Activités en classe :

Test, Module 1

I will put your grades on eCourseware and hand them back as soon as they’re graded (either Tuesday or Thursday)

Beginning of Module 2

• p. 34-35, Introduction au chapitre
• p. 36. Les activités. Répétez.
• « Ami » (word that looks the same/similar in French and English and mean the same/similar things in both languages) vs. « Faux ami » (word that looks the same/similar in French and English, but the meaning is different in the two languages.
• Make a list of « amis » and a list of « faux amis » from the list of expressions on p. 36.

• Examples of « amis » (cognates) : étudier (to study), danser (to dance), musique (music), etc.
• Examples of « faux amis » (False cognates): rester (to stay, NOT to rest), football (soccer, NOT [American] football), travailler (to work, NOT to travel), etc.

• p. 54, Conjugaison du verbe « aimer » (for the infinitive of -er verbs = silent r, you pronounce it like é)

• Pronunciation -e, -es, -e -ent: silent endings in the « boot » (je, tu, il, ils forms). Very often, boot forms are pronounced the same way in French
• Elision — je + aime => j’aime (the -e in je and a few other short words that end in -e drops before a vowel or mute h [since you don’t say h in French])
  • j’aime, j’étudie, j’habite, etc.

• p. 54, Prononciation: -ent

• –ent ending is silent for verbs
• Liaison : link between subject and verb (vous aimez)

• p. 54. Répétez les verbes de la liste
• Conjugaison of another verb — danser: on the board

• Pay attention to pronunciation
• boot forms vs. nous & vous

• p. 54, Préférer => Notez les accents

• On the second e, accent grave \ for the boot forms (je, tu, il, ils)
• On the second e, accent aigu / for nous & vous

• p. 55, ex. 1. Conjugate the verbs in the right form

Talking about the negative

• ne…pas, ne goes before the conjugated verb, pas goes after
• Elision ne + aime + pas => n’aime pas (before vowel or mute h)

• p. 56, ex. 5. We did a few of these 

• Affirmatif (positif) => Négatif

p. 36 — activities you like or don’t like

J’aime voyager
Je n’aime pas chanter, etc.

WHAT TO DO FOR HOMEWORK, ANNOUNCEMENTS, ETC.

• The first iLrn homework for Module 2 is due Friday at 11:59 pm
• Continue with the calendar for Tuesday. Don’t forget you should read the pages on the calendar and review before coming to class.
• Reminders about tutoring, extra credit, etc.

Activités en classe (WHAT WE DID IN CLASS)

• I collected your Expression écrite (instructions). If you didn’t turn it in today, you can turn it in for late credit on Thursday (if you have an excuse, please let me know).
• Les numéros : les scores de football américain
  • Tigers contre UCLA : 42 – 35
  • Tigers contre Austin Peay : 63 – 0
  • La NFL ce week-end : exercice avec un partenaire
• Les lettres : les prénoms et noms
  • Activité avec un partenaire.
  • Exemples ensemble
• Informations pour le test :
  • Format
  • Review exercises
• Vidéos :
  • Les salutations (greetings — video on p. 6 in your iLrn ebook)
  • Chanson sur la francophonie (song — YouTube link)

(Devoirs, annonces, etc.) WHAT TO DO FOR NEXT TIME

• Test on Module 1 Thursday in class (55 minutes)
  • Format
  • Review exercises
• We’ll start Module 2 together on Thursday after you’re done with the test (calendar)
• Your first iLrn exercises for Module 2 will be due Friday night. (For the remaining chapters, the next chapter’s assignments for iLrn will be posted online when you take the test for the previous chapter.)
• Tutoring information can be found in the Plus section
• Extra credit: Table francophone every Wednesday and meeting for French Club this Wednesday.
• Please let me know if you have questions!

Today’s LESSON, followed by HOMEWORK to do

WHAT WE DID IN CLASS

• Annoncements : Tutoring (under the « Plus » tab) and the French club (under the « Points bonus » tab. See « Homework » below for more.
• Reminders about speaking in French in class — the expressions on p. 20-21 should help, in addition to the Expressions utiles sheet you got before.

