Beginner level:

No previous knowledge of French.

Objectives : To build basic conversational French and learn essential vocabulary / colloquial expressions for travelling with confidence in France.

Topics we may discuss to help you build sentences and use grammatical structures in conversation:

*This is a flexible outline and will be adjusted to meet your needs and interests.

• Introducing yourself and identifying others.
• Talking about your job and place of work – filling an online form.
• How to order drinks and snacks – giving details of family and personal possessions.
• A coach tour of Paris. Booking a room at a hotel. Identifying objects and places. Making enquiries. Spelling names/email addresses.
• Having a meal in a restaurant. How to ask for a table, choose a menu and ask what is available.
• Asking and giving your age. Saying you are hungry/thirsty, hot/cold, expressions.
• Saying where things are and to whom they belong. Place words.
• Places in town. Finding your way around, and making enquiries. More place words.
• More activities. Family relationships. Rooms of a house. Making a reservation at a B&B and leaving an answerphone message.
• The weather and seasons. Finding out about people’s hobbies. Asking more precise questions.
• Housework and shopping. Telling the time and describing a sequence of events. Asking for precisely what you want in food shops. Talking about important days, dates and events. Quantities and prices, days and months.
• A weekend at the seaside. Travelling by train. Buying tickets. Making enquiries at a tourist office.
• Discussing French culture.

Beginner Level 1 – Structures covered:

• Present tense of To be and to have.
• Definite and indefinite articles (The, a)
• Possessive adjectives singular (My).
• Numbers up to 60, plurals. The French alphabet.

Beginner Level 2 – Structures covered:

• Partitive (some, any, no…, more of…).
• Possessive adjectives (sing + pl Your).
• Present tense of …ER verbs. “Since / for” (depuis).
• Present tense of faire. Expressions with faire.
• More …ER verbs. Negative.
• Direct pronouns him, it, her, them (le, la, l’, les).

Beginner Level 3 – Structures covered:

• More …ER verbs.
• Questions with Who ?, What ?, when ? How ?, why ?
• Frequency adverbs (always, sometimes… ).
• Indirect object pronouns ( To him, to her. ).
• Present tense of …RE verbs.

Elementary Level:

Basic previous knowledge of French (similar to the beginner level)

Objectives :   

• To improve basic French conversational fluency and build confidence in real-life situations / Includes other useful colloquial expressions.
• To consolidate the present, past, and future tenses (futur proche).

Topics we may discuss to help you build sentences and use grammatical structures in conversation:

*This is a flexible outline and will be adjusted to meet your needs and interests.

• Asking for what you want in shops, clothes and shoe shops. Ordering on the internet.
• Identifying and describing your own possessions and other people’s.
• How to get to places. Enquiries about transport and health. Looking ahead.
• Finding out more details of people’s employment. Going to the petrol station.
• Moving house. Furniture and household items.
• Giving more information about your daily routine.
• How to talk about events in the past.
• Giving orders. Going to the doctor’s and the chemist’s. Dealing with pre-recorded messages.
• Making holiday plans. Saying what you want to do, can do or have to do. Talking about what you know.
• Discussing French culture.

Elementary level 1 – Structures covered:

• More numbers.
• More adjectives.
• Colours, comparatives : more, less.
• More possessives adjectives.
• Present tense of to go and immediate future.
• Pronoun there (y).

Elementary level 2 – Structures covered :

• Present tense of …IR verbs, including Venir. Saying what you have just done using ‘venir de’.
• Il faut (it’s necessary…).
• More direct pronouns, le, la, l’, les.
•  Present tense of reflexive verbs.
•  More adverbs.
• More pronouns.

Elementary level 3 – Structures covered :

• Perfect tense of regular verbs, some common irregular ones and ‘to go’ (aller).
• The imperative.
• ‘To be sore (avoir mal).
• Want (vouloir), pouvoir (can), devoir (must).
• Verbs ‘to know’ (savoir and connaître).

Lower Intermediate level :

You should be confident with basic tenses (present, past (perfect), immediate future).

Objectives :

• To improve your confidence in conversational French.
• To consolidate sentence structure and grammar / Includes revisions of the present, past, and future tenses.
• To enrich your vocabulary, learn some idioms, and more useful colloquial expressions.

