This post is for the French Beginners Class at the City of Portsmouth College (Highbury Campus) on Tuesday evenings from September to November 2022.
This link is a shortened link to this page rebrand.ly/copcfrb22
There is likely to be access to Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams at some point, but in the meantime, I will place some available resources here.
There is a course book for this beginners class that I have based the content we study on. You may find it helpful to get a copy for home use and self-study. We will also discuss your motivation for learning French.
>> 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...
radio.garden (This link takes you to Portsmouth's Twin Town of Caen and the station France Bleu) Sadly blocked by the UK government legislation in October 2022.
Or indeed French TV News
This blog page will help you find out how to get all those accents on your various devices.
Find some Francophone music that you like - there's an extraordinary amount out there, and all can be seen on YouTube whenever you like. I have written much more about French music here.
Some of the materials I will use will be from the course book Entre Nous 1, aimed at the European Language Standards A1 (beginners)
The classes run on the dates below:
Tuesday, November 29th
This is the final lesson - have you signed up for the improvers class in January?
La Saint Nicolas et Noël
Key Vocabulary linked to Christmastime
Glossary from an Italian Language School
Food and Drink
French Traditions at Christmastime
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année - A la prochaine fois en 2023 - peut-être!
Tuesday, November 22nd
You may have written about either your home town or a town you know well in France (Canada) based on the text model below (Nov 15th).
Un voyage au Québec from Entre Nous 1. We will look at how to talk about where you are going and the use of the pronoun «on» in French.
We can look at the irregular verb «aller» in the present tense.
This is from French TV about the city of Quebec, you'll not follow it all, but we can "mine" it for useful vocabulary and phrases to talk about cities in French (even if they are speaking with a Quebecois accent!!)
Quels sont les mots manquants?
Tuesday, November 15th
There were plenty of grammar exercises to attempt from the course book Entre Nous.
Particularly from pp 42-47.
Today we will look in more detail at the theme of "The Town" in French. p50-51.
«Quels sont les sommerces de votre quartier?»
We will then describe your local area in more than just lists of shops.
You might wish to use that as an example for preparation for next week's mini-presentation in French about your local area.
«Dans mon quartier on a pas mal de maisons et quelques appartements. Les maisons sont assez grandes dans ce quartier avec des fenêtres en saillie. On a deux pubs, un qui est grand et vend des repas et un autre plus petit 'du coin'. On a aussi deux superettes, beaucoup de vendeurs de plats à emporter comme une friterie, un pour les plats indiens et deux autres pour les plats chinois, une pizzeria et un fast-food pour les hamburgers, une petite poste et plusieurs coiffeurs pour les hommes et pour les femmes. Il y a aussi un marchand de tapis, une fleuriste, un salon de tatouage et quelques bureaux. Non loin on a deux concessionaires de voitures d'occasion aussi, avec une pharmacie, un cabinet de dentiste et une autre superette Tesco. Il y un beau jardin public. C'est assez tranquille comme quartier sauf le bruit de la circulation et parfois des ambulances.»
Tuesday, November 8th
L'Armistice de 1918 PPT in GDR
From Entre Nous...
P. 39 - Working on the grammar once more. Revision of negation and possessive pronouns. Possibly pronunciation too.
Various grammar and vocabulary exercises from the book could be done for homework.
You may wish to complete a brief profile page based on those on page 36 of Entre Nous 1.
Tuesday, November 1st
La Toussaint
* We will revise, giving your name, age, and where you live.
* We will add civil status and ensure you have your jobs and can say at least one positive thing about where you live.
* We will report back about other people
Using Entre Nous 1 Chapter 2 pp.34-38.
You may have completed a brief profile page for yourselves based on those on page 36 of Entre Nous 1.
Comment prononce-t-on cette phrase-ci?
<< Une femme en vair qui s'appelle Vérène verra à travers ses verres son verre de vin qui contient un ver vert vers huit heures tout en récitant un vers d'un poème. >>
La Toussaint en France en 1941
La Toussaint en Guadeloupe
Half Term - Tuesday, October 25th
Tuesday, October 18th
Halloween
* We will look at where French is spoken in the world.
La Francophonie
Tuesday, October 11th
Let's use the Entre Nous 1 book and look at the city of Lille, identifying where the various places are in the city. (P.24)
We will look at the definite article (the) in French, giving some survival phrases in French you could use when in need! (P.25-26) Revise greetings and their appropriate setting (P.30)
Tripes à la Mode de Caen...
We may begin to look at France and Francophonie... (P.35 and P.36) and to begin to give personal details in French.
Tuesday, October 4th
You might be able to say a few sentences about your town or city in response to this question...
<<Qu'est-ce qu'il y a dans votre ville? >>
Building on last week's introduction to the city of Caen, we will look at what the course book Entre Nous wants to introduce us to this week.
They are using the city of Nantes over in the West of France, south of Brittany, but once was in Brittany before France annexed it.
We will then look at reasons why people are learning French, some personal details and how to form the present tense of regular '-er' verbs... (the joy, the bliss!) and mention the reflexives (more joy!!).
It is possible we will get onto talking about basic greetings and 'faire la bise'
Tuesday, September 27th
For this lesson you might like to be ready to introduce yourself in French, giving your name, saying where you're from and when your birthday is...
Depuis le dossier de l'apprenant, vous feriez votre vision de la France, en parlant de vos opinions sur:
le petit déjeuner français, les films français, la gastronomie française, la France même, le sport français, et l'art français.
For a little vocabulary building, we will look at compiling << un portrait chinois >>. We don't have a name for that in English, we do call a similar thing "20 questions".
Revisions l'alphabet et épeler vos noms, les noms de vos villes et lieux de naissance.
Revisons les chiffres entre 1 et 20.
Avez-vous un numéro fétiche?
Travel to France - Portsmouth is twinned with Caen, so we will look at what can be seen in Caen (basic vocabulary initially based on the course book Voilà).
The course book uses Nantes as an example, but Caen is linked by ferry to Portsmouth.
La Gastronomie de Caen
Revision
This very young French Teacher made these vlogs for his French beginners during the Coronavirus lockdown. However, he covers many of the things we covered in class today and last week, which can serve as a reminder!
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 - if you need it...
Un peu d'humour français... Une réponse à la question brûlante...
Tuesday, September 20th
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.
There is a course book for this beginners class that I have based the content we study on. You may find it helpful to get a copy for home use and self-study. We will also discuss your motivation for learning French.
We will most likely begin looking at the course book Entre Nous 1.
The beginning discusses why you are learning French and some simple information about yourselves. There is no compulsion to buy the book, but you might find it helpful for your studies.
We will answer the French questions for:
Who are you?
Why are you learning French?
What does France mean to you?
Some of the questions you may need to leave until you've learned a little more bout the country and its cultures.
Up-to-date map of French Regions - They were merged to make them less numerous.
Worksheets for use in class/at home.
Florabelle et la Mushroom Family - L'Alphabet en chantant - An earworm, which will teach you the alphabet.
This guy does a lot of beginners' videos... Now there's enthusiasm, 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. I have written much more about French music here.
Mylène Farmer (The French Madonna has been around since 1987 but still gets to number one in France!)
Zaz...
Zaz does a wide variety of old and new songs and Jazz styles. This one is a cover version of a Daniel Balavoine song. he was huge in the 80s but, unfortunately, was killed in a 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 bring 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...
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