Grade 8 Curriculum
FRENCH
The major objective of this course is to continue the acquisition
of the French language, and for the students to practice communicating in the
target language through the four basic learning skills (listening, speaking,
writing and reading). The cultural focus this year will be on getting around
a French speaking city, giving directions, shopping, vacation and leisure in
France and food. We will focus on the city of Paris, but also study the French
speaking countries of Africa and the New World.
Listening: The students will continue to understand simple conversations
that have to do with everyday life situations. They will hear/see tapes with
"non-scripted" dialogues to get used to hearing authentic conversations
in French. They will listen to, and comprehend, short dialogues read or performed
by their peers in class.
Speaking: The students will practice the phonetics and the pronunciation
of the different sounds in French. The topics for the real-life conversation
they will study and/or write and memorize will be about everyday life situations:
talking about family, locations of places in a city, finding your way around
a city, telling time, making plans (immediate future), talking about the past
(the passe compose). Songs and poems will be taught as pronunciation
and vocabulary enhancement.
Writing: The students will continue to expand their knowledge of the
basic structure of the language; they will express in writing what they can
express orally. This year we will cover the following: review and further use
of irregular verbs; the further use of the present tense, the immediate future,
and the imperative, the past tense, the use of prepositions, adjectives and
adverbs.
Reading: The students will learn to read more complex dialogues, basic
cultural readings (including short songs and poems from some of the nations
studied this year). They will also read a short mystery story in French.
MATERIALS