Beginning French I

USF Code: FRE 1120

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The Beginning French 1 course is based upon the four essential means of language acquisition; through reading, writing, listening and speaking.  All of the contents of this course will be approached from this holistic perspective in order to immerse the student into the French language.  This is the introduction to French language; its letters, phonetics, spelling, vocabulary and initial grammatical rules will be covered. 
 
COURSE OBJECTIVE

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the basic structure and sound of the French language and thus develop a base for which to further acquire French comprehension and reproduction.  Through grammar and vocabulary exercises students will begin to learn basic sentence construction as well as oral and listening skills necessary to integrate into basic French interactions. 
 
COURSE CONTENT

• Conversational French
  • greetings and introductions
  • asking questions, expressing preferences
  • to talk about projects
  • asking someone to do something
  • to talk about the past
  • how to propose, accept, refuse
  • how to fix an appointment
  • to express one’s opinion
  • to ask about price and quantity 
     
•  Lexicon & Routines 
  • name, last name, nationality, age
  • civil state, professions, city/country characteristics
  • calendars, days of the week, etc.
  • basic vocabulary (sortir, dîner, aller à, etc)
  • expressing feelings (adorer/aimer, etc)
  • shopping : size, colors, food 
     
• Grammar
  • auxiliary verbs in present tense
  • gender association (articles)
  • regular verbs in present tense o negation (ne…pas)
  • interrogative grammar (using est-ce que, pourquoi, quel(les), etc.)
  • possessive adjectives
  • irregular verbs in present tense (vouloir, pouvoir, venir, connaître, savoir, finir)  
  • imperative mood o disjunctive pronouns (moi, toi, lui, elle, etc.)
  • direct object pronouns (me, te, nous, vous, etc.) 
  • past tense (passé composé)
  • future (futur proche)
  • partitive articles  
  • expressions of quantity (beaucoup de, un peu de, etc.) 

• Phonetics & Pronunciation
  • identify different vowel sounds
  • identify and review the « rebel » French vowels (i.e. roue/rue; sœur)
  • liaisons (i.e. vous êtes)
  • intonation & interrogation
  • pronouncing ending vowels in the past tense 

 
Students will be exposed to the French language in the class through the 4 point focus used by the professor.  The 4 point focus aims to utilize the 4 of the 5 senses for means of maximum exposure to the language.  It should be known that we do not use the Grammar- Translation method; our major and ultimate aim is to lead the learners to try to communicate with other people in the French language; however, the reference to English is possible when it’s necessary.  Daily practice of French is recommended for a rapid progression of linguistic development.