The preparatory year provides students with the basic tools in linguistics and in French and Romance literatures to help them successfully follow the Master [60] in French and Romance Languages and Literatures : General or the Master [120] in French and Romance Languages and Literatures : General.

The preparatory year programme includes specialised courses aimed at :
- mastering written and oral skills in the French language ;
- mastering receptive skills and practice of a Romance language ;
- aquiring skills in literary and linguistic analysis ;
- aquiring knowledge of the history of French literature and a Romance literature ;
- aquiring knowledge of theory and of literary criticism ;
- aquiring knowledge of Latin language and literature.

The programme also includes a basic training made up of general courses.

By the end of the preparatory year, students should have acquired good knowledge of Spanish or Italian and also of the history of the literature.
To maximize their chances of success, students who enrol for the preparatory year must have reached a basic level in the language (level A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), for example by having taken an intensive course prior to enrolment.
We should make it very clear that, for beginners, it will be difficult to reach a good level in both speaking and writing in either Spanish or Italian and gain a good understanding of the literary history on the basis of only attending the courses in this programme.