Petition Letter
I am writing this letter to appeal the departure from the academic integrity claim submitted by professor Francesca Fiore for FREN 107. Queen's University defines falsification as the misrepresentation of one's self, work or relation to the university. Some examples of falsification include a change of official records pertaining to students, such as transcripts or other documents; and the submission of a take-home test partially or entirely created by someone else. Thus, I do not accept the claim for falsification because since the beginning of the course in September, I have completed every written and oral assignment submitted by myself and attended almost every tutorial session as required. In addition, after having submitted four oral presentations, the professor judged my level as too advanced after the final presentation only at the end of the semester. Every student in this class was allocated sufficient time to complete every assignment. As a student, I made use of resources such as the textbook, and external resources such as Duolingo as well as watching French shows to help with my understanding and pronunciation. Additionally, attending tutorials and completing the assignments helped me to supplement my language skills. My level can not be considered advanced or advantageous simply because I was able to pronounce the words correctly. This outcome should be logical since this is one of the main purposes of the class. I refuse to be considered a native French speaker when I clearly mentioned to professor Fiore that my first language is the Anyin and that I started studying in a Francophone environment from grade 10 to 12. The proof is, I decided to apply to an anglophone university after my high school education in Canada because I am more comfortable in English. On the other hand, I disagree with the claim of failure to abide by academic rules because the course is intended for students with three years of high school French or equivalent. Professor Fiore mentioned that I confirmed having attended a Francophone high school in Toronto while my academic records clearly show that I studied in this Francophone high school from grade 10 to 12 which I mentioned in the meeting (FREN 107 is intended for students with three years of high school or equivalent in French). And additionally, after spending 3 full years studying and living in an English-speaking environment, I can firmly affirm that my level in French is not advanced enough for me to not be able to take the class. In FREN 107, I made several mistakes in some of my assignments and spent hours completing the assignments. Finally, I do not agree with the claim of departure from the core values of academic integrity because at Queen's, the six principal values of academic integrity are honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage (ICAI, 2021) and in this class, I have not breached one of them.