FREN 3030

Course work is a little tedious, but you will finish the class with a great accent and knowledge of French phonetics.

This class basically consists of being mocked by the professor and watching other classmates go to the board to do exercises. Unless you"re planning on pursuing a linguistics degree I would not recommend it.

This class puts heavy focus on learning through repetition. For me, this made it absurdly easy (however this is because I already knew about phonetics and all the symbols), but also extremely boring. If you have some knowledge of phonetics you only have to read to know the exceptions to certain phonetic rules for test questions. Regardless the reading is extremely light, and homework assignments took me about ten minutes per class.

Saunders is an effective teacher as far as fixing English-speakers' pronunciation problems, which I think is practical, but she does tend to pick on people who struggle to pronounce things correctly. IMO that is how you break bad habits, but I could understand it being discouraging for most students since most will not know phonetics too well before taking the class. I found it useful and extremely easy -- probably the easiest I've taken at UVA -- but generally a waste of time, particularly because attendance was mandatory.

I really like Saunders as a professor, and she is very helpful during office hours. The exams were challenging, but she tell the general idea of what will be on the exam beforehand. Homework was emailed a night or two before, which made it a little hard to plan ahead, but it wasn't that hard and counted for credit. Participate and you'll be fine.

I really enjoyed this class. The material is straight forward yet interesting, and Saunders is very fair. I wish there were more oral assignments in this class (after all, it's phonetics), but that's pretty much my only complaint. It's easy, fun, and interesting; I recommend taking this class.

Great course. If you are interested in french, linguistics, or languages in general this course is very interesting. Caution: this review is obviously subjective; there are many who disagree with me. I found the professor very kind, and very competent. She knows what she is teaching. The workload is extremely light, however it will vary with each person's experience with the french language and their listening skill level. Musicians will find this course easier than others. It requires one to easily distinguish sounds that are very similar and transcribe them.

Professor Saunders is a boisterous, clear, very entertaining professor. The work is light to fair, though you will need to study A LOT for the exams even though you may feel good about the material. Some of the tests are tricky, but rightfully so given the material; it shouldn't be completely cut and paste and definitely tests your knowledge in the subject matter. In addition to this, if you were struggling like I was, she is very gracious and sympathetic when you ask for help! I believe that all those seriously interested in French should take this course. It has definitely helped my pronunciation, and now that I can read the IPA, it helps me with learning new words to this day! Overall, great professor, great class; sometimes tricky, but for the right reasons.

This is a great professor who is very passionate about its subject. However, the course required an enormous amount of repetition, and if you don't a photographic memory, it will take you A LOT OF TIME, and probably landed on a moderate grade. Thinking about boosting your GPA, I wouldn't recommend it

the professor is really sassy but very helpful in improving prononciation

Saying that I despised this class with my entire being would be an understatement.