially more than 2,000 words in length (including notes), in English or French on topics spanning all areas of the subject – language and linguistics (historical and contemporary); all aspects and periods of French/francophone literatures; French thought and the history of ideas; cultural studies; film; politics and critical theory – as well as on topical issues and debates. All article-type items received are subject to peer review. Given the Bulletin’s review and production cycle, it is not impossible for work received to appear in print within three months of receipt.

This title is the official journal of the International Federation of French Teachers serving educators of French in more than a hundred countries. It provides articles across disciplines, reviews, new pedagogical perspectives, and detachable didactic dossiers on themes of interest to various student age categories and educators with extensive sets of activities, practice work, and testing issues and examples.

It is the official journal of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) with the largest circulation in the world, and covering French and Francophone literature, cinema, culture, linguistics, and pedagogy.

Supported by the Society for French Studies,  French Studies   is the leading UK-based journal supported by the oldest learning society in Ireland and Britain. It was founded in 1947 and welcomes articles and studies on all periods and topics related to French culture and civilization. 

A twin journal to French Studies,  the French Studies Bulletin is published by the Society of French Studies, and unlike  French Studies,  it features short articles in English or French spanning various disciplines like linguistics, literature, history, cultural studies, film, politics and critical theory. Mainly the Bulletin reports on selected conferences, provides updated information the Society's activities and, recently, it added a postgraduate bulletin board.

This journal is published by l’Association d’Études Françaises en Afrique Australe, and includes quality articles about all disciplines and subjects that promote the dissemination of French, its language pedagogy, literary research, translations and linguistics. 

Founded in 1960 by Béchir Ben Yahmed in Tunisia,  Jeune Afrique  moved its headquarters to Paris and covers the political, economic and cultural spheres of Africa, Francophone Africa, and the Maghreb.

Supported by the Association for French Language Studies, this journal covers all descriptive, theoretical, and analytical perspectives dealing with French phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicography, semantics, and socio-linguistics. The articles cover survey studies and book reviews. 

This journal  is accessible for free online.

It was founded in 1975 by two French literary journalists, Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber and Bernard Pivot, and it is mainly devoted to tracing and documenting the present literary landscape in its vibrant actuality.

Journals M-Z

Founded in 1966 by the Tunisian-born French journalist Guy Sitbon, this literary review, self-proclaimed as the journal of books and writers, is also known for launching its own collection of pocket books (bouquins). It covers the current literary production in short and long articles, newsletter  rubrics and issues devoted to individual prominent writers. 

This journal reflects its interdisciplinary vision at the intersection of language, political, and information science and devotes space to major thematic issues, articles, studies, as well as conferences and bibliographies.

This journal was founded in 1972 by Thomas H.Goetz at the State University of  New York and seeks to publish original research on nineteenth-century French literature and other related fields, as well as book reviews. 

This journal was created in 2007 in Paris and seeks to provide contributions on specific themes around Les Essais  by  Montaigne as well as colloquia proceedings about Montaigne's work. 

Published by the Department of French and Francophone studies within University of Nottingham, this journal  features articles in both English and French on diverse themes in major fields of literature, culture, postcolonial studies, gender studies, film and visual studies, translation, history, and linguistics   in all periods up to the present, in a range of theoretical perspectives and old and new thematical orientations.  

Founded in 1909 by André Gide and other five French intellectuals, this journal welcomed works by Claudel, Malraux, and Sartre. It was to become the most famous literary review with contributors drawn from the most notable writers of the twentieth century. Its mission was to bring, as the title itself says, all that was new in French literature, and to embrace an esthetic vision, free of political and ideological incursions.

Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature

Supported by the Institute National de Recherche Pédagogique, this journal publishes research in native and foreign language pedagogy, as well as in the pedagogy of other disciplines, linguistics and education. It is considered a journal of reference as the only international francophone journal with this agenda, targeting not only researchers, but educators of teachers, and students. ​

Under the auspices of the Society for Romance Studies and the Scholars of the Nineteenth Century in 1971,  Romantisme   is an interdisciplinary effort to bring together literature, arts, history, and sciences in the European context. It seeks to disseminate various literary, artistic, scientific, historical, and political currents in the literary writings of the time .  

This journal was founded in 1983 by the International College of Philosophy in Paris, right on Descartes Street,from which the journal's name was inspired. Its founders, philosophers like Jacques Derrida and historical philosophers like François Châtelet envisioned it as a research and research formative institute as an open institute. The journal is published only in French and centers on a issue theme such as "Reading Étienne Balibar in Istanbul. Violence and civility," with articles surrounding Balilbar's work and studies about Balibar.

