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Prerequisite for entry
Successful completion of French syllabus level 4 at UCL Centre for Languages & International Education or A Level grade (or equivalent).
Term duration
10 x 2-hour classes.
Aims and objectives
The aim of the course is to enable students who have an advanced knowledge of French to acquire a better fluency in the language. Students will be able to follow discussions and debates on current issues (world wide) as well as communicate in all situations using complex and linguistically more accurate structures (different types of discourses, registers etc…). Cultural awareness will be further developed. Various transferable skills will be covered.
Functions
- Talking about one’s image
- Describe people and behaviours
- expressing different feelings
- Talking about one’s relationship to money
- Giving warnings
- Taking part in a debate, presenting one’s ideas clearly and efficiently
- Describing an educational and professional experience
- Reporting a conversation
- Recognising and using various registers
- Getting familiar with dialectical/regional accents.
- Improving reading and listening skills using variety of authentic material, involving more complex and critical discourse
Course content
Main topics/themes to be covered:
The content of this course will be based around a reflection on the nature of contemporary society and current affairs. The topic may include the following (as appropriate, depending on students’ interests):
- New technologies, Internet
- Money and consuming
- Advertising
- Learning experience/ education
- The origins and variety of French
Linguistic Structures/ Phonetics
Recognising/understanding various register/accents.
Grammar
- Les pronoms relatifs composés
- Reported speech in the past
- Past tenses and agreement of past participles
- Mise en relief (ce qui, ce que, ce dont…)
- Subjunctive
- Adverbs
- Different ways of expressing concession and opposition (using the subjunctive, indicative…)
- Structuring (logical structures)
- Linking devices (lexical, grammatical)
- Stylistic levels, formal registers and their usage
Learning resources
Books
- Course book: please wait for your tutor to confirm which book he/she will recommend.
- Authentic material from various sources (French newspapers or magazines, recent publications, French television programs, films etc…)
- In addition there is a wide range of language learning materials for self-study in the Self-Access Centre.
Bilingual Dictionaries: Collins/Robert
Monolingual dictionary: Petit Robert
