French Lower Intermediate (full syllabus)

This course, taught in the evenings over three terms, will give you a complete understanding of lower intermediate French.

You’ll develop a greater degree of nuance by expressing emotions in French, having more complex conversations as well as debating preferences, tastes and opinions.

This will be accompanied by more complex grammar topics including comparatives and superlatives, the conditional tense, complex interrogatives and an introduction to the pluperfect tense.

This online course will also help broaden your understanding of French culture, drawing on sources such as newspapers, books, film and TV.

Starting in October, you’ll be working towards communicating at CEFR A2/B1 level of the Common European Framework Reference of language learning.

Who is it for?

This course is ideal if you have completed our French Beyond Beginners syllabus, have approximately 120 hours of formal prior study, or a good and recent GCSE. See the eligibility section for more information.

Timetable

The course includes 60 hours of learning and is taught across three terms, starting in October and finishing in July.

October – December (Part 1)

One evening per week (two-hour lessons) for 10 consecutive weeks.

Christmas Break

January – March (Part 2)

One evening per week (two-hour lessons) for 10 consecutive weeks.

Easter break

April/May – July (Part 3)

One evening per week (two-hour lessons) for 10 consecutive weeks.

Benefits

• Learning the full lower intermediate syllabus at the lowest price
• Make friends and progress with a small cohort of committed learners
• Emphasis on conversational French, useful for real-world situations
• Taught by highly skilled native language tutors with many years’ experience teaching adult learners

By the end of this course you will be able to

• talk about past activities
• express emotions, agreement and disagreement
• talk about films, TV shows and social media
• describe family and friends and relationships
• understand phone manners and make arrangements
• talk about bank holidays, parties and going out
• 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
• talk about preferences, tastes and give opinions
• understand and use different levels of formal and informal language
• describe famous sites
• tell a story
• talk about your memories and future events.

Grammatical structures

• perfect the past tense with to have, to be and with reflective verbs
• consolidation of direct and indirect pronouns; y and en pronouns
• comparatives and superlatives
• adjectives to express emotions
• expressions of time and their tenses
• introduction to the imperfect
• imperfect vs perfect
• 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)
• conditional tenses
• combining the pluperfect “If I had done” and conditional perfect “I would have done”
• the si clause using present, future, imperfect, conditional, pluperfect and past conditional
• brief introduction to subjunctive mood.

You will be awarded an official City, 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 be expected to complete weekly homework tasks which will be marked.

Although there isn’t an exam, your tutor will monitor and assess your progress throughout the course, via your performance during the lesson and the homework submitted.

Teaching

You will receive some of the lesson content in advance, giving you the chance to practice your pronunciation. This leaves more time in class to apply what you’ve learnt and be an active learner in role playing scenarios and small group exercises.

In later parts of this course we introduce more complicated learning material which relates to current affairs and contemporary social issues. This gives a topical real-world context to your learning, while also extending your vocabulary skills and grammar understanding.

It is the right level if you:

• have completed our full French Beyond Beginners syllabus, or equivalent course elsewhere
• can communicate at CEFR A1/2, according to the Common European Framework of languages
• have a good French GCSE

have studied French formally for around 120 hours.

• You should already understand:
• pronunciation and intonation
• how to order food, giving instructions and asking for details
• how to talk about events in the past, present and future
• the use adjectives, superlatives and comparatives.

English requirements

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