Portfolios and Exit Interview for Majors

Portfolio & Exit Interview

The undergraduate catalog requires that all French Majors complete a Portfolio and exit interview in order to graduate.

The Portfolio

Students submit their Portfolios during one of their last two semesters at Texas State University. Students graduating in the summer should submit it in their last spring semester. The Portfolio is a collection of work reflecting students’ engagement with French language and culture, as well as demonstrating their progress as a French major. The Portfolio contains not just one’s best and most recent work, but should include relevant papers, projects, and exams for every advanced class, as well as other materials that demonstrate achievement of the objectives listed below. Students will need to keep a file of all these items once they begin advanced coursework in French. They need to include the categories listed below in the organization of these documents (Document Collection and Portfolio Organization). Students should feel free, however, to leave their personal, even creative, stamp on their Portfolios by also adding documents that are not listed, but that they feel represent more fully their mastery in or engagement with a particular skill. The Portfolio is not just an academic record of students’ accomplishments, but a personal one as well (French faculty will return it at the end of the semester).

While the Portfolio is ultimately the responsibility of students, we encourage them to choose a French faculty advisor to supervise their progress in the development of their Portfolio, especially in their final semester, since they will not receive a diploma without submitting it. All meetings with advisors will involve the completion of a progress report to measure how well students are meeting program as well as personal objectives. The progress report, however, does not result in a grade and it will not affect GPAs. It provides a means of guiding students in having a well-rounded and rewarding academic experience in the completion of the major.

Document Collection and Portfolio Organization

Students can submit a hard copy version of their Portfolio or, preferably, submit all their documents and relevant materials into their "Portfolio" assignment in the Canvas project site "French Majors and Minors." Students can include material from courses taken in a summer and/or exchange study abroad program in Rennes, France or Québec, Canada.

Students should organize a minimum of five categories within the Portfolio: reading, writing, listening, speaking, and knowledge of French or Francophone literature/culture/cinema. Portfolio documents should demonstrate that students have achieved the following objectives:

1. Reading proficiency in French

Students can understand the ideas and details of substantial authentic literary and non-fiction texts in French.

2. Writing proficiency in French.

Students can produce clear and well-structured text in French in culturally appropriate ways, as in letters, essays, and reports.

3. Listening proficiency in French

Students can understand authentic speech in French related to contextualized situations or subject-matter knowledge.

4. Speaking proficiency in French

Students can express themselves in French for academic and professional purposes.

5. Knowledge of French or Francophone culture

Students demonstrate a general knowledge of French or Francophone culture through literature, cinema, and history.

Each semester, then, students should try to incorporate the following materials from each of their courses into their Portfolio:

a written piece of work
an activity/exercise demonstrating reading comprehension
an activity/exercise demonstrating aural comprehension
an oral delivery
a culture piece
3 free choice pieces

Remember, there is no right way to compile a Portfolio. Students should treat it like an art portfolio, which develops as they move from one class to the next, from one year to the next.

The Exit Interview

The exit interviews are always on the last Friday of classes of the semester during which students submit their Portfolio. French faculty need to review Portfolios before then to determine whether students have met the expectations of the program. To this end, students who have completed the course program for a major in French must submit Portfolios to the main office (Centennial 214) at least three weeks before the exit interviews. We will return Portfolios at the end of the exit interview.

Conducted entirely in French, the exit interview nevertheless takes place in a relaxed environment and is an opportunity for students to show their French flair. For the interview itself, they may bring notes, but not read from them. The notes should be there to remind students of details that they have already mastered. They should prepare to answer the following questions:

Why did you major in French? How has your engagement with the language and culture evolved since then?
What unexpected connections, if any, have you discovered between French and the rest of your studies at Texas State?
Which subjects covered in French courses were the most significant to you? Which were your favorites? Which did you find to be the most challenging? Why?
If you did a summer and/or semester study abroad program, what unexpected cultural and/or linguistic challenges did you encounter? What adjustments did you make to turn disadvantages into advantages? Which person (professor, new friend, etc.) or place had a lasting impact on your experience?
How has your work as a French major shaped your life and objectives?

Once a Portfolio is approved and the exit interview completed, the Department will notify the Liberal Arts Advising Center so that they can update students’ degree audits.

Students should contact the French program coordinator Jennifer Forrest (jf05@txstate.edu) or the main office (512.245.2360) with any questions.