CULTURE

• p. 17, Vocabulaire en mouvement: Description en anglais
  • People in both classes mentioned English words they could think of that came from French : ménage à trois, RSVP, soufflé, fiancé, respond (répondre), beef (bœuf), pork (porc), etc.
  • Sometimes loan words mean the same as in English, but other times the meaning changes a little or a lot — attendre doesn’t mean to attend in French, but to wait; bureau isn’t usually an actual desk in English, but in both languages it can mean an office (Bureau of Statistics, etc.); rendez-vous isn’t a date in French, but any old meeting/appointment, etc.)
  • I mentioned some others: fiancé, table, ,…
  • Some words nowadays go into French from English: business, live (for a TV broadcast), Internet, WiFi, etc.
  • So English can definitely help with understanding French, but be careful because the meaning can sometimes be different
• p. 17 — écoutez les phrases de Voix en direct. Notice sometimes the pronunciation of English words is different in French.

REVIEW

• Review with être — to be
• p. 30, ex. 8

COLORS AND CLOTHES

• Les couleurs (p. 18)
• p. 18. Certains vêtements(again, practice at home before coming to class: we practiced a few key ones : un jean, un short are singular in French, etc.)
  • p. 19, ex. 13. With a partner.
    • Careful with gender, singular/plural

• Qu’est-ce que vous portez ?
• Je porte (I’m wearing)
  • Write down two pieces of clothing and their color
    • Je porte un T-shirt blanc et des sandales bleues
    • Je porte ________________ et ________________
    • Il / elle porte = He / she is wearing

COMMUNICATING IN CLASS

• p. 20-1. Classroom expressions. We practiced these
• p. 21 Écoutons ensemble. Together

• p. 19, l’Alphabet. Répétez. 
  • Don’t forget you can click in the book to hear how it sounds
  • Accents — these are very important (can change pronunciation and/or meaning)
  • Listening exercise. WRITE down the word you hear spelled out. Qu’est-ce que c’est ? (for example B-O-N-J-O-U-R, etc.)
• p. 22 Les nombres 0 à 60
  • p. 22. Répétez les numéros
  • Careful with words that are similar : deux (2) versus douze (12), etc.
  • Note that the u in qu- words is silent in French : question, quatre, quatorze, etc.
  • Notice the pattern: 21 vingt et un, 31 trente et un, 41 quarante et un…
  • BUT 42 quarante-deux, 43, quarante-trois, etc.
• p. 21, ex. 17. Avec un partenaire

WHAT TO DO FOR HOMEWORK

WHAT WE DID IN CLASS

• Reminders
  • iLrn: Listening and speaking exercises coming up aren’t optional: you can do them on your device or the Language Lab (open 8:00 – 4:30 this week).
    • Don’t forget to use capital letters, periods, accents, etc.
    • A few people haven’t signed up for iLrn : it’s required & there’s a 21-day free trial if you’re waiting for financial aid, etc. The iLrn page has info.
    • Please do iLrn on time — About 20 people had at least one exercise late. 1st week, there was no penalty. Normally, there will be 10% for each day late.
• Table francophone — Wednesdays  10:30-11:30 am in room Jones 241. Up to 2.5 points on your final course grade

INTRO / REVIEW

• Practice quiz (didn’t count, but to give an idea of general format, etc.). Don’t forget to study before coming and be in class on time
• Review classroom vocab together (p. 11).
  • Qu’est-ce que c’est ? C’est une chaise, etc. Qui est-ce ? C’est un étudiant, etc.
• PowerPoint — Practice a formal conversation

SUBJECTS AND ÊTRE FOR DESCRIPTIONS

• Je suis de Memphis. Je is a subject pronoun
• p. 29, subjet pronouns
  • p. 29, ex. 7 together
  • Fill in together and repeat the conjugation of être (je suis, tu es, etc.)

• You can use être to talk about descriptions:
  • Projector: Adjectifs : masculin et féminin (1st page) 
  • p. 15 has additional vocab
  • pronunciation : brun vs brune like un versus une
• Together, we talking about how to switch nouns and adjectives from masculine to feminine, normally by adding -e : étudiant, étudiante, grand, grande, etc.
• Exceptions for feminine adjectives: 
  • p. 31
  • nerveux, sérieux -> nerveuse, sérieuse
  • optimiste -> optimiste (already an -e, don’t need another)
    • note that fatigué (ends with an accent) does add an -e in the feminine because of the accent

• p. 16, La description de la personnalité.
  • p. 16, ex. 10. Avec un partenaire.
  • Modèle to show how the activity works

