Elementary French II

Course Description

FRE1121C – Elementary French II is a 4-credit-hour continuation of Elementary French I (FRE1120C), designed for students who have completed the first semester of college French or its equivalent. The course expands students' command of the four communicative skills — listening, speaking, reading, and writing — through additional grammar, vocabulary, and cultural content. The "C" lab indicator denotes integrated lecture and laboratory components, providing structured oral practice and listening exercises alongside classroom instruction.

Instruction continues to follow the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency framework, targeting Novice-High to Intermediate-Low proficiency by course completion. The course emphasizes the use of past tenses, more complex sentence structures, and increased exposure to authentic French-language materials from across the Francophone world (France, Quebec, Belgium, Switzerland, North and West Africa, the Caribbean, and other Francophone regions).

FRE1121C is a Florida common course offered at approximately 31 Florida institutions. Together with FRE1120C, it satisfies the two-semester world-language general-education sequence required for many degree programs and contributes to State University System (SUS) admission language requirements. It transfers as the equivalent course at all Florida public postsecondary institutions per SCNS articulation policy.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Engage in extended interpersonal communication on familiar and some unfamiliar topics, including past events, future plans, opinions, and preferences.
• Demonstrate interpretive listening by understanding spoken French narratives, descriptions, and conversations on familiar topics, including some authentic materials.
• Demonstrate interpretive reading of short, adapted and authentic French texts (advertisements, articles, brief narratives) on familiar topics.
• Produce connected written and spoken discourse in French using past, present, and future verb forms.
• Use the passé composé and imparfait past tenses appropriately to narrate past events, describe past states, and express habitual past actions.
• Apply direct, indirect, and reflexive object pronouns in speech and writing.
• Use the imperative mood to give instructions and make requests.
• Use the future and conditional tenses to discuss future plans and hypothetical situations.
• Demonstrate increased cultural literacy regarding France and the broader Francophone world, including history, traditions, and contemporary issues.
• Compare and contrast cultural products, practices, and perspectives across the Francophone world and the United States.

Optional Outcomes

• Recognize and produce present subjunctive forms in select contexts (introductory exposure).
• Engage with authentic media (short films, songs, news segments) from multiple Francophone regions.
• Apply French to professional contexts relevant to the student's field of study or career.
• Conduct simple research projects in French on cultural or topical themes.
• Engage with the linguistic diversity of the Francophone world, including Quebec French, African French varieties, and Caribbean French.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Review of FRE1120C Foundations: Present tense; être, avoir, aller, faire; articles and partitives; agreement; basic question formation.
• Reflexive (Pronominal) Verbs: Daily routine, personal care, reciprocal actions; reflexive pronoun placement; reflexive verbs in compound tenses.
• Direct Object Pronouns: Forms (me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les); placement; agreement of past participle with preceding direct object.
• Indirect Object Pronouns: Forms (me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur); placement; verbs typically taking indirect objects.
• Y and En: Use, placement, replacement of phrases beginning with à and de.
• Order of Object Pronouns: When two pronouns appear; placement with affirmative and negative imperatives.
• Passé Composé: Formation with avoir and être; choosing the auxiliary verb; agreement of past participle (with être and with preceding direct objects); irregular past participles; use for completed past actions.
• Imparfait: Formation; use for habitual past actions, ongoing past states, and background description; common time expressions used with the imparfait.
• Passé Composé vs. Imparfait: Contrast; combined use in narration; common verbs that differ in meaning between the two tenses (savoir/connaître, vouloir, devoir, pouvoir).
• Imperative Mood: Affirmative and negative; tu, nous, vous forms; pronoun placement with imperatives.
• Future Tense: Future proche (aller + infinitive); future simple (regular and irregular forms); use for plans and predictions.
• Conditional Tense: Formation (regular and irregular); use for politeness (je voudrais), hypothetical situations, and reported speech basics.
• Comparative and Superlative: Comparatives of equality, superiority, inferiority; superlatives; comparison with bon/meilleur and bien/mieux.
• Vocabulary Expansion: Travel and transportation; restaurant and food; shopping; health and the body; sports and leisure; technology; environment; education and work.
• Cultural Topics: France's history and contemporary society; French regions; Paris and the regions; the Francophone world (Quebec, Belgium, Switzerland, Africa, Caribbean); Francophone arts, music, and cinema; Francophone immigration to France and elsewhere.