Topics we may discuss to help you build sentences and use grammatical structures in conversation:

*This is a flexible outline and will be adjusted to meet your needs and interests.

• Introducing yourself and identifying others. Exchanging personal details. (Revision of present tense).
• Talking about activities in the past. Replying to invitations and other formal letters/emails. (Revision of the past tense (perfect) with avoir, regular and common irregular verbs, also some verbs conjugated with être).
• Giving details of an area with which you are familiar. Discussing location of flats and houses, and the accommodation offered. Being eco-friendly at home.
• Ordering meals, stating preferences. Discussing different types of food and drinks.
• At the supermarket, the post office and the bank.
• Asking for what you want, making transactions, expressing your opinion on services offered.
• Describing a holiday. Making enquiries about facilities available. Writing a letter/email to a campsite. (The past tense (perfect tense) with être. Use of on meaning we).
• Making plans to go out. Relating personal experiences in the past. (Perfect tense of reflexive verbs).
• Talking about work.
• Planning the future and making simple comparisons. Enquiring about places of interest. (The future tense).
• Discussing French culture.

Lower Intermediate level 1 – Structures covered:

• Revisions of present tense, “habiter +a + en etc.
• Use of « depuis » + Present tense.
• Agreement of adjectives. Possessive adjectives.
• Revision of the past tense (perfect) with avoir, regular and common irregular verbs, also some verbs conjugated with être.
• Agreement of preceding direct object.
• “Il y a “meaning “ago”.
• Use of the relative pronouns “qui” “que” and “dont”.
• More adjectives.

Lower Intermediate level 2 – Structures covered:

• Interrogative pronouns (lequel, laquelle? etc).
• Demonstrative pronouns (celui, celle, etc).
• The past tense (perfect tense) with être. Use of on meaning we.

Lower Intermediate level 3 – Structures covered:

• Perfect tense of reflexive verbs.
• The future tense.
• Comparatives.

Higher Intermediate level:

You should be able to understand more complex sentences and grammatical structures, and express yourself with minimal hesitation.

Objectives:

• To improve your French conversational fluency on a variety of topics.
• To enrich your vocabulary, learn more idioms, and more useful colloquial expressions.
  

Topics we may discuss to help you build sentences and use grammatical structures in conversation:

*This is a flexible outline and will be adjusted to meet your needs and interests.

• Understanding weather bulletins. Finding your way round a DIY website/website of your choice. (More future tense).
• The world of business. Making phone calls and discussing conditions of work. Dealing with safety issues.
• Descriptions and regular activities in the past. Discussing means of transport.( The imperfect tense. Reported speech).
• Stating your own preferences and giving your opinion.
• Reporting accidents and dealing with different problems. (The perfect and imperfect tenses contrasted).
• Coping with difficulties over accommodation. Narrating what happened. Giving the pros and cons of different forms of transport. (More perfect and imperfect tenses).
• Saying what you could and would like to do. (The conditional tense and some use of the subjunctive).
• Talking about cars / travelling. Dealing with medical problems. (The pluperfect and the conditional perfect tenses).
• Discussing French history and French culture. Sampling French literature. (The past historic tense).

Higher Intermediate Level 1 – Structures covered:

• More future tense.
• The present participle.
• The imperfect tense.
• Reported speech.

Higher Intermediate Level 2 – Structures covered :

• The comparative and superlative.
• Possessive pronouns ( “le mien, la mienne”, etc).
• The perfect and imperfect tenses contrasted.
• The passive voice.

Higher Intermediate Level 3 – Structures covered :

• The conditional tense and some use of the subjunctive.
• The pluperfect and the conditional perfect tenses.
• The past historic tense.
• More on the passive voice.

Advanced level:

You should be able to understand complex sentences and grammatical structures, and express yourself with little to no hesitation.
 
Objectives: 

• To practise French conversation and express your experiences and opinions on various topics and current affairs.
• To enrich your vocabulary and understand common slang.
• To learn more idioms, some proverbs, and more useful colloquial expressions.

We will use a variety of videos, articles, websites, and other media — a mix of teacher- and student-chosen resources.