YCOFR 420 - Advanced French for Social Services (Online Self-Directed)

Description

Advanced French for Social Services (Online Self-Directed) is designed for current or future social 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 five learning modules, each with approximately six hours of learning time. The first four modules will contain presentations, videos, exercises, and interactive activities in four main areas: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and listening comprehension. The fifth module is a learning assessment module. It involves three tasks in which learners are asked to demonstrate their knowledge from the previous four modules. These tasks assess their skills in oral comprehension, written comprehension, and written expression.

Topics Covered

Topics and Vocabulary:

• Time indicators and chronology.
• Expressing cause and effect.
• Symptoms and medical history.
• Vocabulary related to interventions in senior care settings.
• Expressions for announcing, recommending, and expressing empathy.
• Feelings, emotions, and reactions to difficult situations.
• Treatments, follow-ups, and intervention plans.
• Time markers related to medical or administrative deadlines.
• Adverse effects and reactions to treatments.
• Expressions of purpose, advice, and suggestions.
• Expressions for giving and qualifying one's opinion.
• Vocabulary for professional speeches and interdisciplinary communication.
• Pharmacology and medical error terminology.
• Expressing condition and hypotheses.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:

• Describe, recount, and explain situations in the past.
• Express events in chronological order and make logical connections between events.
• Make connections between the environment, diseases, and disorders.
• Interpret and understand a follow-up file.
• Report on family history.
• Give and justify their opinion, express agreement or disagreement.
• Write a report or professional file.
• Break bad news tactfully and empathetically.
• Express regret, empathy, and provide psychological support to a patient.
• Explain a diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, or intervention plan.
• Describe a treatment, plan, or medical follow-up.
• Provide information on the progress of research.
• Weigh the pros and cons of a given treatment or situation.
• Explain the rationale behind a test or medical decision.
• Clearly describe a professional issue.
• Identify the advantages and disadvantages of a situation and take a position.
• Repeat what someone else has said, summarize a testimony or expert opinion.
• Share and present a file to various stakeholders.
• Express regret or criticism about a professional situation.
• Condemn a mistake or make a complaint.
• Give advice after the fact and make hypotheses about a past situation.
• Write a comprehensive action plan and participate in a real-life scenario.

In terms of grammatical concepts, participants should be able to use:

• The past perfect tense (chronological narrative and anteriority).
• The present perfect and imperfect tenses (narration, description, agreement).
• Past tense agreement.
• The passive voice.
• Simple relative pronouns (review and reuse).
• The present subjunctive in professional contexts (emotions, doubts, obligations).
• Future tenses (simple future and future perfect in context).
• Reported speech (in the present and past).
• The present conditional (opinion, suggestion, hypothesis).
• The past conditional (regret, reproach, unrealized hypothesis).
• Expressing hypothesis (if + imperfect/past perfect → conditional).

Notes

As the course will be delivered online, students must be equipped with:

A computer or tablet; Internet connection.

In order to continue to the next level, learners must complete both the online self-directed and the online synchronous (face-to-face) conversation courses for this level.

Who Should Attend?

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