NYSTCE French (121) flashcards
NYSTCE French (121) · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Phoneme
- The smallest sound unit that distinguishes meaning in a language; in French, /p/ and /b/ contrast in 'pain' versus 'bain', making them separate phonemes.
- Allophone
- A positional variant of a phoneme that does not change meaning; French /r/ is uvular in most varieties but its exact articulation varies by context without altering words.
- Nasal vowel minimal pairs
- French nasal vowels are phonemic, so 'beau' /bo/ contrasts with 'bon' /bɔ̃/ and 'pas' /pa/ with 'pan' /pɑ̃/; a following nasal consonant blocks nasalization, as in 'bonne'.
- Liaison rules
- Obligatory after determiners, subject pronouns, and monosyllabic prepositions (les_amis, vous_avez); forbidden before 'et' and before h-aspiré words such as 'les héros'.
- Imparfait versus passé composé
- The imparfait presents an ongoing or habitual situation (imperfective aspect, 'il lisait'), while the passé composé presents a completed event (perfective aspect, 'il a lu').
- Faux amis
- Words that look like English but differ in meaning: 'actuellement' means currently, 'éventuellement' means possibly, and 'assister à' means to attend, not to assist.
- Spoken French reductions
- Informal speech compresses phrases: 'je suis' becomes 'chuis', 'il y a' becomes 'ya', and 'je ne sais pas' becomes 'chais pas', often dropping the negative 'ne'.
- Reading strategy selection
- Skimming targets the main idea, scanning locates a specific detail, and inference draws unstated meaning; the item type determines which strategy to apply before rereading.
- Discourse connectors
- Words signaling logical relations: 'd'abord, ensuite, enfin' mark sequence; 'cependant, toutefois' mark contrast; 'donc, par conséquent' mark consequence; 'en effet' marks confirmation.
- French number formation
- Seventy through ninety-nine use additive and vigesimal patterns: 'soixante-dix', 'quatre-vingts', 'quatre-vingt-dix'; dates use 'le premier' for the first and cardinal numbers afterward.
- Interpersonal versus presentational
- Interpersonal communication is two-way and negotiated in real time, such as conversation; presentational communication is one-way and planned for an audience, such as an essay or speech.
- Formal French letter closing
- Very formal correspondence ends with a formule de politesse such as 'Je vous prie d'agréer, Madame, l'expression de mes salutations distinguées'; 'Cordialement' is semi-formal.
- Conditional for politeness
- French softens requests with the conditional ('Pourriez-vous...?') and with 'je voudrais' rather than 'je veux'; hedges like 'peut-être' and 'un peu' further reduce imposition.
- Register consistency
- A text must keep one register throughout; mixing 'tu' and 'vous' in one exchange, or using slang like 'bosser' in a formal essay, is a register error.
- Presentational text structure
- A coherent presentational text has a thesis, developed arguments linked by connectors such as 'en premier lieu' and 'en revanche', and a conclusion introduced by 'pour conclure'.
- Laïcité
- A French constitutional principle of state neutrality toward religion, rooted in the 1905 law separating church and state; it shapes public schools and public institutions.
- Négritude movement
- A literary and political movement of the 1930s led by Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Léon-Gontran Damas, affirming Black African cultural identity in French.
- Classicisme in France
- The 17th-century literary movement emphasizing order, reason, and rules such as the three unities; Molière wrote comedy, Racine and Corneille wrote tragedy.
- Bill 101 Québec
- The 1977 Charter of the French Language makes French the official language of Québec, regulating signage, education, and workplace language use in the province.
- Francophone literature periods
- French literary history runs from medieval chansons de geste through Renaissance humanism, classicisme, Enlightenment philosophes, romanticism, realism, naturalism, and twentieth-century modernism.
- Krashen input hypothesis
- Acquisition proceeds through comprehensible input slightly beyond current competence, labeled i+1; the affective filter of anxiety or low motivation can block that input from being taken in.
- Swain output hypothesis
- Producing language in speech or writing forces learners to process syntax and notice gaps in their knowledge, which comprehension alone often does not require.
- Interaction hypothesis
- Long proposed that negotiating meaning through clarification requests, confirmation checks, and recasts during interaction makes input more comprehensible and promotes second-language acquisition.
- ACTFL proficiency levels
- The ascending scale is Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced, each split into Low, Mid, and High, followed by Superior and Distinguished; it describes functional performance rather than course placement.
- Backward design
- Wiggins and McTighe's model plans instruction in three stages: identify desired results, determine acceptable evidence, then design learning experiences aligned to that evidence.
- Formative assessment
- Ongoing, low-stakes assessment used during instruction to adjust teaching and give feedback, such as exit tickets, questioning, and draft revision; it is not graded for achievement.
- Summative assessment
- Assessment at the end of a unit or course that measures achievement against objectives, such as a final exam, portfolio, or presentational performance task scored with a rubric.
- Three communicative modes
- ACTFL organizes communication into interpretive (listening and reading), interpersonal (negotiated two-way exchange), and presentational (one-way production); an Integrated Performance Assessment tests all three.
- Analytic versus holistic rubric
- An analytic rubric scores separate criteria such as grammar, vocabulary, and fluency; a holistic rubric assigns one overall score, faster but less diagnostic for learners.
- IPA design
- An Integrated Performance Assessment centers one thematic unit with an interpretive task, an interpersonal task, and a presentational task, each scored with a performance rubric.
- French h aspiré
- A Germanic-derived initial h that blocks liaison and elision, as in 'les héros' and 'le hibou', contrasting with h muet words like 'l'homme' and 'les heures'.
- Negation in spoken French
- Informal speech drops the particle 'ne', producing 'je sais pas' or 'c'est pas vrai'; formal writing retains both 'ne' and the second element 'pas'.