Beginning French II

USF Code: FRE 1121

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

The course content for Beginning French 2 is based upon the four essential means of language acquisition; through reading, writing, listening and speaking.  This is the continuation of the introduction to French language now focusing more specifically on vocabulary acquisition, phrases, grammatical rules and structures.  Listening and oral exercises will be more heavily relied upon in order to help instill French fluency. 
 
COURSE OBJECTIVE:

The aim of this course is to fortify many of the concepts learned in French 101 through oral and listening drills.  Furthermore diverse phrasal expression will be introduced along with grammatical structures which will give students the beginnings of fluency.  By the end of this course students should be able to hold basic conversations in French. 

COURSE CONTENT:

• Conversational French
  • to ask for and give directions
  • to express obligation/ forbid and advise
  • to describe and locate a place
  • to locate events in time
  • to tell stories about one’s life
  • to describe a person o degrees of comparison, comparing amounts/actions, express similarities and differences  
  • to talk about future
  • to express agreement or disagreement
  • to express wishes 
     
•  Lexicon & Routines
  • towns, places, directions, at home
  • architecture, nature
  • travel, holidays, tourism, weather
  • appearances (describing people), clothes, fashion and society
  • containers and contents
  • degree and intensity
  • art, music 
     
• Grammar
  • imperative mood
  • prepositions with places
  • negation (ne…plus ; ne…jamais ; ne …personne ; ne…rien)
  • articles (au, à la, du…)
  • modal verb devoir ; impersonal expressions
  • indirect object pronouns (me, te, lui, leur, …)
  • demonstrative determiners
  • pronominal verbs (se lever, se promener,…) 
  • indefinite determiners (tout(e)/ tous)
  • personal pronouns (en/ y)
  • past tense : passé composé and imparfait  
  • le futur simple o comparative structures (plus…que/ moins…que, etc.)  
  • place and function of the qualifying adjective o simple relative pronouns (qui, que, où )
  • present subjunctive o interrogation (three forms of interrogation) 
     
• Phonetics & Pronunciation
  • identifying nasal tones/sounds
  • how to write and when to pronounce the sound [ z^] (j),(g)
  • how to write [ɛ], [e]
  • when to write accent aigu, grave and circonflexe
  • how to pronounce “e” before “x, s, r,.."

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.