• p. 28 — singular vs. plural
  • Adjectifs : singulier et pluriel (2nd page)
  • Exceptions:
    • beau, beaux
    • vieux, vieux
    • gris, gris
    • If an adjective already ends in -s or -x, you don’t add another -s or -x to make it plural, you just leave it as it is
  • p. 31, ex. 10.Together. Look at context (word that the adjective is describing) to decide the correct form (masc vs. fem, sing vs. pl.)
    • Note that sometimes a word is singular in English but plural in French, and vice versa (les cheveux = hair — you have more than one hair)
• p. 16, ex. 11. Descriptions des célébrités. Avec un partenaire
  • Read the descriptions (practice vocab, pronunciation)
  • Guess what each is referring to
• Jeu : Guess who?
  • Write a description of 3-4 phrases about yourself (p. 15, 16, 32-33 give some ideas)
  • Try to come up with at least one thing to help us ID you (hair color : j’ai les cheveux blonds ; eyes : j’ai les yeux bruns, etc.)
  • I collected your descriptions and we tried to guess who each one was referring to.

WHAT TO DO FOR HOMEWORK

• iLrn exercises due Wednesday at 11:59 pm
• Read pages indicated on course calendar before Thursday’s class
• Table francophone — Wednesdays  10:30-11:30 am in room Jones 241. Up to 2.5 points on your final course grade
• If you have questions, let me know!

WHAT WE DID IN CLASS

• Good first day. Remember, if not sure about something or you feel a little lost:
  • ask a question (in French): Expressions utiles sheet I handed out
  • consider context (photos, words, gestures, etc.)
  • look in the vocab or glossary in the book
• Contact — Email format, other services — if you have questions

iLrn — questions, quick reminder

• Almost everyone signed up for iLrn. If you haven’t signed up, please do so today — free for 3 weeks, so everyone should be able to get connected.
  • A few people who signed up for iLrn didn’t do the exercises — please go back in and do them. This time only, I’m not counting late exercises for anyone, but in the future 10% off for each day late
  • Comments and corrections for anything you didn’t get 100% on or questions with more than one possible answer (personalized questions, etc.)

p. 26 — Informel et formel (Images)

• tu une personne, (familière)
• vous: une personne, formelle / respectueuse
• pluriel: plus d’une personne, informelle / familière

Projector :  Friends. Ensemble

Formal versus informal

Projecteur — p. 7, Expressions utiles. Contexte formel / respectueux
    • Écoutez, puis répétez
Projecteur — p. 8, Expressions utiles. Contexte familier
    • Écoutez, puis répétez

PowerPoint — Situations : Informel / familier.

• Play out the scenario with at least 2 people.
• Quick corrections/review of expressions (p. 4, p. 6)
• Afterwards, a group acted out the situation

Culture

• p. 9-10, Perspectives culturelles. You already read this at home, just a few quick notes:
  • Bonjour, monsieur / Bonjour, madame
  • Discussion of greetings, leave-takings, handshakes vs. la  » bise  » (kissing on the cheek), smiling and tu vs. vous in France, Quebec, and African countries

• p. 10 Avez-vous compris ? Decide if each action mentioned would be bien élevé ou mal élevé in that situation.

How to identify objects 

• p. 11. Identification — Projecteur. Vocabulaire de la salle de classe. (Can look in glossary or p. 32 if you’re not sure what the image is)
  • Répétez certains mots de vocabulaire (cliquez)

• You should have studied these at home (the words are clickable). We repeated a few key words

• Qu’est-ce que c’est = what is that ?
• C’est un bureau (masculin ou féminin?)
• C’est une fenêtre (masculin ou féminin?)
• Ce sont des chaises (singulier ou pluriel?)

• On the board: un = masculin, une = féminin, des = pluriel. Il faut mémoriser (memorize) le genre – masculin / féminin. For now for objects, it’s best to just memorize. (p. 32) For people, usually masc, fém. depending on the gender of the person, BUT some exceptions: un professeur (always masculine)

• p. 12. Prononcez bien ! Listen to your teacher and say which are masculine (un) and which are feminine (une) 

prononciation : un — nasale (like Ann in English without the n)
prononciation : une — u (i, then round lips)

• Prononciation — Liaison

• last consonant in a word is usually silent in French
  • étudiant (silent -t) vs. étudiante (the t is not silent because it’s not at the end)
• when there’s a vowel sound beginning the next word, you often link the two words up. It’s called « liaison », or linking, between the two words)
  • des livres (both -s at the end are silent) vs. des étudiants (the -s in des is pronounced because it comes before the vowel é in the next work)
  • un livre (silent n) vs. un étudiant (n pronounced)

 p. 12, Activité de prononciation : Avec un partenaire (Look at p. 11 — to see if it’s masc / fém)

