French Lower Intermediate (part 2)

In part 2, you’ll learn to hold more in-depth conversations on topics like the weather and seasons, past trips and holidays and discussing your health. You’ll also learn to follow instructions in French, ideal for cooking authentic French recipes.

To further your understanding of French grammar you will look at the imperfect and perfect tense, impersonal verbs and complex interrogatives. You’ll also be introduced to the pluperfect tense.

You will be given written material in French to examine current affairs and contemporary issues and giving you a more rounded appreciation of French culture.

Who is it for?

If you have taken part 1 of the lower intermediate syllabus or have similar knowledge (around 140 hours of formal study), this course is the right level for you. More can be found in the eligibility section.

Timetable

This course takes place one evening a week at 18:30 for 10 weeks.

Benefits

• Develop your lower intermediate skills over 10 weeks in January term
• Gain a certificate from an esteemed London university
• Learn from skilled language tutor alongside a small group of peers.

By the end of this course you will be able to

• talk in depth about the weather and seasons
• talk about necessities and obligations
• describe someone’s appearance and personality
• talk about past trips and holidays
• talk about francophone countries
• follow instructions such as in a recipe
• express health problems.

Grammatical structures

• imperfect vs perfect tenses
• relative pronouns: qui, que, don’t
• revisiting the future tense
• impersonal verbs (falloir, pleuvoir)
• introduction to the pluperfect
• complex interrogatives (depuis quand, avec qui, pour quel).

You will be awarded an official City St George's, University of London certificate on completion of the course. You must attend over 70 per cent of the classes to be eligible for the certificate.

There is no formal assessment, but you will get weekly homework to help your understanding.

Alongside your homework, your tutor will monitor and assess your progress throughout the course, via your performance during the lesson.

Teaching

A variety of activities are used to help you improve the four key skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. You’ll work in small groups, participate in class discussion and use scenario role plays to practice your language skills. Lesson content will be sent to you in advance, giving you more time to practice beforehand.

It is the right level if you:

• have completed part 1 of the French Lower Intermediate course, or equivalent course elsewhere
• have a good or recent French GCSE
• can communicate at CEFR A1/2 level, according to the Common European Framework Reference of languages
• have studied French for 140 hours.

You should already:

• know how to express agreement, disagreement and emotions
• understand phone manners and how to make arrangements
• be aware of comparatives and superlatives
• have some understanding of expressions of time and their tenses
• have some experience using the past, present and future tenses.

English requirements

You will need a good level of spoken and written English to enrol on this course.