The main resources and ideas will be linked here.
You have access to Google Classroom for your class here
In the next course we will look at cultural events and many grammar points (depending on the make up of the class), there is a jump in level to A2/B1, but you will soon get used to it.
The courses for Summer are now online These summer courses last for 8 weeks instead of 10.
The dates for the Thursday evening classes after the Easter break are:
Thursday 5th May
Thursday 12th May
Thursday 19th May
Thursday 26th May
Half Term (Queen's Platinum Jubilee)
Thursday 9th June
Thursday 16th June
Thursday 23rd June
Thursday 30th June
In this class we are working at the European Language Levels of A1 to A2.
You should, if you wish to continue, switch to Thursday evening classes. If you continue on Tuesday, you will very much be repeating what you have already learned.
>> Socials for French both online and in person happen in Portsmouth click here to see when <<
To help improve your listening and tune your ear to the sound of the language, you can use the internet. There are a lot of free to air radio stations out there and this website helps you tune in to the free stations...
Or indeed French TV News
This blog page will help you find out how to get all those accents on your various devices.
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022
Pâques
A la prochaine - peut être...
Do you have a presentation ready for the group?
Car breakdowns from l'internaute
Chansons
A few songs with gaps - we can give a go at filling in the missing words - (This one is not full of joy or very sunny)
Another original song which became too lost in you over here.
A major fad in the noughties were these animated babies and little kids, animals, etc
This one mentions England, but why?
Tuesday, March 15th, 2022
lundi, 21 mars - journée internationale de la poésie.
Today loosely based on the coursebook 'Voilà' we will look at:
Talking about Telephone Numbers and the higher numbers beyond 69 in French, where they are certainly not the easiest in the world! Telephone numbers require knowledge of all numbers as the French have a particular way of giving out their numbers - The sheet below from January:
We'll revise dates once more and we may be able to learn another ear worm song about the months of the year.
La culture du monde francophone
Les Vêtements
We can use the rest of Voilà Chapter 4 to look into stating your likes and dislikes and introduce shopping for clothing.
Clothing (Avantage Worksheet - Google Classroom)
Likes and dislikes
We can use the section in Voilà Chapter 4 to complete discussing likes and dislikes along with clothing.
Chanson
One way of improving your listening skills, as I have said before, is to find songs sung in French and listen to the radio. Well another thing to do with music, is to do a close exercise, where you have to listen for specific lyrics within the lyrics (i.e. missing lyrics).
Here is a song that made number 5 in the UK charts way back in 1988...
Tuesday, March 8th, 2022
This class will take place on Google Classroom, as the college has an issue which means it must close early this week. Link Here
You will need your college username and i.d. to participate.
Tuesday, March 1st, 2022
On est de retour!
Le mardi gras
Un peu de grammaire
============================================================================
Tuesday, February 15th, 2022
Today loosely based on the coursebook 'Voilà' we will look at:
* Holidays in French.
* Describing local things and things to do.
* Talking about the weather
What is 'une perturbation' ? une éclaircie ?
How many mm of rain for Alsace?
What do these mean? 'le ciel restera très gris'
'quelques rafales de vent'
'plus frais'
Will there be any 'neige' anywhere?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tuesday, February 8th, 2022
PFC playing at home tonight - So allow a little extra time if travelling into the city from the north!
La Saint Valentin - Further sources are on Google Classroom
You may wish to present to me what you have prepared on yourself, family and pets, using the information from here and the lessons
We will look at jobs in French, in basic terms. (Next time weather and holidays with further work on town)
We can use chapter 2 of the course book Voilà for further reinforcement.
Tuesday, February 1st, 2022
La Chandeleur
Today we are covering countries and nationalities.
In your own time, you may already have prepared a paragraph describing your family and/or pets. Yo may want to add to this now, giving nationalities of various people therein.
Alternatively, you could make yourself part of a fictional family and introduce them instead.
Further documents are on the Google Classroom.
Tuesday, January 25th, 2022
Today we will look in some detail at how to talk about the family.
