Elementary Level A1

“Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details (such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows, things he/she has). Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.”

Pre-Intermediate Level A2

“Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.”

Intermediate level B1

“Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple coherent text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans”.

This course is designed to help students who have never studied French reach a B1 level during the academic year.

During the first semester, students will approach the French language with the support of the volume “Nouveau rond-point 1 A1-A2” which must be purchased.

During the second semester, students will continue their learning through the use of material that will be available on the Blended platform.

Each week, a theme will be covered from which the communicative, grammatical, lexical, phonetic and cultural skills will be developed.

During the first semester, lessons will be organized based on the units of the volume “Nouveau rond-point 1”
During the second semester, cultural topics will be covered - as a starting point for developing the communicative, grammatical, phonetic and lexical skills - to begin to understand the French and Francophone world. Topics: secularism, the French school system, youth languages, cuisine, metropolitan France, the French world, French institutions, economics and ecology.
All the topics that will be the subject of the exam will be covered during the course and simulations will be done (dictations, grammatical exercises, written comprehension, written and oral production).

EXAM STRUCTURE:
All tests can be taken after the course of lectures has been delivered, therefore starting from the summer exam session. There is at least one session available for each exam session (summer, autumn, winter).

✦ WRITTEN TEST
The written test lasts 3 hours and consists of three parts:
1. Grammar exercises related to the program: for the topics, refer to those in the volume and on the Blended page of the course (30%)
2. A written comprehension text with specific questions, along the lines of the exercises done in class (20%)
3. A written production. Starting from an initial assignment relating to the topics covered in class, the student will have to write a short personal text of about 150 words. (50%)
The use of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries is NOT permitted.
Evaluation criteria for written production
♦ Compliance with the instructions (statement and length) and the linguistic register
♦ Ability to present facts and/or argue
♦ Coherence of the text
♦ Richness and adequacy of the vocabulary
♦ Morphosyntactic correctness (grammar and syntax)

✦ DICTATION
A short text will be dictated, along the lines of those covered in class.
Evaluation:
♦ pass 15/30 (but to pass the exam, the average between dictation and assessment must be 18/30)
♦ - 0.25 points accents
♦ - 0.50 points spelling
♦ - 1 point "accord/conjugaison"

✦ ACCERTAMENTO
The oral "accertamento" consists of two parts:
1. The student will be asked to introduce himself exhaustively (name, age, nationality, family, hobbies, etc.)
2. Later, the student will draw a theme from among those seen in class. (The themes covered in class will be taken as a reference). The student will have between 10 and 15 minutes to prepare his presentation

Evaluation criteria for oral production

♦ Ability to present oneself (autonomy and details of the presentation)

♦ Ability to express one's opinion (main points of a personal reflection, connection and coherence between the elements of the speech)

♦ Phonetic correctness (pronunciation and intonation)

♦ Richness and adequacy of the vocabulary

♦ Morphosyntactic correctness (grammar and syntax)

The teaching material prepared by the language assistant in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the language assistant specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Course books

Text to purchase: Nouveau Rond point 1 (A1-A2), éditions Maison des langues (ISBN: 978-84-19236-68-5)

Reference grammar (recommended purchase): BIDAUD F. (2020) Grammaire du français pour italophones. Torino: Utet Università. (ISBN:9788860085849)

Other material prepared by the lecturer will be available on the Blended platform.

The course will be shared with the teacher Anouck Vecchietti Massacci. Teacher De Cerreto will focus mainly on grammatical and phonetic aspects, while her colleague will deal with the communicative aspects, of written and oral comprehension and expression.