In January 2015, this journal changed its title into Early Modern French Studies  and it is renumbered starting from volume 1. Besides publishing in both English and French, the journal expanded its scope in order to reach a larger readership in the seventeenth-century French Studies scholarship. Also it announced a new focus on interdisciplinarity and cross-centuries, in order to give a broad perspective and context, "like a good salonnière" with the salon being the site where the concept of "early modern" had emerged, as the editor has put it. 

The online journal  of the Department of French at the University of Connecticut serves as a publication platform for scholars and students as well as novelists, poets, photographers, and journalists who seek to submit articles, interviews, fiction, and poetry from different disciplines. 

Founded in 1957 by the late professor of French literature at the University of Turin,  Franco Simone (1913-1976), this journal still follows the program outlined by its founder, restoring the prestige of French Studies discipline in Italy. The journal has a section "Rassegna Bibliografica" representing works pertaining to French letters across all centuries. It is valuable for its analytical  summaries of the articles published in different journals. Its reputation is built on publishing illustrious names like Erich Auerbach, Marcel Bataillon, George Poulet and  others.

Published in English in the United Kingdom, this journal is supported by the Association for the Studies in French Cinema, which was founded by two university professors, who also organize an annual conference under its auspices. It is fully devoted to French and Francophone cinema, tracing French screen studies by scholars known for their seminal work in this field.

Founded in 1987, this journal  of literary studies follows a fifteen-year-old rich intellectual tradition, since it was known by a different title,  Urgence,  until 1991. The special issues drawn from the international colloquia and research projects under the auspices  of the University of Québec, animating its spirit since 1986, and pulling together Québecois, Canadian, and international academic circles.  Tangence   supports the relations between literature and other fields like the arts, philosophy, human sciences, attemting to reach a common reflection on major issues. 

Founded in 1945 and known as Jean-Paul Sartre whose admiration for Charlie Chaplin's homonym movie determined the title selection, this journal  is the platform of existentialism and literature of engagement. Samuel Beckett's works appeared in Temps Modernes   as well as other famous writers. Now, it is publishing articles that follow Sartre's philosophy and reflect on the world as such. Its issues and dossiers devoted to individual writers  represent a rich and diverse patrimony in the French literature of all times.   

  Universalia: les évènements, les hommes, les problèmes en ... 

This journal  is an annual supplement of the Encyclopaedia Universalis, published as the French version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Universalia   seeks to provide knowledge, events, culture, and politics.

Published in 1967, this journal is the voice of the literature from Québec from its earliest times to the present day, by printing texts by a certain author, or devoting whole issues to a personality, in addition to printing short news and literary information. 

This journal  was founded in 1997 to trace media issues in radio and television and update the readers about the latest technological developments and service in French society. By focusing on the French cinema and its relations with other media, the journal traces historical trends in the UK and France for a deeper scholarly collaboration  The composition of the Editorial Board reflects the joint Franco-British ethos of the Journal, as does the Journal's acceptance of contributions in either French or English. One of the wider aims of the Journal is to encourage such collaboration between British and French researchers.

This journal seeks to promote women's presence in literature and culture in France and the francophone space, by looking at the place in society, their status, their level of education, as preoccupies the society sponsoring this journal, called  Women in French.

Organized regularly by a host editor, the oldest English-language  journal  in the United States has a long tradition of French and Francophone literature and culture, being recently enriched with interdisciplinary and cross-national perspectives, and covering a large  variety of topics. When it devoted an issue to the French education in 1958, it fit perfectly with the ongoing debate about literacy in the United States, engaging several constituencies in the topic "Why Johnny can't read," a very controversial subject at the time. 

Founded in 1879 by two Romance philologists, Gustav Körting and Edward Koschwitz, this journal printed articles and studies about French and language literature in three languages, French, English, and German.

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How to Write a Stellar Mémoire (French Master’s Thesis)

Pursuing graduate studies in France entails mastering all sorts of assignments, but perhaps none as daunting as the notorious mémoire , or master’s thesis. Writing and defending a master’s thesis is the cornerstone of many, though not all, French graduate degrees, making it a rite of passage for degree-seeking students in France. As part of my French master’s degree in Droit Public parcours Intégration Européenne et Gouvernance Globale , I was required to take on the infamous mémoire alongside my regular coursework during the final year of my studies.

