Teaching the Skills of French Business Correspondence to American Undergraduates: Problems and Techniques.

Abstract

IT IS COMMON KNOWLEDGE among language educators that most foreign language majors, even after four years of university study, do not possess the necessary skills to enable them to compose stylistically proper business letters in French. All too often, such a letter written by an American undergraduate to a foreign correspondent and patterned after an American model, will appear ludicrous, presumptuous, perhaps even seem impertinent to its recipient. The French epistolary style, unlike its English counterpart, is a highly structured mode of expression, and neither grammatical competence in the language nor a familiarity with American commercial correspondence are sufficient to help the student avoid the pitfalls associated with the writing of business letters in French.

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