French Beginners

FRENCH BEGINNERS

ATAR:

Yes

Number of Units:

2

Category:

A

Faculty:

Languages

Description:

French Beginners is a two-year course which has been designed for students who wish to begin their study of French at Senior Secondary level. It is intended for students who have not studied French in Year 9 or 10 and who are not native speakers.

In the Preliminary Course, students will begin to develop their knowledge and understanding of French and will develop skills necessary to communicate in French. They will study a number of prescribed topics from the perspectives of the personal world and the French speaking communities, developing their listening, speaking and reading skills.

In the HSC course, students will continue to develop their knowledge and understanding of French structures through the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing and using a variety of approaches including film studies, games, songs, authentic material in French and general literature.

Main topics covered:

• Family life, home and neighbourhood.
• People, places and communities.
• Education and work.
• Friends, recreation and pastimes.
• Holidays, travel and tourism.
• Future plans and aspirations.

Assessment:

These topics will be assessed through the four micro-skills:  listening, speaking, reading and writing.  This will involve:

• Interpreting phrases and conversations from audio files.
• Responding to conversation and written questions.
• Oral presentation.
• Teacher-student interviews in the target language.
• Understanding and deducing meaning from written texts.
• Writing responses in French.

Additional Information:

It is recommended that students suited to this course will have achieved solid results in Year 10 English and are willing to undertake English Advanced in Stage 6 or are likely to be placed in a top English Standard class.  In Stage 5, these students should have demonstrated ability to understand and use English language conventions in writing and conversation, and have the confidence to apply knowledge of English language structures in a range of contexts.

This course is intended for academic students looking for an ATAR.