Since I’m an international student at the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne , I had to contend not only with the base-level difficulties of putting together a master’s thesis, but also with the reality of writing fully in my second language and following the unforgiving methodology and writing norms of French law school to a tee. Needless to say, my year-long research project entailed late nights spent reading, countless trips to the library, typing until my fingers were sore, and shedding a few more tears than I’d like to admit!

My master’s thesis experience wasn’t all bad, of course. I genuinely enjoyed learning everything I could about my topic, discussing my progress with my classmates, refining my French-language skills , and presenting a piece of work that reflected my academic rigor. To my delight, at the end of my defense, the jury awarded me an 18/20 for my mémoire , entitled Associer les inégalités sociales et le changement climatique : Une étude comparative des contextes et approches aux États-Unis et dans l’Union européenne . The jury highlighted the following assets of my work:

• Qualité de recherche (Research quality)
• Qualité rédactionnelle (Writing quality)
• Qualité de français (French-language quality)
• Problématique innovante (Innovative research question)
• Posture épistémologique intéressant (Interesting epistemological posture)
• Bon cadrage théorique (Good theoretical framework)
• Limitations justifiées (Justified limitations)
• Structure impeccable (Impeccable structure)

Managing to receive the highest honors on my mémoire as an American studying law in France was no easy feat. Throughout the lengthy process of crafting my master’s thesis and defense, I discovered what worked well for me and what held me back – that’s why, in this post, I’m sharing my expert tips to help you write an outstanding French master’s thesis.

Honor Your Interests

Completing a mémoire takes months of daily research, reading, and writing, so you can imagine how painful the whole operation can become if your topic doesn’t inspire you! For a certain amount of time, your master’s thesis content will likely be all you can think about as you attempt to find and consume every piece of relevant literature ever written about it. To avoid misery and increase your motivation, you need to reflect upon the subjects within your degree field that excite you, the themes you’d be delighted to learn more about, and the concepts you truly want to call yourself an expert in come the day of your defense.

• My research topic combined my enthusiasm for the themes of public policy and governance, social justice issues, environmental protection, the United States, and the European Union.

Favor Innovation

The goal of producing a master’s thesis is not to reiterate the conclusions that other researchers have already drawn, but to pull from existing knowledge in order to demonstrate something new. To elevate your mémoire and impress your jury, innovation is indispensable. Creating a research question that hasn’t already been exhaustively answered will also prevent you from simply regurgitating what you read and will allow you to write a master’s thesis that relies on the important work of those before you, but is, ultimately, entirely your own.

• In my case, the concept of linking social inequality and climate change is relatively new on the whole. Moreover, my comparison of the United States’ and the European Union’s approaches for dealing with this phenomenon is something that hadn’t been done before.

Survey Your Sources

Because a finished mémoire is the culmination of in-depth research and analysis, you’ll need to choose a topic that you can thoroughly explore. For example, if your desired subject is too cutting-edge, you may struggle to find sufficient existing material upon which to build your master’s thesis. If essential documents that you need to read are confidential, located far away, or otherwise inaccessible, you won’t be able to use them for your work. It is therefore essential to consider whether adequate sources are available before you set your heart on a specific theme.

• When finalizing my topic, I ensured that the sources I would need to study were either located online, at my university , or in libraries near me.

Create a Timeline

You know that you should start working on your master’s thesis at the beginning of the school year , and that you need to have it finished by the end, but what happens between those two events is much less clear! With the help of a trusted professor or independently, you should make a realistic schedule with self-imposed deadlines to help you conceptualize the amount of work that needs to be done by each date. Your timeline should include targets for things like finalizing your research question, gathering sources for your bibliography, writing the various sections of the manuscript, submitting your mémoire for review, and preparing for your defense.

• Using a holistic timeline helped me to know when I was on track, when I could take breaks, and when I needed to speed things along. It also enabled me to beat procrastination, as delaying tasks for too long would have thrown me completely off schedule.

Chat About Your Research

While a master’s thesis is definitely an individual project, you shouldn’t keep your thoughts and questions to yourself! Your professors, classmates, friends, and family are all valuable resources as you go through the mémoire process. Speaking with your professors (who have already successfully completed challenging research projects) and with your classmates (who are currently working on their own mémoires ) about things like methodological difficulties and research hardships can lead to helpful problem solving and sincere moral support. Moreover, explaining your research to friends and family (who are likely unfamiliar with your subject) will help you gauge how well you understand it yourself and how clearly you’re able to express your ideas.

