French Phonetics

French Phonetics

Levels : from Intermédiaire 3

Ref : PHO

Thursday from 10am to 12.30pm

From 15 January 2009 to 2 April 2009

From 23 April 2009 to 9 July 2009

From 17 September 2009 to 3 December 2009

Fees : £270 per session (12 x 2h30 = 30h)

Objectives:

This course is aimed at learners with a intermediate / advanced knowledge of French who wish to improve their pronunciation whilst practising vocabulary. It covers the basic sounds of French together with their behaviour in contact. The programme is flexible enough to enable more time to be spent in certain areas depending on students needs.

Course organisation:

Individual sounds

Vowels:

Aperture, position, use of lips ; nasals ; semi-vowels

Consonants:

Voice, place, manner

The “R” sounds

Phonemes and achiphonemes

Usefulness of the International Phonetic Alphabet

French sounds in context

Syllables, word and group stress

Linking words (various types of liaisons)

Elisions, geminates, assimilations

Unpronounced v. pronounced letters

Intonation patterns

Regional accents

Extensive practice of the main difficulties experienced by the learners such as the “R”, the difference between “u”/”ou”, the various “e” sounds, the nasals and - last but not least – stressing the right part of the sentence in order to be understood by French native speakers.

Methods :

Basic theoretical knowledge

Listening and pronunciation exercises (including in the language laboratory)

Participation communicative activities