Optional Topics

• Present Subjunctive (Introduction): Concept of mood; formation; use after expressions of desire, doubt, and emotion (basic exposure).
• Relative Pronouns: Qui, que, où; introduction to dont.
• Authentic Media: Francophone music (variétés, rap français, world music); short films; news segments adapted for intermediate learners.
• French in Professional Settings: French for tourism and hospitality (relevant to Florida's hospitality sector); business French; medical French.
• Francophone Literature (Introductory): Brief excerpts from accessible Francophone authors (Le Petit Prince, short stories, contemporary poetry).

Resources & Tools

• Common Textbooks: Continuation of FRE1120C textbook — Liaisons (Wong/Weber-Fève), Imaginez (Vista Higher Learning), Espaces (Vista Higher Learning), Promenades (Vista Higher Learning), Horizons (Manley/Smith/McMinn/Prévost)
• Open Educational Resources: Le français interactif (University of Texas at Austin, free), Français interactif, LibreTexts French materials
• Online Platforms: Vista Higher Learning Supersite (Imaginez, Espaces, Promenades), MyLab French (Pearson), Cengage iLrn — required online homework typically continues from FRE1120C
• Reference Standards: ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines; ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages (5 Cs: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, Communities)
• Supplementary Resources: WordReference.com (English-French dictionary), Larousse online dictionary, Linguee (translation database), Conjuguemos (verb conjugation), Quizlet
• Authentic Materials: France 24, RFI (Radio France Internationale), TV5MONDE (TV5 features curricular content for French learners), French-language podcasts adapted for intermediate learners (Coffee Break French, News in Slow French)

Career Pathways

French proficiency, particularly when continued beyond the elementary level, is valued across several career fields. FRE1121C — particularly when followed by intermediate study — supports preparation for:

• International Business and Trade — France is a major U.S. trading partner; French is also widely used in West Africa, Quebec, Belgium, and Switzerland in commercial contexts.
• Diplomacy and International Affairs — French is one of the official languages of the UN, the EU, the African Union, and many international organizations.
• Tourism and Hospitality — Florida's hospitality industry serves substantial French-speaking visitors, particularly from Quebec and France.
• Education — K–12 French teachers and college French instructors.
• Healthcare and Social Services — Serving Haitian Creole and French-speaking immigrant communities (substantial in South Florida) often involves French.
• Arts, Culture, and Humanities — Curatorial work, art history, fashion, culinary arts, literary translation.
• Aerospace and Defense — Florida's aerospace sector includes French companies (Airbus, Safran, Thales) with U.S. operations.

Continued French study toward intermediate (FRE2200/2201) and advanced levels significantly enhances earning potential and opens career-track bilingual professional roles.

Special Information

General Education and Transfer

FRE1121C is a Florida common course number. Together with FRE1120C, it satisfies the two-semester world-language general-education sequence at most Florida public colleges and universities and meets State University System (SUS) admission language requirements (typically two semesters of college-level world language or two years of high school world language). It transfers as the equivalent course at all Florida public postsecondary institutions per SCNS articulation policy.

Articulation and Sequence

FRE1121C is the prerequisite for FRE2200 (Intermediate French I), continuing the four-semester elementary-and-intermediate sequence offered at most Florida institutions. Students intending to major or minor in French should plan to continue through FRE2201 and into upper-division coursework.

Placement and Heritage Learners

Students with significant French exposure (heritage speakers, those who completed three or four years of high school French, or who tested out of FRE1120C) should consult an advisor about placement. Heritage speakers from Haitian Creole-speaking backgrounds (substantial in South Florida) may benefit from specialized advising regarding French and Haitian Creole study options at institutions offering them.

Course Format

FRE1121C is offered in multiple formats: traditional face-to-face, hybrid, fully online (asynchronous and synchronous), and intensive accelerated formats. The fully online format has expanded substantially with publisher-supported online platforms providing rich multimedia content.

The Francophone World

French is spoken by an estimated 300+ million people worldwide as a first or second language, and is an official or co-official language in approximately 30 countries across Europe, Africa, the Americas (Canada, Haiti, French Guiana), Oceania, and the Indian Ocean. Florida's connection to the Francophone world includes substantial Haitian and Haitian-American communities (particularly in Miami-Dade and Broward counties) and significant Quebec tourism. Modern French language teaching emphasizes the diversity of the Francophone world rather than a France-only focus.