This page is for the City of Portsmouth College class on Tuesday evenings for Intermediate (Improvers) French. Classes run from 19:30 - 21:00
A shortened link to this page is rebrand.ly/copcfri23a
N.B.
Links in blue will work for you, but if they are red, then they will only work for me while in class.
Classes for next term are now live to be booked on to. Click Here to be taken to further information.
The classes are due to run from 19:30 to 21:00 on Tuesdays.
26th September
3rd, 10th, 17th and 31st October (24th is half term)
7th, 14th, 21st and 28th November & 5th December.
To improve your listening and speaking skills in a social setting, visit the evening or afternoon events organised in the city.
Tips for refreshing and reinforcing your French
Listen to French Music - Watch French TV series and films (or at least videos/news in French)
There is a lot of stuff online for the French language and learning (not all of it, correct!) The sites below are usually accessible for free and have French-language content.
Free sources for TV
All 4 (Walter Presents on Channel 4 has some French Series among the many foreign series)
France 24 (online news 24/7 in French)
TV5 Monde (an online bank of Francophone TV and Film)
BBC iPlayer (often under BBC 4 programming)
France.info also has a live stream on YouTube
Free Sources for Radio
Radio.Garden (Sadly, since October 2022, there's a block on this website for working outside the UK). However, click on the ellipsis (...).
You can see the option to visit the website - click there, and you can go to the website - click on 'écouter la radio', and it gives all the France Bleu regional stations in France... then you can listen (this option will work on most radio stations based on 'Radio.Garden'.
This website has some useful articles in both English and French; watching both versions can certainly improve your vocabulary, intonation and grammatical structure knowledge.
In order to help you with your grammar, you can go to this post on this blog.
mardi, 5 décembre
Classes for next term are now live to be booked on to. Click Here to be taken to further information.
Chansons de noël
mardi, 28 novembre
Classes for next term are now live to be booked on to. Click Here to be taken to further information.
Tonight, we will look at Seine Maritime as a Tourist Destination
Qu'est-ce qu'on dit au sujet de la Seine Maritime?
mardi, 21 novembre
Tonight, we will look at speaking about hobbies and pastimes in French.
We can see how to speak about things we might like to learn/take up.
If we have time, we can also revise examples of the use of the imperfect tense and the perfect tense using a little story... Text borrowed from this websiteÂ
mardi, 14 novembre
Tonight, we will look at Entre Nous EN pp22-24 Piste 3
We have looked at all the verb formations in the most important tenses in use in French.
This online website may be of use - it does require signing up.
If we have time, we can also revise examples of the use of the imperfect tense and the perfect tense using a little story... Text borrowed from this website
Quelques questions pour parler ce soir...
C'est peut-être un peu tôt, mais qu'est ce que vous envisagez faire à Noël ?
Qu'est ce que vous avez fait pour Halloween/ fêter Guy Fawkes/ le jour de l'armistice?
Et quand vous étiez petits aviez vous fêter l'Halloween - si oui comment? Sinon pourquoi?
For fun
mardi, 7 novembre
Tonight, with Remembrance Day coming up this weekend, we will look a little at what the French and French Canadians do to mark the Armistice of 1918.
If required,
A look at the formation of the Pluperfect Tense and its uses from the verb formation blog.
Le jour du souvenir
mardi, 31 octobre
Halloween et La Toussaint Tonight, as it is Halloween, we will look at some French information on Halloween and tomorrow (the actual public holiday in France), Toussaint (All Saints Day). La plus grande peur
La Toussaint
mardi, 24 octobre
Tonight, it is half-term so do not come into the college, it will be locked!
mardi, 17 octobre
Classes for next term are now live to be booked on to. Click Here to be taken to further information.
We will continue looking at the theme we started last week: 'It's never too late to learn'.
For your own work during the coming week, you might wish to give your account of how you feel when abroad. OR translate this paragraph about a famous francophone person...
« Marie Hélène Gauthier est née le 12 septembre 1961 à Pierrefonds au Québec.
Elle choisit son nom d'artiste Mylène Farmer en hommage à Frances Farmer, actrice américaine (1910-1970) alcoolique qui finit lobotomisée. Cela en dit déjà beaucoup sur le personnage Farmer.
Dès son premier titre, « Maman a tort » en 1984, Mylène Farmer cultive une image mystérieuse, provocante, troublante et ambiguë.
Avec Laurent Boutonnat, son pygmalion qui est à la fois son compositeur et le réalisateur de la plupart de ses clips, elle se forge une image sulfureuse et collectionne les clips majestueux... et censurés. »
A look at the formation of the Perfect Tense and its uses from the verb formation blog.
If we have time, we can also look at the formation of the imperfect tense and its uses, then use a little story to find it all in use... Text borrowed from this website (there are many tenses here, and if you look after the sheet, we'll be able to identify most of them by the end of the course)
A reminder of the formation of the Present Tense
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mardi, 10 octobre
There is a chance to come and meet and have dinner with some 'real' French people this Saturday evening. Also, Sunday afternoon from 3pm too until about 9 pm.
A deposit of £6 is required for Saturday evening... I can give you the BACS details.
Tonight, a little about stereotypes! Plus from Entre Nous 2 - "It is never too late to learn new things section." Piste 1
Qu'en pensez-vous des clichés? - Aviez vous une idée que vous avez dû changer lors d'une visite à l'étranger.
Devoirs - Maybe you can write a little about stereotypes you have; if so, describe them or any people have had about you and yours that you found out by visiting another country or area...
«Par exemple, j'avais l'idée que les russes étaient tous très distants, mais je les ai trouvés charmants et chaleureux lors de ma visite en mars 2006, mais la fraîcheur c'etait bien le cas pour le pays où il faisait -14C dans la journée!»
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mardi, 3 octobre
Tonight, we will look at an exercise from Entre Nous 2 first of all.
We should have a look at something grammatical too, so as many people are struggling with verbs and their formation (conjugation), we will look into the formation of the French present tense, its uses and the English equivalents. For this, we will use my verb formation blog post
From Entre Nous 1 we will look at how to talk about competences and what you are able to do.
Connaître ou Savoir ? Lequel?
We should also begin to look at Grammar, particularly verb formation.
I have a blog here that will take you step by step through verb formation.
If you are serious about mastering French Grammar a good place to start is the verb formation and this book will certainly help. (see here for an older version)
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mardi, 26 septembre
Tonight is the first lesson. We will look at what motivates you to improve your French, why you have signed up and what you want to get from the class (so I can best prepare for the next nine weeks). It is also how we can get to know each other (for any people who were not in this class before).
Voici quelques questions pour vous faire parler aujourd'hui:
Qui êtes vous?
Pourquoi voulez-vous améliorer votre français?
Parlez-nous d'une visite en France ou dans un pays francophone...
Que faites-vous dans la vie?
Quels sont vos passe-temps préférés?
Parlez nous de votre famille...
Parlez nous de votre ville...
... et vos passe-temps qu'est-ce que vous aimez faire dans votre temps libre?
La Francophonie
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Here are the Adult Education Dates for the Academic Year 2023-2024...
Autumn Term:
18th September 2023 - 30th November 2023 (Half term w/c October 23rd)
Spring Term:
8th January 2024 - 21st March 2024 (Half term w/c February 12th)
Summer Term:
15th April 2024 - 17th June 2024 (Half Term w/c May 27th)