• I personally checked in regularly with my classmates who always offered useful words of advice and encouragement. I also talked with my significant other, Jalen , frequently to get his feedback on my work.

Choose the Right Advisor

Selecting a directeur·rice de mémoire , or master’s thesis advisor, isn’t a decision to make lightly. To find the perfect fit, you need to be familiar with your potential advisors and know your own preferences very well. For example, asking a professor whose specialty has nothing to do with your research question is likely to be as uninteresting for them as it is unhelpful to you. Furthermore, if you’re a student who likes frequent and detailed feedback, choosing a professor with a tightly-packed schedule might not be the best idea. Take the time to weigh your options carefully before asking a professor to become your advisor.

• I made sure to pick an advisor who was familiar with the broad strokes of my topic and had a hands-off attitude so that I could work autonomously and at my own pace.

Write Meticulously

The quality of the content of your master’s thesis is crucial, but so is the quality of your writing. The most brilliant of ideas will still fall flat if your text is riddled with grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Attempting to avoid all language blunders is especially vital when you’re writing in your second language – and even more so in a country like France where such mistakes are not looked upon kindly. If your manuscript is hard to understand, readers won’t be able to appreciate your analysis. Additionally, it’s tough for readers to take a piece of work seriously if they’re constantly distracted by careless errors. Try to compose every sentence with care in order to avoid these pitfalls.

• When writing my mémoire , I never hesitated to look up a word, phrase, or grammar rule when I was even the tiniest bit uncertain. I also double-checked for errors that I commonly make, like accidentally including a serial comma when I’m writing in French.

Perfect Your Formatting

You shouldn’t organize your master’s thesis like you would a novel, an essay, or a report. Depending on your field of study and your degree program’s requirements, you’ll likely have specific norms to apply and rules to follow for structuring your mémoire . Your acknowledgements, dedication, abstract, abbreviations, table of contents, references, and appendices can’t be placed just anywhere! You should also ensure that your work is pleasing to the eye, with an appropriate cover page, sensible headings, proper font sizes and line spacing, logical page breaks, and accurate citations. These details are what make the difference between a good master’s thesis and a great one.

• In French law school, for example, writing to a detailed, hierarchical outline, known as a plan , is often an absolute must. As such, the final version of my master’s thesis manuscript consists of an introduction, two chapters with three sections and eight sub-sections each, and a conclusion.

Prepare Your Defense

When you’re finally done writing your master’s thesis, it can be tempting to put it completely out of your mind. But once you conquer this first step, you still have one more challenge to tackle: your soutenance , or master’s thesis defense. To pass your defense, you need to do more than just prepare to present your research and findings to the jury. A quality presentation will also include explaining the reason you chose your topic, the sources you used, the problems you faced , the limitations of your work, any updates on your subject since you finished writing, and future research possibilities. Don’t forget to reread your mémoire with a critical eye to anticipate the jury’s critiques in advance. Going the extra mile to prepare your defense to the best of your ability is a recipe for triumph.

• I prepared for my defense one week in advance, and it consisted of a 20-minute presentation, a 25-minute question and answer session, and a 10-minute jury deliberation.

Take Your Work Seriously

It’s no secret that some degree programs are more rigorous than others, just as it’s true that some students take their studies more seriously than others. However, if you decide that writing a solid master’s thesis demonstrating your academic talents and integrity isn’t worth your time because you know that your program will accept work of lower calibre, you’ve effectively proven your degree to be a second-rate credential and yourself to be a substandard student. Would you rather throw together a mediocre mémoire that you’ll stuff away the moment it’s over, or compose a meaningful piece of work representing the best of your capacities that you’ll be excited to share with others for years to come? Taking your work seriously won’t steer you wrong, especially when it comes to an assignment as noteworthy as a master’s thesis.

• I know that my decision to do my absolute best played a large role in the jury’s attribution of my final grade, and I’m proud of myself for having done so.

Everyone’s master’s thesis journey is unique, but implementing these tips will put you on a path to success. Is writing a French mémoire in your future? Have you ever carried out a significant research project? Do you want to know more about my experience? Let me know in a comment!

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One comment.

Jator Berline

Thank you for sharing your experience and the meaningful tips. I hope to put them to use as I write my master’s thesis and prepare for defense.

Congratulations on your final grades 👏👏

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Research Process Plan

Research Topic

Your topic should facilitate a critical approach that integrates some of the theories covered in your course.

