Close
Prerequisite for entry
For complete beginners or those who have had only very little contact with the language.
Term duration
10 x 2-hour classes.
Aims and objectives
The aim of the course is to enable students to function at a basic everyday survival level (basic vocabulary, grammar, morphology, syntax and phonetics). Students should be able to communicate in and understand French on a number of practical everyday matters. Language learning skills, including autonomous learning and how to approach some authentic material will be enhanced. Some transferable skills will also be covered.
Functions
- Greetings, introducing yourself and others.
- Meeting people
- Talking about yourself and your family
- Likes/dislikes
- Describing a person
- Describing your home (living room/bedroom)
- Shopping in a clothes shop
- Ordering/buying drinks in a café
Course content
Main topics/themes to be covered:
- First contacts around nationality
- Politeness (formal or informal/familiar)
- Introduction of closer acquaintances (family, friends)
- Occupation and centres of interest
- The family
- Numbers, days of the week, months
- Home (objects, furniture)
- The clothes, colours
Linguistic Structures/ Phonetics
Basic rules of the pronunciation of spoken French
Grammar
- Gender and number of French nouns/some adjectives
- Negative and interrogative structures
- Definite and indefinite articles
- Prepositions + countries/cities
- Possessive and demonstrative adjectives
- Present tense of regular verbs in –er
- Basic prepositions and linking words
- Present tense of a few irregular verbs (être, avoir, aller)
Learning resources
Books
- Course book: Le nouveau Taxi 1. Hachette (Up to lesson 8).
- Tutor’s material
- In addition there is a wide range of language learning materials for self-study in the Self-Access Centre.
Bilingual Dictionaries (Collins/Robert) Pocket edition
