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Archive for March, 2011

This week we continue our exploration of the great resources offered by the French teaching team of Hong Kongs University. Two courses, one of which is in two parts, are on the menu.

The first course, French for Beginners, contains 28 chapters including several audio files. It addresses phonetics and pronunciation, word stress and intonation of the sentence as well as liaison and the unstable “e” vowel. It also examines the negative and interrogative forms, imperative and reflective verbs, “to be”, pronouns and adverbs.

http://www.hku.hk/french/starters/malet/chap1.htm

Both volumes of the course for beginners Contact focus on communication.  Each one offers a series of 10 situations drawn from everyday life; each text is accompanied by an audio file. The texts include many colloquial expressions which are often used in conversation, commonly used vocabulary, as well as a demonstration of grammar in use and language structures.

The first volume explores several situations of particular interest to tourists as you can see in the list of contents (in order of presentation): Interview, Rencontre (Encounter), Rendez-vous, Correspondance (Correspondence), Au restaurant, Au marché (At the market), À l’hôtel, À la gare (At the train station), Au téléphone and Weekend.

http://www.hku.hk/french/starters/contact/contact_main.htm

With titles such as: Demander le chemin (Ask the way), Au magasin (At the store), À l’aéroport, the second volume of this series, as does the previous one, offers to learners situations that may be of interest to travelers. There are more titles like : À La radio, Chez le docteur, Entretien (Job interview), L’appartement, Discussion, Journal (Diary) et Au cinéma.

http://www.hku.hk/french/starters/contact/contact_main2.htm

Have a nice week!

The Bon Français Team

This week, we present to you resources on French grammar developed by Hong Kong University’s French teaching team. They are recommended to early learners of French, but more advanced students can also find them useful.

Structures is an audio grammar aiming to help students to enhance their understanding of the basic language structures and to improve their accuracy in terms of communicative skills. The objective of this series of 12 tutorials is to summarize a range of essential grammatical aspects which play a central role in the early stages of the learning of French. The various cases are approached in a descriptive way, with an emphasis on illustrative examples rather than prescriptive rules.

http://www.hku.hk/french/starters/structures/structures_main.htm

French Grammar Online is a French grammar written in English whose visual presentation is nice and original. Click on the shopping street’s flags, lampposts or street signs to discover the general rules that apply to the domain of the verb, to the noun, the adverb, the adjective, the pronoun, the article, the preposition and the comparative.

http://www.hku.hk/french/grammar/grammar.swf

Hong Kong University also presents the Online Grammar Exercises, a beginner-level series of self-corrected activities which include notably articles, determinants, gender and number, adjectives, pronouns, the affirmative form, the interrogative form, the negative form, prepositions, verbs and the comparative. Requires Internet Explorer.

http://www.hku.hk/french/gramex/beg/

Have a nice week!

To celebrate La Semaine de la Francophonie (the Francophonie Week) which runs from March 13 to 20, which is la Journée internationale de la Francophonie, we present three sites to familiarize you with the different cultures and accents of the French speaking world.

Discover  on the site of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (International Organization of Francophonie)  its actions in the fields of international politics and multilateral cooperation, and its Member States. The OIF, founded March 20, 1970, aims to give substance to active solidarity between all 75 states and governments that make up the Organization (56 members and 19 observers) – more than a third of UN Member States.

http://www.francophonie.org/

The following link takes you to the map of the Francophone world.

http://www.francophonie.org/IMG/pdf/carte_monde_francophonie_2011.pdf

French Connection is a page examining the French language as it is spoken throughout the world and discussing cultural issues relating to French language and identity. What does the French language mean to its speakers across the world? Listen to the answers of people from France, Benin, Senegal, Algeria, Quebec, Martinique and Guadeloupe. Another series of interviews addresses the issue of the French language today and tomorrow.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/french_connection/

Wikipedia devotes a page to La Francophonie. Having given a definition, the site makes its description and tells its history, and also gives the  number of French speaking people in the countries of the International Organization of La Francophonie and in the rest of the the world. Among other things, it also addresses issues such as Culture and Media.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francophonie

See you next week

This article presents companion sites to methods for learning French. These four sites have several things in common : they are all intended for adult learners at the beginner level, they complete textbooks published by Pearson, and they offer a surprising number of resources and activities that will surely help you improve your French.

Here is a link to the online study guide of the textbook Chez nous: Branché sur le monde francophone. It contains 12 chapters and an introduction, each composed of three elements. « Audio Resources » lets you hear the lessons, their vocabulary and get the student activities manual audio. « Practice » lets you try auto-corrected activities, play with Flashcards or a Soccer Game to check your understanding of each lesson’s vocabulary and grammar presentation.

The « Web Resources » element is divided into four sections : first, the « Textbook and Student Activities Manual » exercises, followed by « Web-Based Activities » as Surfons sur Internet (let’sbrowse the Internet) that includes topics related to the chapter theme and Venez chez nous (come to our place) which explores the francophone web. The « Expansion Links » section is devoted to fun links. Finally, « General Resources » includes dictionaries, French directories and portals as well as the section Language and Culture Resources.

http://wps.prenhall.com/ml_valdman_cheznous_3/28/7358/1883708.cw/index.html

Let’s explore the study guide to the 12-chapters textbook Français-Monde: Connectez-vous à la francophonie. It includes the following resources: In-TextActivities Audio with 4 to 7 links divided into sections such as « Pour bien communiquer » (to communicate well) with phrases; « Écoutons! Voix francophones au présent » (Let’s listen to contemporary French Native speaker voices) which  presents a variety of native French regional accents; and « Pour bien prononcer » (To pronunce well).  The Student Activities Manual Audio are located at the bottom of the box;  it contains 8 to 16 audio files by chapter.

http://wps.prenhall.com/wl_ariew_francaismonde_1/178/45691/11696972.cw/index.html

Another extensive study guide is the one to Rond-Point: Une perspective actionnelle. For each of the 18 chapters, it offers the following resources : « Practice Exercises » which is divided into En contexte (in context)  for vocabulary,  Mémento for grammar auto-corrected activities, and Flashcards.

« Web Activities and Resources » includes Internet Search Activities and  Regards Croisés which provides interactive culture-based activities, as well as additional resources such as online dictionaries. « Audio Resources » contains In Text Activities audio and, at the bottom of the box, the Workbook/LabManual audio.

http://wps.prenhall.com/wl_meyer_rondpoint_1/56/14567/3729232.cw/-/t/index.html

The online study guide to accompany Parallèles: Communication et culture includes for each of its preliminary and following 13 chapters the outcomes of each lesson, 4 learning steps (étapes) with practice exercises for vocabulary and structures as well as sections named: Voyage en Francophonie (Trip to the French-speaking world),  Cultures en parallèles (cultures in parallel), Le mot juste (the right word) with audio flashcards, Soccer Game, En Direct Audio, Cahier Audio and Resources, which is a repository of links to dictionaries, French directories and portals, translation tools as well as Language and Culture Resources.

http://wps.prenhall.com/ml_fouletier_paralleles_3/16/4245/1086934.cw/index.html

Good discovery!