Skip to main content

English translation for the different parts of a course as found in French schools/universities


What would be the transposition to the US school/university system of the French expressions:



  • “cours” (that is lecture, listening to the teacher)

  • “travaux dirigés” (lit. directed works, students usually do exercises on a sheet of paper, and they might sometimes be asked to show their solution on the blackboard)

  • “travaux pratiques” (lit. practical works, exercises in the lab, doing experiments or working in front of a computer)


I am aware of the terms “lectures“, “tutorials“, and “laboratory”, but are they used in the same way? I also heard that the US system often doesn't have “travaux dirigés”, but I don't know to what extent that's true.



Answer



It depends on the type of class, the type of school, and quite possibly geography.


When I took engineering and chemistry classes in university (in the United States), we had lecture, recitation ("travaux dirigés"), and labs (laboratory.)


In non-science classes, practical work was a part of recitation and there was no separate laboratory section. This was common in math, statistics, and economics classes.


Some smaller classes only had lecture, and all practical work was expected to be performed outside of class. This was common in liberal arts classes (literature, ethics, etc.)


I have never heard of the term "tutorials" being used in the United States, but I've heard tell that it's more commonly used in the United Kingdom.


Outside of higher education -- that is, in elementary, middle, and high schools -- it's common to simply have "classes", without specialized sessions for practical work. For example, in an algebra class, it would be common for a teacher to lecture about a topic and then have students do practical work immediately following. The only exception would be for introductory science classes, such as biology or chemistry, which might have periodic labs to cover topics learned in lecture.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more