This 10-week course is for complete beginners in the language and those who have acquired some expressions informally through travel or socialising. It is pitched at level A1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), and completion of the course will help you meet some of the level requirements. To help develop your fluency in the language, the course will focus primarily on speaking and listening skills, but will also include practice in reading and writing. You will have plenty of opportunities to practise the target language through hands-on collaborative class activities such as conversations and role-plays.
French: Beginners - Part 1
This is an In-person course which requires your attendance to the weekly meetings which take place in Oxford.
Overview
Programme details
Course starts: 2 Oct 2024
Our public programme is open access, and most adult language classes are mixed ability. The weekly course schedule below is intended to give an overview of the main topics likely to be covered in each session. Please note that these may sometimes change according to the tutor’s discretion to reflect the interests of course participants.
Week 1: Greetings and leave taking. Introducing oneself. Numbers 1–31. The alphabet. French sounds.
Week 2: Giving basic personal information: saying where you live, your nationality and age. Numbers 32-69.
Week 3: Expressing likes and dislikes. Numbers 70-100.
Week 4: Asking and answering simple questions. Presenting a French/Francophone personality.
Week 5: Saying where you live. Talking about leisure activities.
Week 6: Presenting and talking about one's family.
Week 7: Shopping for food: identifying food shops, discussing opening and closing times, expressing quantities.
Week 8: Ordering at a restaurant/cafe. Describing recipes and listing ingredients in a dish.
Week 9: Naming places in a town. Talking about means of transport.
Week 10: Understanding an itinerary and asking for directions. Revision quiz or fun activity.
Key grammar points:
* Subject pronouns and stressed pronouns
* Present tense of auxiliary verbs être and avoir
* Present tense of -er verbs in the affirmative and negative form
* Agreement of adjectives feminine and plural (nationalities)
* Definite, indefinite and partitive articles
* Prepositions with towns and countries
* Possessive adjectives
* Prepositions of place
* Present tense of irregular verbs aller, prendre and faire
* Interrogative adjective quel
Key functions:
* Understanding, asking for and giving simple personal information
* Presenting and talking about one's family
* Talking about likes and dislikes (leisure activities, interests, means of transport)
* Shopping for food and ordering in a café, at a restaurant
* Presenting places in a town
* Understanding and asking for directions
Recommended reading
All weekly class students may become borrowing members of the Rewley House Continuing Education Library for the duration of their course. Prospective students whose courses have not yet started are welcome to use the Library for reference. More information can be found on the Library website.
There is a Guide for Weekly Class students which will give you further information.
Availability of titles on the reading list (below) can be checked on SOLO, the library catalogue.
Preparatory reading
- ÉDITO niveau A1, méthode de français, 2ème Édition / Mensdorff-Pouilly Lucie, Opatski Sergueï, Petitmengin Violette, Pons Sylvie, Sperandio Caroline
Digital Certification
Digital badge
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be issued with an official digital badge from the Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford. After the course, you will receive an email with a link and instructions on how to download your digital badge. You will be able to add your badge to your email signature and share it on social media if you choose to do so. In order to be issued with your badge, you will need to have attended at least 80% of the course.
Fees
| Description | Costs |
|---|---|
| Course Fee | £275.00 |
Funding
If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:
Tutor
Mrs Danae Lemos-Theologis
Danae is a qualified linguist and experienced French teacher. She has taught French adult classes for many years including Advanced Conversation and Contemporary French literature as well as French courses for academic purposes.
Course aims
To enable participants to communicate at a very basic level with speakers of the target language in a limited range of practical, real-life settings.
Course objectives:
- To help students develop the language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing for very basic routine communication in the target language.
- To enable students to use a range of high frequency vocabulary and grammar structures for very basic routine interaction in the target language.
- To equip students with an initial appreciation of the culture and civilisation of the country (or countries) in which the target language is spoken.
Teaching methods
You will learn through a communicative teaching approach with the emphasis on actively engaging in classroom activities in the target language. These are likely to include role-plays, pair- and small group-work, and conversational practice conducted in a supportive, friendly and informal learning environment.
The course has been structured to help you primarily to develop your speaking and listening skills and to gradually gain an insight into the culture and daily life of your target language. You will also learn and practise new grammatical structures in a communicative context and will be encouraged to develop your reading and writing skills in your own time.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- use very simple phrases and utterances to provide basic personal information, such as name, address, family members and nationality;
- interact in a simple way using a very basic range of language in routine everyday contexts;
- understand the gist of very short, simple written texts and audio/video excerpts containing the highest frequency vocabulary items and basic grammar structures;
- produce simple phrases and very short texts using basic structures and vocabulary items.
Assessment methods
You will be set short, optional assignments to consolidate your learning and to allow you to progress at your own pace.
Application
Please use the 'Book' or 'Apply' button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an enrolment form (Word) or enrolment form (Pdf).