Intermediate French

In Intermediate French, students will improve their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. At this level, students have greater autonomy with the language and are encouraged to use it creatively and authentically. Vocabulary is acquired through exposure to authentic texts and communicative practice, and the topics that are explored include: making recommendations, expressing doubt and certainty, and expressing opinions. Students will learn a few more tenses while refining their written and oral communication. The class will use more authentic texts and documents from the Francophone world to guide both language learning and discussions. Students will study culture and diversity in the form of current events, film, music, and famous novels and stories.

Prerequisites: Demonstration of mastery of Foundations of French skills and Departmental Recommendation Required.

Course topics are briefly outlined below.

Art and Society: In this course, students will explore art through various modes such as music and visual art produced by Francophone artists. The class will discuss the context in which these works were created and their impact on society. Students will work closely with these works and use them to develop their own artistic voice. 

Identities and Narratives: Students will explore cultural identity and how it is related to place. We will look at themes such as immigration and rural vs urban environments. Students will look at a variety of authentic sources that explore places and the people that inhabit them including Butterfly in the City and Jean de Florette, as well as representations of place and identity in poetry and music. Finally, we will look at how places have influenced and been represented in art.

Mystery and Suspense: This course will use the abbreviated version of ‘The Phantom of The Opera’ and other French stories. Students will use these stories to review the past tense and learn the future and conditional tenses while working on their speaking, pronunciation, listening, reading and writing skills. Students will work on plot twists of the stories and create their own mystery and suspense stories using film, audio and other media forms.

• Interests: Psychology, Social Justice
• Grades: 10th, 11th, 12th, 9th
• Subjects: Modern Languages