Your research topic may be born through different channels:

• You may choose a topic related to the course's central theme that interests you.
• Expand on a subject you found important, and that was highlighted in one of the texts you read.
• Cover a topic (from your optic) suggested in one of the books or articles you read.
• Browse online media to gather topic ideas.
• Browse background sources to gather topic ideas.

Coming Up with a Topic

Arriving at a topic that is not too big or too small is one of the earliest challenges in the research process.

• French-language market ⇒ too big
• French-language book market ⇒ We added the type of market, but this topic is still too big
• The bande dessinée in the French-language book market ⇒ We have added a literary genre
• Representations of the  bandes dessinées as a "ninth art ⇒ We have shifted into ninth art 

We have arrived at a topic :

The bande dessinée,  as an expression of "ninth art" as a sociological phenomenon

Research Question

Your research question will be related to your topic. This question usually answers a matter not covered by previous scholarship.

Developing Research Questions: Your Purpose

Please take a look at where your questions will lead you. Will your question lead you to:

• How is a theme presented in an article or book you read differently from the optic considered in a text covered in class?
• How is author X's contribution different from author Y's?
• How do different authors cover the same topic?
• How did a topic happen about another topic?
• Example: What is the significance of   the visual-textual nature   of  la bande dessinée as a  language learning tool? 
• Example: How does Tintin  work against Imperial Japan and European dictatorships?
• Tintin , as an iconic fighter against slavery 
• Example: No, Tintin is not racist. A counterargument against Tintin's colonialist treatment of the local population
• Present opposing views and argue in favor or against a view

Background Information

Background sources are beneficial at the beginning stages of your research process. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and even Wikipedia are traditional background sources that we usually do not cite in our final project. These sources will give us ideas for research topics, keywords and even provide further information that may be useful.

• National museum for bandes dessinées (the CNBDI in Angoulême
• Library of Congress: Bande Dessinée: Comics & Graphic Novels
• Franco-Belgian Comics: Bande Dessinée Translation
• French dictionary : French-English, English-French / compiled by J.O. Kettridge. Norlin Library - Stacks PC2891 .K47 1986
• The Oxford French dictionary and grammar. Ebook

Keywords and Related Terms

Le Neuvième Art  or  9ème (Art  Ninth Art) ⇒ France and Belgium 

"la bande dessinée Franco-Belge"

Francophone Belgium ⇒ comics industry ⇒ since the 1940s

Tintin b y Belgian George Remi (Hergé) ⇒ created in 1929 

Les Schtroumpfs (T he Smurfs) by Pierre Culliford (Peyo) ⇒ created in 1958

Comic artists:

•  Hergé
• Morris (Maurice De Bevere)

Bilingual Search Samples

• "Tintin in the Congo" AND racist stereotypes
• Festival Internationale de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême  Angoulême, France 
• CNBDI in Angoulême AND Ninth art
• National Museum bandes dessinées AND Ninth Art
• Ninth Art AND system of communication and expression
• Astérix AND pop culture
• bandes dessinées AND economic phenomenon OR phénomène économique
• bandes dessinées AND idiomatic phrases AND France
•  Representation AND Iznogoud AND citation
• Representation AND Tintin AND references
• Representation AND Lucy Luke AND pastiche

Subject Heading Search

When you find a book or article of interest in the Library catalog, you may look at its bibliographic record and subject terms. The Library of Congress creates subject terms, usually linked to additional resources on the topic. When you use subject terms in your searches, you expand your search.

Example: Subject Headings Related to bande dessinée 

• Comic books, strips, etc. -- History and criticism
• Comic books, strips, etc
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Comic books, strips, etc. -- France -- History and criticism
• DE "Criticism, interpretation, etc" AND bande dessinée 
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Project Resources: Research Project Topic Ideas (French/Francophone)

Posted by LEAF Architect on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 · Leave a Comment  

Project Resources: Creative Project Areas of Interest (French/Francophone) via Wikimedia Commons

IF YOU WANT TO IMMERSE YOURSELF IN FRANCOPHONE CULTURE:

• Research some aspect of culture of a particular French-speaking country/region.
• Research a national holiday in a French-speaking country.
• Research a religious holiday in a French-speaking country.
• Research a celebration in a French-speaking country (birthday, wedding, or other life-cycle celebration).
• Research one of the regional languages spoken in France (Breton, Occitan, Provençal, Corsu, etc.) and the traditional culture of the people who speak it.
• Research the indigenous culture of a French-speaking country (other than France).

