French

Year-Long Elective Unit

Prerequisites

Year 9 French.

Course Description

The course aims to extend and improve the student's competence in using French for a variety of purposes, using an integrated skills approach. Students learn the skills of skim reading passages to identify key words and points, as well as the intensive reading of passages to extract detail and draw conclusions. Students are able to speak with greater accuracy and improved pronunciation. Written tasks are undertaken both to consolidate the learning of themes and structures and to use the language for practical purposes, such as emails and reports.

Essential Questions

What does French culture have in common with Australian culture, and how are they different?
How does French Language change in different situations?
How do French culture and heritage influence responses to questions relating to the environment, relationships, and past and future events?

Areas of Study

Topics/Themes

The past: describing past events, childhood and primary school memories, reporting facts; using language to produce an article and/or a news report.
Relationships: expressing emotions, giving advice, talking about issues linked to adolescence.
Film study.
Future: future aspirations, professions.
Environment: problems and solutions, the differences and similarities between French and Australian perspectives.

Linguistic Structures

Present tense: regular and irregular verb conjugations.
Reflexive verbs.
Passé composé: in all forms — questions, negative, reflexive.
Imperfect tense: formation and when to use it in relation to the passé composé.
Future tense.
Conditional mood.
Adjectives.
Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives.
Negative constructions : ne…rien, ne…jamais, ne…personne, ne…plus.
Pronouns: direct and indirect object pronouns, y, en.

Assessment