French Advanced 1

Entry requirements

This course is aimed at students who have attended French Higher Intermediate or similar or have a good knowledge of French and can exchange information on familiar and routine matters. The course will enable you to further practise and consolidate your language skills and give you confidence in speaking French.

Overview

This module provides revision and consolidation of the higher intermediate level, while it aims to move students forward towards an advanced level of competence.

This module introduces students to contemporary French, imparting all four skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

The module will also develop language awareness: it will put emphasis on conversation, but reading, writing and listening will be present in every class.

A wide range of activities are undertaken, such as practical language exercises, work into and out of French and vocabulary-building activities. This will be delivered by commercially produced and in-house language materials from a variety of sources.

The student will acquire basic language skills, to enable students to:

• Talk about “la Francophonie”
• Discuss holidays and problems encountered
• Discuss property issues
• Discuss tourism and its implications
• Discuss about environmental issues
• Discuss transport issues
• Discuss the French media and audience habits
• Discuss the French national press
• Discuss health issues

Teaching and learning

You will be working in groups or pairs with the emphasis of the course being on participation and practice. Our aim is to develop student skills using communicative language, and you will be encouraged to actively participate in class through various friendly activities, designed to stimulate communication.

We recommend that you spend time between the lessons, revising and practising what has been done in class.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate that they can cope with a significant degree of clarity, precision and fluency, taking part in informal and formal exchanges, as in the work place or in social settings. Demonstrate a sufficient knowledge of the language to describe people, places and processes, express opinions and develop arguments using both basic structures and complex forms.
2. Extract specific information from texts (i.e. internet websites, newspapers, advertisements), being able to understand reports and articles about contemporary issues.
3. Translate with significant degree of accuracy and in an appropriate style
4. Write French with clarity, precision and fluency, using a wide range of vocabulary and with a significant level of linguistic accuracy.

Assessments

The assessment of this course is divided into four parts to assess each of the following skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing.

It is designed to enhance what you have learnt during the course.

Speaking: Recording of a short speaking exercise.

Listening: Answering questions in French on a short recording, lasting no more than five minutes.

Reading: Comprehension exercise based on text such as novels, newspapers, advertisements etc.

Writing: A written task

To award credits we need to have evidence of the knowledge and skills you have gained or improved. Some of this has to be in a form that can be shown to external examiners, so that standards are met across all courses and subjects. 

Reading Suggestions

A full reading list can be found via the following link:

French Advanced 1

Route Progression

Students who successfully complete the module should feel that they have a very good command of French and should be able to proceed to Advanced 2 or equivalent.

What Do I Need?

This course can be delivered as an online scheduled session course or as a face-to-face course.

If you are enrolling on the online scheduled session course, you would need the following:

• Internet access.
• Access to a laptop or computer with a web camera and microphone; the use of headphones might also benefit.
• Use of the Chrome web browser where possible.

If you are enrolling on the face-to-face course, you will need the following:

• Pen and paper/notebook or access to digital equipment to take notes.