IF YOU LIKE ART OR ARCHITECTURE:

• Research a well-known Francophone artist.
• Research a specific piece of art created by a Francophone artist.
• Research a specific art form or art movement in a French-speaking country/region.
• Research the architecture of a Francophone city.

IF YOU LIKE MUSIC:

• Research a well-known Francophone composer.
• Research a well-known Francophone musical group.
• Research a specific Francophone musical genre.
• Research a well-known piece of Francophone music (popular song, classical piece, opera, etc.)
• Research the national anthem of a French-speaking country and the history behind it.
• Compare/contrast the musical traditions of 2 different French-speaking countries.

IF YOU LIKE TO READ OR WRITE:

• Research a well-known Francophone writer.
• Research a specific Francophone literary genre.
• Research a well-known piece of Francophone literature.
• Research current events in a French-speaking country.
• Research the literacy rates among French-speaking countries.

IF YOU LIKE HISTORY OR GEOGRAPHY:

• Research the history of a specific French-speaking country/region.
• Research a well-known Francophone historical figure.
• Research a well-known Francophone world leader or political figure.
• Research French/Francophone immigration in the USA.
• Research the geography of a specific French-speaking country/region.
• Research significant rivers, mountain ranges, or other geographical features of France or another French-speaking country.
• Research the ways in which the geography and climate of a specific French-speaking country influence the diet of the people who live there.

IF YOU LIKE DANCE OR SPORTS:

• Research a traditional folk dance of France or another French-speaking country.
• Compare/contrast the traditional folk dance forms of 2 different French-speaking regions.
• Research the Tour de France, including its history and significance.
• Research soccer in a specific French-speaking country and the differences in the culture, importance, fan support, player attitudes, etc.
• Research a well-known Francophone athlete.
• Research the national team of a particular sport in a specific French-speaking country.

IF YOU LIKE FOOD:

• Research the cheeses of France, including their cultural and anthropological significance.
• Research the breads or pastries of France, including their cultural and anthropological significance.
• Research the history and cultural/anthropological significance of another specific food item or dish from a specific French-speaking country/region/people.
• Research the typical diet of a specific French-speaking country/region/people.
• Compare/contrast the cuisine of 2 different French-speaking countries.
• Research the wine industry in a specific region of France.

IF YOU LIKE TV OR MOVIES:

• Research the history, background, and significance of a specific French-language TV station.
• Research the history, background, and significance of a specific French-language TV program.
• Research the history, background, and significance of a specific genre of French-language TV programming (news, game shows, soap operas, etc.)
• Research a well-known Francophone TV or film star.
• Research a well-known Francophone film director.
• Research the film industry of a specific French-speaking country.

IF YOU LIKE TO TRAVEL:

• Research the attractions in a specific French-speaking city/region/country (monuments, museums, nature, geography, cultural/historical sites, etc.).
• Research the travel and tourism industry in a specific French-speaking country/region.
• Research study abroad opportunities for your area of study in a specific French-speaking city/region/country.
• Research job opportunities in a French-speaking country for 1 or 2 specific careers.
• Research and explore French influences in the USA.

IF YOU LIKE SHOPPING:

• Research the products for which a specific French-speaking country is known, including the history and significance of each product.
• Research the French fashion industry.
• Research a well-known French fashion designer.
• Research the well-known department stores of France.

IF YOU HAVE NATIVE FRENCH SPEAKERS IN YOUR FAMILY / OR CLOSE FRIENDS:

• Research your family history.
• Research the family history of your French-speaking close friends.
• Research the French-speaking country that your family member/close friend came from.
• Research the historical, political, economic, religious, and/or other conditions that led your family members/close friends to emigrate.

Category: Project Resources , Resources · Tags: creative , francophone , french , ideas , interest , LEAF , project , synthesis

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French Studies: Open Educational Resources for Language Learning: French

Where to find open language textbooks.

Open textbooks can be adapted to fit the needs of your specific course. UW instructors can reach out to the  Open Education Librarian for support.

• OER Commons — Open Textbooks by Subject For language texts, go to Arts & Humanities and search by keyword. Use the search limiters to narrow by education level, material type, and subject. This large repository also includes other kinds of OER, including full open courses.
• Pressbooks Directory More than 3,000 books published by 110 Pressbooks networks are collected in the directory. You can search by keyword and filter by subject, language, number of interactive H5P activities, etc. Some materials have restrictive licenses.
• LibreTexts: French This collection includes a small selection of open resources for English speakers learning French.
• Open Textbook Library — Languages A handful of French language textbooks are included in this assorted-languages collection. Search or scroll through to see what’s available.

