French: Intermediate - Part 2



Overview

This 10-week course is pitched at level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), and completion of the course will help you meet 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 class activities such as discussions and role-plays

Key grammar points:

* Active and passive sentences

* Verbs and adjectives with prepositions: when are prepositions needed? which prepositions?

* The simple future and near-future verb forms: when should you use which?

* Indefinite articles and pronouns: when quantities can't be numbered

* The present participle and gerundive forms: how to form them? why are they different? when to use them?

Key functions:

* Discussing future plans

* Talking about indefinite quantities

* Narrating events

* Expressing opinions and viewpoints

* Giving reasons

Programme details

Course starts: 23 Jan 2024

The weekly course schedule below is intended to give an indication of the main topic(s) 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: Navigating the media

Week 2: Issues in our twenty-first-century world 

Week 3: Travel and the wider world

Week 4: The environment

Week 5: City life

Week 6: Studying in France

Week 7: Culture club (films, music, literature)

Week 8: Sports and skills

Week 9: The world of art

Week 10: The year in review and a few popular songs

Certification

Students who attend a minimum of 70% of classes will receive a Certificate of Attendance.

Fees

Description Costs
Course Fee £251.00

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:

Concessionary fees for short courses

Tutor

Dr Coralie Schneider

Coralie is an experienced teacher and holds both a PGCE (French with Spanish) and a PhD in Linguistics. She has also taught French in secondary schools, at the University of Oxford and at the Alliance Française of Oxford. A native of Paris and a keen traveller, she enjoys sharing her knowledge of French language varieties and cultures with students of all ages and levels.

Course aims

To help you to practise and consolidate the language required to express yourself with a degree of fluency and spontaneity in most situations regularly encountered at work, educational settings, leisure centres and while travelling abroad.

Course objectives:

  • To develop the learners’ language skills to be able to deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken.
  • To consolidate reading comprehension skills to enable learners to understand texts written in everyday and job-related language.
  • To equip learners with the vocabulary and grammatical structures required to write straightforward, connected texts on topics which are familiar or of personal interest.
  • To increase the learners’ intercultural awareness and understanding of the differences and similarities in social and everyday practices between their own and the target culture.

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, collaborative and informal learning environment.

The course has been structured to help you primarily to improve your speaking and listening skills and to deepen your intercultural awareness of the practices and frames of understanding in the target culture. 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, students will be able to:

  • exploit language to deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the target language is spoken;
  • understand the main points of clear standard speech on most familiar matters regularly encountered at work, educational settings and leisure centres;
  • read and understand simple texts which include job-related language, descriptions of events, reasons or opinions;
  • write straightforward connected texts on familiar topics or matters of personal interest.

Assessment methods

You will be set 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).

Level and demands

Find your language level

Selection criteria

Our public programme is open access, and most adult language classes are mixed ability. To benefit from this course, learners will have completed our Intermediate Part 1 course in the language.

Terms & conditions for applicants and students

Information on financial support