(Fall 2023) French 1 (Beginning French), Part One with Nathalie LaPierre, DVM

Discover the beauty of French, a rich and melodious language that is also an analytical language that encourages critical thinking in the student.

How to get the most out of  French 1 (Beginning French), Part One with Nathalie LaPierre:

  • First, read the course materials below before the first class meeting.

  • Then have a notebook ready and available for class notes. I recommend dividing your note book in four sections:

  1. Vocabulary: in French, nouns have a grammatical gender and should be learned with an article. Writing these words in a list or in context can be helpful for memorization;
  2. Verbs in French are complex. Organizing them in tables is necessary for memorization;
  3. Grammar rules section;
  4. Conversation in context, and written composition.
  • Each week, a video will be posted to explain a grammar point, verbs, French sounds, or expressions. These topics relate to the homework and assignment of the week. They should be viewed before the live class.

  • Each week will have a quiz, exercises from First Start French with the answer key, and an assignment to be graded by the teacher. The order of completion should be like this:

  1. Watch the short video explaining the grammar/verb/expressions of the week;
  2. Read the lessons in First Start French;
  3. Come to the live class 20 minutes early;
  4. Complete the exercises in First Start French, correct your answers with the answer key, and use the quiz to sharpen your mastery of the topic(s) of the week (the quiz can be taken as many times as you would like and the highest grade is your final grade);
  5. Complete the assignment and submit it on Moodle for grading.

  • The class is recorded every week. You can review it as many times as you would like. Every effort will be made to practice conversation in our weekly class.

  • There are three tests for this course. I encourage you to come prepared to take the test in one sitting within one hour.

  • The project to be presented at the end of this semester consist of an oral presentation of a written composition by the student. Throughout the semester we will develop the paragraph to be written by the student. Each student will find that even with limited vocabulary, they can express themselves well in French.

  • At the end of the first year, the beginner student will have invested approximately 28 hours of live interaction with the teacher and 18 hours of recorded instructions and about 2 hours a week on reading assignment and homework to learn a basic level of French which will enable the student to understand and use simple French expressions, meet people, and ask simple questions. It will be easier to speak or read than to understand what the native French speaker says.

  • Once the course is completed to the parent's and professor’s satisfaction, there is a Certificate of Completion at the end to be filled in for your records.

Special Note: This is a two-part course. Students are expected to register for Part Two in the spring.

Total Classes: 13

Duration: 75 minutes

Prerequisite: A passion for learning French.

Suggested Grade Level: 8th to 12th grade

Suggested Credit: One full semester French or Foreign Language

Instructor: Nathalie Lapierre

Instructor Email: hsc.nathalie@gmail.com

Course Description: More than 220 million people speak French on all five continents. Therefore, the ability to speak French is an advantage on the international job market. It is a culture that has influenced the Western World, and the Americas, and it is a beautiful and fun language to learn.

         In Part One, we will learn the French sounds, basic vocabulary to describe the classroom, ourselves, our families, our clothing, our feelings, determinants (such as articles, possessive and demonstrative adjectives), numbers 0 to 69, how to greet each other, how to conjugate verbs of the first group, second group, and some commonly used verbs of the third group in the present tense.

Course Outline:

  • Week One: Greetings, presenting Moodle, course syllabus and expectations/grading; French sounds, cognates, French pronouns; 

  • Week Two: Vowel sounds, more cognates, present tense of verbs Avoir and Etre, vocabulary about family;

  • Week Three: Polite expressions, questions, numbers 1-20, present tense of verb Aller;

  • Week Four: Review 1, Test 1;

  • Week Five: Semi-consonnes sounds, name of parts of the body, demonstrative adjectives, present tense of verbs from the first group (-er ending);

  • Week Six: Nasal sounds, clothes, this and that, voici/voila/il y a, numbers 20-100

  • Week Seven: Feelings, present tense of verb Faire;

  • Week Eight: Review 2, Test 2;

  • Week Nine: Agreement of Adjectives/nouns, colors, grammatical gender of countries, negatives;

  • Week Ten: Questions and building sentences, writing a short narrative;

  • Week Eleven: Telling time, Present tense of second group verbs (-ir ending)

  • Week Twelve: place and position, preposition "de", present tense of Prendre;

  • Week Thirteen:  Review 3, Test 3;

Course Materials: First Start French level 1 Student Edition, by Danielle L. Schultz, Memoria Press; 2007, ISBN: 978-1-93095-365-9 (https://amzn.to/2rAC5Mm)

Homework: Learning a second language is demanding. Depending on your goals, a minimum of 30 minutes a day is recommended. To help the memorization of the vocabulary words and grammar rules, different exercises have been developed for this class. There are: recordings for the vocabulary words, or the lesson of the week, the student can listen and repeat what he hears to develop his speech; quizzes on Moodle; and the exercises from the Student book. Quizlet sets (always in progress) help him memorize the meaning of words, their grammatical gender, their spelling and conjugation of verbs. Each week, a unique assignment has been created by the teacher for grading purposes, except the week the students have a test.