Singulier versus pluriel

• En général, quelle lettre pour le pluriel ? (ex. 6, #4 : singulier ou pluriel ? )
  • cahier -> cahiers
  • stylo -> stylos

• Exception : -eau -> eaux — p. 28. Structure 1.3 Nombre

Plurals: The -s and -x endings are silent, but you still need them when writing

• p. 12, ex. 6. #1-6 with a partner

Est-ce que c’est X = is it X ? (p. 27)
Oui…
Non…
C’est un(e)…
Ce sont des…

Identification of people 

• p. 13, Célébrités 

• Read descriptions of celebrities on p. 13.

• Attention —
  foot = football = soccer

• Qui est-ce ? = Who is that? Introduction rapide.

• Qu’est-ce que c’est ? (objet: What’s that?)
• Qui est-ce ? (personne: Who’s that?)

• p. 14, exercice. Qui est-ce ? Look back at p. 13 if you need to. If it’s wrong, then give the right answer.

WHAT’S FOR HOMEWORK  —

• By Friday night at 11:59 pm — do the iLrn exercises that are due

• Before Tuesday’s class, continue with the course calendar.

• READ: Thème, p. 15-16
• READ: Structures 1.4-1.5, p. 29-31
• READ: Perspectives culturelles, p. 17

 Bon week-end !

After each class (by around 8 pm at the latest) I’ll post about what activities, sheets, etc. we did in class and what you should do for next time.

WHAT WE DID IN CLASS:

• Info cards (if you were absent/late, you can do this Thursday)
• Intro to what’s on our website
• Syllabus and course calendar
  • PowerPoint summarizing some key points
  • Make sure also to read the full syllabus and regularly check the calendar online.
• iLrn — info on how to buy it and sign up, how to do the exercises and use the eBook, where to go for help, etc.
• Useful expressions (Expressions utiles — keep this handy in class to help you speak in French)

• BOOK. Introduction in the book on where French is spoken
  • p. 2-3 and the Maps in the eBook on iLrn
  • A link which shows 77 countries where French is either spoken or is considered important culturally
• p. 6. Repeat « Contexte respectueux » (formal greetings)
  • I went around and greeted everyone (Bonjour ! Comment vous appelez-vous ? Je m’appelle Tom. Je suis de Memphis. etc.)
• p. 6 Repeat « Contexte familier » (informal greetings)
  • People greeted 3 classmates in French
  • Afterwards, a couple examples of Il s’appelle Tom (His name is Tom), Elle s’appelle Helen (Her name is Helen)

• Video clip of French class skit with Alec Baldwin and Adam Sadler (script; no good version of the video online—it’s part of the Best of Alec Baldwin DVD). Why real communication is more important than just parroting sounds!

WHAT’S FOR HOMEWORK AND REMINDERS

• By Wednesday at 11:59 pm
  • Get iLrn (and textbook if needed)
  • Set up iLrn account and sign up for our section (instructions here)
  • Do the two exercises in the Assignment Calendar on iLrn (S: 1-1-A S: A. Simple comme bonjour and  S: 1-2-1 S: 1. Formel ou familier?)
• Before class on Thursday
  • Continue with the course calendar. Make sure to check on there to see what’s coming up — what pages to read before class, any tests, etc.
  • For Thursday, for example, you should READ (not do the exercises on these pages, just read the pages over)
    • READ: Pratique de conversation, p. 7-8
    • READ: Perspectives culturelles, p. 9-10
    • READ: Thème, p. 11-14
    • READ: Structures 1.1-1.3, p. 26-29
  • In class on Thursday, as mentioned on the course calendar, we’ll do
    • Prononcez, p. 12

Archives

If you miss class, misplace a sheet, or just want an electronic copy of something, this is the place to go. After every class, I’ll post a list of exercises, sheets, PowerPoints, and other documents we have gone over in class as well as the homework to do for the next class.

Normally, materials from each day’s class should be posted by about 8 pm that night. You can sign up for email alerts  on the right (or below on mobile devices), or follow me on Twitter if you’d like to know when there’s a new post. To track down something from a few days ago (or longer) feel free to scroll down, click on the calendar to find a specific date, or do a search.