French Studies
Welcome to the Department of French Studies of the University of Turku (Finland)
About the Department of French Studies
The Department has seven full-time members of staff (two professors, one research assistant, two French lecturers and a Finnish lecturer, and a departmental secretary (cf. staff homepages).
Our aim is to provide high-quality teaching and research on contemporary French as well as intercultural communication.
1. Teaching
We have teaching strategies which help students to think independently and critically. We train our students to be experts in French language providing a thorough knowledge of French language as well as intercultural communication. Our teaching emphasizes the use of language in context.
We offer a very broad curriculum based on distinctive learning strands such as discourse analysis, pragmatics, literature, language in context, oral and written academic discourse, intercultural communication, Culture.
We also provide opportunities to develop professionally and to open up to internationalisation. According to a survey led in 2003, our graduates are able to fill good positions in various professional fields (education, diplomacy, business, etc.).
Our department cooperates with other language departments (e.g. for the course Computer-Mediated Communication in 2006) as well as with the faculty of education of the university of Turku for language teacher training.
2. Research
Key themes across our research areas include:
- Textual linguistics
- Discourse analysis
- Interaction
- Language learning and teaching
- Intercultural communication
- Sociolinguistics
(cf. also Staff’s Research Specialisms)
3. Partners
Local partners:
- The City of Turku:
- Two bilingual schools in Turku (Finnish-French - Vähä-Heikkilä & Topelius)
- Teachers of French in Turku as well as in the neighbouring towns
National partners:
- Other departments of French Studies in Finland
International partners:
- The French Embassy and the French Cultural Centre in Helsinki
- We invite professors from abroad to give seminars at our department (at least twice per year)
- We have student and teacher exchange agreements with five French universities (Aix-Marseille I (Aix-en-Provence), Lille 3, Nantes, Paris 5, Paris 13) and three foreign universities (Valencia (Spain), Faro (Portugal) and Cluj (Rumania).
- Our Department has had its own intermational publication series since 1999
- Our Department takes part in several international research projects.