The final part of Voilà chapter one, introduces some basic vocabulary for family. We will do more today than the book requires. We should use the chapter to revise and reinforce what we have learned in the last three lessons.
The files below will support you in working on the family in French. There is further support on Google Classroom
La tripière d'or
Videos for remembering pronunciation and reinforcing vocabulary on the theme of family ...
Tuesday, January 18th, 2022
Today we are going to look at what there is in a town in French. Portsmouth's French twin city is Caen - So we will use Caen as an example...
Extra:
A video filmed during 'le confinement' in Caen, when you were permitted one hour and no more than a 1km radius from your home...
In this second lesson, we will recap what we did last week. Hopefully, you will all be able to say hello, introduce yourselves, say where you live and ask someone how they are in French.
If you can, you should be able to give your age, or your birthday, or your whole birthdate.
If you can do all of this can you all tell people how to spell either your name, the city or town you live in or indeed your place of birth? Can you do all of this?
Now to introduce spellings after a phrase, you should say...
...Ça s'écrit, (then spell the word using the French Alphabet).
To ask how something is spelled, you can either ask - <<Comment ça s'écrit?>>,
or <<Ça s'écrit comment?>>
To check the pronunciation of those phrases above - download this zip file.
Remember for pronunciation of numbers, letters, days of the week, month of the year etc. Check out the little song and Thomas' French YouTube videos.
We will use some exercises from the course book 'Voilà'. It is useful support and consolidation.
We will look at:
* Formal and informal greetings
* Asking how people are
* Showing someone around town
We may also begin to look at introducing family and friends...
Here is the PowerPoint used in class about places in our twin city of Caen.
Here is further information on what is in a town...
This very young French Teacher made these vlogs for his French beginners during the Coronavirus lockdown. However, he pretty much covers the things we covered in class today, which can serve as a reminder for you!
In teacher training they say if you do something at least 6 times you might remember them! He certainly seems to use that method... Here is his video for the places you might find in a town - of you need it...
Un peu de l'humour français...
Tuesday, January 11th, 2022
In the first class, we will introduce ourselves to each other and find out our reasons for learning French as we do not all know each other yet.
During today's lesson, we will learn how to greet people. We will learn about the Alphabet and some of the numbers in French. We will look at the formal and informal register and possibly how to write the date in French. There is a course book for this beginners class that I have based the content we study on. You may find it useful to get yourself a copy for home use and self study.
We will also discuss your motivation for learning French.
Worksheets for use in class.
Florabelle et la Mushroom Family - L'Alphabet en chantant - An ear worm, which will teach you the alphabet.
This guy does a lot of beginners videos... Now there's enthusiastic and then there's ~Thomas!
He can, at least, serve as a reminder of the correct pronunciation, should you need one...
*********************************************************************************
Extras
A really useful way to tune your ear into French is to find some singers and bands who perform in French and begin to follow them on youtube or if you do have a paid for music streaming service, you may be able to access them on there.
Out in 2020 from Mylène Farmer (The French Madonna around since 1987, but still gets to number one in France!)
Zaz...
Zaz does a wide variety of old and new songs and Jazz style. This one is a cover version of a Daniel Balavoine song. he was huge in the 80s, but unfortunately was killed in an helicopter crash. This song was part of a tribute album to him.
Kyo
A band from Rouen, big in the late nineties and early noughties and came back a few years ago...
I cannot possibly cater for all tastes in music, but searching YouTube will bling you a plethora of different artists.
There are so many more including a multitude of rappers!
For non-rappers, try: Shy'M, Keen'V, M. Pokora, Marc Lavoine, Renaud, Desireless, Louane, Patricia Kaas, Amel Bent, Calogero, Christophe Maé, Christophe Willem, Etienne Daho, Francis Cabrel, Patrick Bruel, Boulevard des Airs, Grégoire, Indila, Jean-Jacques Goldman, Joyce Jonathan, Najoua Belyzel. Navii, Raphaël, Vianney, William Sheller and Yseult....
All have a presence on YouTube and then of course there will be recommendations for more similar things down the side...
