The Cactus Course Outlines provide a learning framework for the Cactus Foreign Language Evening Courses. They are designed to provide you with a good idea of what you might cover during the course and include typical themes, vocabulary fields, grammar, cultural content and skills work for the language and the level. The Outlines are flexible rather than prescriptive, in that our teachers always plan their lessons with the specific abilities, aims and interests of the students in their classes in mind.

• French Level 1
• French Level 2
• French Level 3
• French Level 4
• French Level 5
• French Level 6
• French Level 7

Themes/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

• Introductions – inc. where you’re from, family
• Jobs
• Key adjectives/adverbs – size, shape, age, speed
• Hobbies, likes & dislikes
• Colors, numbers
• Alphabet
• Eating & drinking – restaurants, bars
• Travel – buying a ticket at the train station, asking for directions
• Holidays in France and abroad
• Hotels – reservation, checking out
• Time – hours, days, months
• Home – rooms, common objects
• Places – shops, important buildings
• Daily life – routines, free time
• Key functions – invitation, offer, suggestion, requests
• The weather
• Using a dictionary

Grammar:

• Key verbs – ‘aller’, ‘faire’, ‘vouloir’, ‘pouvoir’, ‘devoir’, etc.
• The verbs ‘être’, ‘avoir’ in the present tense
• Verbs in ‘ER’
• Je voudrais…
• Key prepositions – ‘à’, ‘en’, ‘au’, ‘dans’, etc.
• The future – futur proche: aller + infinitif
• Pronouns – subject, object, possessive
• Singular vs. Plural
• Feminine vs. Masculine
• Articles – definite, indefinite
• Word order – sentence, question
• Questions – yes/no, what, where, how
• Giving instructions – using the imperative

Cultural content:

• French culture – habits, gesture, comparisons with other cultures
• Towns and Regions of France
• Typical regional dishes
• Where to go on holiday

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking/active practice
• Role-plays
• Lots of listening
• Pronunciation – key sounds

Themes/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

• Review & practice level 1 vocab (eg. through dialogue creation)
• Talking about self & others, inc. family – key personal info
• Jobs – talking about your profession
• Travels – countries, culture
• Holidays – sea, mountains, cities
• Hotels & restaurants – ordering, complaining, explaining problems
• Leisure Time – sport, arts
• Money & shopping – asking for the right item, size, shape, etc.
• Clothes – fashion, styles, brands
• Describing people
• Describing towns & countries
• Home – describing rooms, furniture and activities in each rooms
• Making suggestions: using the imperfect
• Common feelings & emotions

Grammar:

• Review & practice level 1 grammar
• Verbs in ‘IR’, ‘ER’ and some irregular verbs in the present
• The immediate past: ‘venir de’
• Negatives – ne…pas/jamais/plus, etc.
• Reflexive verbs
• Passé composé with ‘avoir’ and ‘être’ + past participles (regular/irregular)
• Imperfect
• Future simple – formation, some irregular verbs in the future
• Demonstrative and possessive articles
• Direct questions
• Comparing
• Partitive articles : du, de la, des

Cultural content:

• Celebrations in France
• Idioms using French food
• Famous French people
• Famous French songs

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking/active practice
• Role-plays/games
• Lots of listening
• Pronunciation – key sounds

Themes/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

• Review & practice level 2 vocab (eg. through dialogue creation)
• Talking about self & others, inc. family – key personal info
• Visiting a company/business meetings/letters of thanks
• Talking about holidays
• Eating & drinking
• Complaining/dealing with complaints
• Health/illness
• Media/talking about the news
• Sequences of events
• ‘y’ and ‘en’
• Making a presentation about your town
• Leisure activities and hobbies
• Thinking about the future
• Buying and selling
• Describing people/objects/places/circumstances
• Telling a story Word-building (prefix and suffix patterns)
• Word families (noun-verb-adjective-adverb)
• Time phrases
• Asking direct questions

Grammar:

• Review & practice level 2 grammar (eg. through mixed tense work – present/past/future)
• More irregular verbs in the Present
• How to express the past – Passé composé/imparfait
• Future – futur simple/proche
• Present conditional
• ‘en’ + present participle
• Tenses with ‘si’
• Comparatives/superlatives
• Possessives adjectives/pronouns

Cultural content:

• French newspapers and TV channels
• French famous movies
• French famous comic books

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking/active practice
• Lots of listening
• Pronunciation – key sounds

Themes/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

• Review & practice level vocab (eg. through dialogue creation)
• Famous People
• Education
• Music & Film
• Writing about characters in literature studies
• Presenting and discussing a topic
• Express opinions
• Food & Drinks
• Personal Anecdotes
• Relationships
• Explaining problems
• Imagining life in the future
• Talking about feelings and emotions
• Some useful telephone phrases
• Common idioms
• Number & quantity
• Common linking words
• Wider range of functions – inc. social language, giving advice, ordering, expressing opinions, agreement/disagreement, convincing, making enquiries

Grammar:

• Review & practice previous level grammar (eg. through mixed tense/aspect work – present/past/future)
• Use of Passé composé/imparfait
• Thinking about the future
• Comparatives & superlatives
• Reported speech
• Past conditional
• Passive
• Relative pronouns – qui, que, dont
• Order of object pronouns

Cultural content:

• French proverbs
• French historical analysis
• Modern French political scene

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking/active practice
• Lots of listening
• Pronunciation

Themes/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

• A wide range of possibilities, including but not limited to: Entertainment, mass media, work, education, the environment, tourism & travel, news, social & political issues, books, generation changes, cities, people, relationships, the arts, technology, health & fitness, social life, night life, national traditions/customs & culture, consumerism, globalization
• Common collocations
• Use of different registers to express opinions
• Complex use of grammar and vocabulary to contribute in a debate
• Various styles of written French for particular situations

Grammar:

• Review & practice previous level grammar (eg. through mixed tense/aspect work – present/past/future simple/continuous/perfect)
• Consolidate & extend the following concepts & structures:
• Comparatives & Superlatives
• Reported speech
• Tenses with si
• Passive
• Relative clauses
• The subjunctive
• The pluperfect

Cultural content:

• French wines and how to talk about them
• The history of French-English bilingualism
• Specific cultural regional idioms

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking/active practice
• Lots of listening
• Lots of new vocabulary
• Pronunciation

Themes/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

• A wide range of possibilities, including but not limited to: Entertainment, mass media, work, education, the environment, tourism & travel, news, social & political issues, books, generation changes, cities, people, relationships, the arts, technology, health & fitness, social life, night life, national traditions/customs & culture, consumerism, globalization
• Cause/consequence
• Common linking words
• Collocations
• Complex grammar and vocabulary structures
• Idioms
• Metaphor
• Phrasal verbs
• Register

Grammar:

• Review, consolidate & extend previous level grammar
• Style & register (formal/informal)
• Nominalisation
• Proverbs
• Different clause types

Cultural content:

• Slogans
• French around the world: ‘La Francophonie’
• French artistic scene
• French advertisements

Skills Work:

• Lots of listening and debates
• Producing various styles of written French
• Pronunciation

Themes/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

• A wide range of possibilities, including but not limited to: Entertainment, mass media, work, education, the environment, tourism & travel, news, social & political issues, books, generation changes, cities, people, relationships, the arts, technology, health & fitness, social life, night life, national traditions/customs & culture, consumerism, globalization, philosophy, science, poetry, literature, speeches, psychology, esoterica
• Idioms
• Common linking words
• Details of business etiquette
• Metaphor
• Stylistic/stylised writing
• Literary devices, eg. alliteration, onomatopoeia
• Regional differences

Grammar:

• Review, consolidate & extend connected French
• Nuance
• Complex sentences
• Narratives
• Exceptions to the rule

Cultural content:

• Slang
• Cliché
• Playing with words: French poetry, slam, rap and text messages
• French theatre
• French at work and cultural differences

Skills Work:

• Lots of listening
• Debates
• Writing exercises using various styles of written French
• Pronunciation