Finding OER for Teaching and Learning French

Instructors can freely mix and match these openly licensed resources or incorporate components into new work. Email the  Open Education Librarian to learn more.

• French | COERLL This list links to grammar and literacy lessons, video and audio files, curriculum, and other resources. The Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning receives federal funding to produce and share OER.
• French Ancillary Activities and OER Materials — The Pathways Project This Boise State University repository contains openly available resources including The Francophone Project, which explores the culture of French-speaking countries through video interviews with native speakers.
• Université Ouverte des Humanités Supported by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, UOH publishes open resources on topics in the humanities, including French as a foreign language and French literature. Use the Discipline drop-down menus to filter the results. Note that the website is in French with minimal English translation.

Open Access Options

Although free to use, many open access materials do not allow revision or creation of derivative works. This distinguishes them from OER, which can be remixed freely. See: Open Access & Open Education: Similarities and Differences .

• MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching All the French instructional materials on this site can be used freely, but some limit remixing and adaption. Check the Creative Commons license on the Material Detail page.
• Visez Juste This interactive website hosted by University of Ottawa provides a variety of language activities and exercises. Although it was designed for French speakers in a bilingual environment, it can also be used by advanced language learners to improve their written and spoken French.

Recent Work in OER

Speakers at the first Foreign Language OER Conference in March 2021 shared their experiences developing OER for higher-level French language courses. Linked recordings are on YouTube.

Language Learning OER Examples

Related Links & Guides

• Learn French by Deb Raftus Last Updated Jul 24, 2024 2965 views this year
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French Research Papers/Topics

Discuss the foreign policy of general murtala muhammed.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the foreign policy of general murtala muhammed, the paper presented an introduction, identified the concept of foreign policy, Nigeria’s foreign policy, and described general murtala ramat muhammed’s foreign policy and concluded with the following statement; the making of policy demands planning. Planning, as we know, is a demonstration of faith in rational thought and organization. It draws heavily from the success of science and engineering in thi...

TRANSLATION FROM FRENCH INTO ENGLISH OF “L’ÉCONOMIE DU GABON: UNE ÉCONOMIE À LA REMORQUE DE SON PÉTROLE’’

ABSTRACT People cannot co-exist without communication. In the situation where people speaking different languages need to communicate, translation becomes imperative. It is for this reason that many theorists have taken keen interest in the subject of translation. The objective of this dissertation is to underscore some of the difficulties translators encounter in the translation activity and to promote an appreciation of translation techniques that may help translators to provide accurate tr...

L’impact De L’environnement Sociolinguistique Sur L’apprentissage Du Français Par Des Etudiants Du Niveau 100 A L’universite Du Ghana

The implementation of french language policy in a multilingual y african society: nigeria as a case study.

Abstract Language is a pushed factor for national and international cooperation and development. The French language has been adopted as Nigeria's second official language and compulsory subjects in schools from basic 4-9. This paper examines how practicable the implementation of this policy has been in the light of the multilingual environment in which it operates. The paper explores .the evolution and objectives of the French language in Nigeria and explains the Rationale for the French la...

Syntaxique Theories And French In Nigeria

ABSTRACT French is a security case in Nigeria. We are surrounded by French speaking countries and, French language itself is a security tool in the United Nations Thus, French affects all the facets of economy and nationhood. The recent pronouncement of the Head of State, General Sani Abacha, on adopting French as a second official language is welcome. However, as French teachers, it behoves us to introduce French in such a way to facilitate its assimilation by Nigerians. We decided to carry ...

L’ Imaginaire Dans Le Roman De Camara Laye

ABSTRACT Several studies have been devoted to the narratives of Camara Laye. None of them, as far as we have been able to determine, has examined his novels as a unit whole, with the same protagonist who changes his name from time to time only to reflect the level of his spiritual and psychological attainment. This thesis contends that the novels of Camara Laye, that is L'Enfant noir, Le Regard du roi and Dramouss, seen as the creations of the imagination of the one and only mind of the autho...

