YCLFR 040 - Basic French for Social Services (Online Synchronous)

Description

Basic French for Social Services (Online Synchronous) is designed for current or future social service workers who wish to improve their communication skills in French. The course focuses on oral skills necessary to function effectively and professionally in real-life social worker settings. It is comprised of eight learning units, each with approximately 3 hours of learning time. The eight units contain videos, exercises, texts, and interactive activities in four main areas: grammar, vocabulary, listening and speaking.

Topics Covered

Topics and Vocabulary:

The alphabet;
The field of social work;
Social work specializations;
Personal information (name, address, profession, DOB.);
Cardinal and ordinal numbers;
The days of the week and months of the year;
Seasons, weather, the times of day, the time;
Family and family ties;
Physical traits;
Parts of the body;
Physical and mental states;
Verbs to talk about daily activities;
Professional communication with a client;
Vocabulary pertaining to urgent situations.

Learning Outcomes

Communicative learning outcomes:

Greet someone;
Introduce themselves;
Introduce someone else;
Take leave from someone;
Ask and answer simple questions on concrete, familiar topics;
Understand and provide simple quantitative data;
Talk about themselves and their family;
Describe someone physically;
Ask clients about their physical and mental state;
Describe their clients' physical and mental state;
Ask and give the time;
Ask and talk about daily activities.

Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to use the following grammatical concepts:

Subject pronouns (je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, elles);
Familiar and formal pronouns ("tu" and "vous");
Indefinite articles ("un", "une", "des");
The verbs "être" and "s’appeler" at the present tense.
Definite articles ("le", "la", "l'", "les");
The 3 types of interrogative sentences (rising intonation / with « est-ce que » / through Subject Verb inversion);
Open-ended questions with the question words "quel", "quelle", "quels", and "quelles";
The verb "avoir" at the present tense;
Regular verbs ending in "er" at the present tense;
Negative sentences;
Possessive adjectives;
Adjectives (physical description);
Gender and number;
Question words: "Qui", "Où", "Quand", and "Comment";
The expressions "c’est" and "ce sont" to introduce people and designate objects;
The verb "venir" at the present tense;
The prepositions: "à", "de", and "chez".;
Contracted articles: "du", "des", "au", and "aux";
Expressions with the verb "avoir";
The verbs "faire", "aller", and "prendre" at the present tense;
Disjunctive pronouns "moi", "toi", "lui", "elle", "nous", "vous", "eux" and "elles" for emphasis;
Adverbs of time, place, and manner;
Expressions with the verb "prendre"; and
Pronominal (reflexive) verbs.

Notes

As the course will be held online, students must have: a computer or tablet; an internet connection.

To continue to the next level, students must have completed both the online self-directed course and the corresponding synchronous online conversation class for that level.

Prerequisite(s) and Corequisite(s)

A French placement test YCTFR-EPT FMP or a signed waiver form to be exempted from the placement test for students with no or very little background in French.

Who Should Attend?

Current or future social service workers with little or no previous exposure to French.