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French in Action

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French in Action is a French-language television series course developed by Professor Pierre Capretz of Yale University. The course includes workbooks, textbooks, and a 52-episode television series. The series — the best-known aspect of the course — was produced in 1987 by WGBH, Yale University, and Wellesley College, and funded by Annenberg/CPB, and has been aired frequently on PBS since then, developing a cult following^[1] for its romantic comedy segments interspersed among grammar lessons.

1 The episodes
- 1.1 Part I
- 1.2 Part II
2 Controversy
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

The episodes

Each episode is half an hour long. The earliest episodes have four main elements:

A classroom session, featuring Capretz explaining the basic ideas of the episode to a group of international students.
An excerpt from an ongoing story, filmed especially for the series, and framed as a narrative that Capretz and his students are inventing in order to practice their French. The story focuses on American student Robert (played by Charles Mayer) and his French love interest Mireille (played by Valérie Allain).
Clips from French films and television shows illustrating the new vocabulary words of the lesson.
A brief Punch-and-Judy-style puppet show recapping some element of the episode's story.

In later episodes, the classroom section is omitted, and the episode begins with the excerpt from the ongoing story. The series uses context and repetition, rather than translation, to teach the meanings of words; except for the first episode, and a brief English-language introduction at the beginning of each subsequent episode, the series is conducted entirely in French. The episodes are divided as follows:

Part I

1. "Orientation"
2–4. "Genesis"
5. "Families"
6–7. "Portraits"
8. "Genealogy"
9–10. "Vacation in Brittany"
11–13. "Encounters"
14–16. "Getting Underway"
17–18. "In All Labor There Is Profit"
19–21. "Entering School Zone"
22–23. "Fishing for an Invitation"
24–26. "Bills of Fare"

Part II

27–31. "All Manner of Transportation"
32–35. "Residences"
36–40. "Entertainment"
41–42. "A Matter of Chance"
43–45. "Think Vacation"
46. "Getting Away"
47. "What Variety!"
48. "What Riches!"
49. "What a Nightmare!"
50. "More Variety, More Riches"
51. "Parade and Review"
52. "All's Well That Ends Well"

Controversy

In 1990, three students at Yale University filed a grievance claiming that the university's introductory French course was sexist in its use of the French in Action television series.^[2] In particular, the students objected to watching a scene in which the character Jean-Pierre harasses Mireille as she sits in a park and then being required to "pretend you were trying to pick up a pretty woman in a park".^[2] Some also objected to camera angles focusing on Mireille's legs or braless chest.^[2]^[3] Its creator, Prof. Capretz, a French native who has taught at Yale since 1956, said he wouldn't change any of it. To teach French effectively, he said, you have to make the students observe the language being used by native speakers, in real situations..^[2] In response, the French department at Yale determined that the course would be changed by developing supplementary materials to be used in the course. However, the television programs themselves were not altered.^[3]