LEVELS

On the first day of the course there is a placement test for all students. Groups are then formed and you are placed together with students who are approximately at the same level as you.

BEGINNER This level is for students with little or no French background, who are embarking on their first discovery of the French language. The class concentrates on developing good basic conversational, reading, and writing skills. Special attention is paid to fundamentals such as grammar, pronunciation, and sentence structure with the grammar element focusing on the following topics: adjectives, articles, numbers and figures, the interrogative form, location, negation, present tense, and pronouns. This level gives the student a clear idea about the functioning and the basic structure of French.

ELEMENTARY The primary aspects of this level include in-depth work on skills the student will have already acquired in the past such as adjectives, articles, the interrogative form, negation, present tense, and pronouns. Grammar elements studied include demonstrative adjectives, expression of time, immediate future, the imperfect and passé composé tenses, and personal pronouns. The classes will also cover vocabulary, sentence structure and pronunciation, as well as work on written and oral expression.

INTERMEDIATE This level assumes a good working knowledge of French grammar and vocabulary. Grammar topics focused upon include adjectives, comparison, the conditional, future, and imperfect tenses, past participles passive form, verb propositions, and personal pronouns. Class work will concentrate upon phonetics as well as more complex written and oral expression.

ADVANCED This level assumes a fairly proficient level of fluency in the French language. The students will be introduced to complex sentence structures in addition to new vocabulary, all aimed at inducing a higher level of fluency in both written and oral expression. Grammar subjects covered include the past tense in its more complex versions, the expression of hypothesis, the plus-que-parfait, relative pronouns, and the subjunctive.