LES DIFFICULTÉS D’EMPLOI DU PASSIF PAR LES APPRENANTS DU FRANҪAIS AU NIVEAU S H S : LE CAS D’ACCRA ACADEMY ET ST MARY’S S H S

ABSTRACT  This work seeks to analyse the difficulties learners of French at the S H S level have with the transformation of active sentences into passive sentences. We collected data from two Senior High Schools, namely: Accra Academy and St Mary’s Girls’ Senior High, both in the capital city of Ghana. In this study, we used twenty (20) learners from each school, making up a total of forty (40) learners, to enable us get data for the analyses. We used questionnaires and exercises to coll...

The Importance of African Literature in a Class Teaching French as a Foreign Language (FFL) in Ghanaian universities.

ABSTRACT The Importance of African Literature in a Class Teaching French as a Foreign Language (FFL) in Ghanaian universities. Ghana's geographical position in relation to the surrounding French-speaking countries could be one of the main reasons for teaching/learning French. Learning a foreign language not only enables the acquisition of language competence but also provides a means of bringing the learner into contact with other realities of life, other social values, other forms and ways ...

Etude Du Phenomene De La Liaison Chez Les Apprenants De Fle Des Niveaux 300 Et 400 A L’universite Du Ghana

This thesis has attempted to analyse areas of difficulties of students in the use of the three types of ‘liaison’ in the French language. Practically, in verbal speeches and reading liaison is considered one of the most important aspects of the language which learners of French as a Foreign Language find difficult to master. This research specifically aims at finding out the difficulties encountered by the learners regarding the use of the three (3) « consonnes de liaison /z/, /t/, ...

Les Rapports Mere-Fille Dans De L’autre Cote Du Regard De Ken Bugul Et Le Roman De Pauline De Calixthe Beyala

ABSTRACT In this work, we explore how mother-daughter relationships are portrayed in Ken Bugul’s De l’autre côté du regard (2003) and Calixthe Bayala’s Le roman de Pauline (2009). It was our aim to determine whether these relationships are always characterized by conflict, and if so, to determine which factors led to the conflict. We also wanted to find out if the works were inspired by the authors’ personal lives and to determine if the relationships of mothers with their daughter...

Emploi Des Morphogrammes En Français Langue Etrangere: Le Cas Des Apprenants D’achimota Shs, De Presec-Legon Et D’accra Girls Shs

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study has been to provide information on the correct use of morphograms by learners of French in some selected schools in the Accra Metropolis. The problem for investigation is to state to what extent lack of knowledge of the correct use of morphograms has impeded the written production of learners of French and the impact on their use of French in communication as a whole. The study was conducted in three schools namely: Achimota SHS, PRESEC- Legon and Accra Gir...

Etude Analytique Et Descriptive Du Besoin Du Fos En Milieu Hospitalier Ghaneen

ABSTRACT Looking at its geographical location, Ghana which is an Anglophone country is surrounded by francophone countries. This is a major factor for which great attention should be given to the French language. In the framework of the sub-regional integration policy initiated by ECOWAS, there is free movement of people and wealth from one country to the other. In view of that, we assume that some key Ghanaian administrative sectors should have their personnel trained in French for specific ...

Emploi Du Pronom Personnel « En ». Quelques Difficultés Constatées Auprès Des Apprenants De Nungua Senior High School, Accra

ABSTRACT This study is centered on the difficulties students of Nungua Senior High School, Accra, encounter in the use of the personal pronoun «en». The analysis of the data collected through questionnaires, interviews and test items with respect to students performance is confined within the context of its partitive and quantitative use as well as the variety of functions it performs within sentences. In the light of the data analysed, the study ident ified that most students studying Fren...

Étude De La Cohérence Discursive Dans Le Discours Oral: Le Cas De La Transition Chez Les Apprenants De Fle Au Niveau 400 Du Département De Français De L’université De Cape Coast

ABSTRACT This research analysed the oral discourse of final year students of the Department of French of the University of Cape Coast. The students used for the study were those who studied French as a single major course for the first degree. These students were seventeen in all out of the total number of final year French students. The analysis is intended to study how coherence is achieved in the oral discourse of the students by the use of transitional markers. To undertake this research,...

A Translation Into English Of: “La Bonne Gouvernance Dans Le Secteur Minier Comme Facteur De Croissnace En Drc

ABSTRACT In translation documents, translators are often confronted with challenges during the process. One of such problems he may face arise from the fact that some words or phrases provide various meanings in different communicating situations and finding equivalence becomes a problem. The purpose of this study is to investigate the issue of grammatical and structural equivalence in translation. A text translated from French into English will serve as our corpus for examining the forms of ...

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