Orientation: Beginning Conversational French

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Message from your Instructor

This message confirms that you have signed up for Beginning Conversational French, a Fundamentals course that I will be teaching entirely online. I have prepared this document to help make your online educational experience as positive and enjoyable as possible. It contains contact information, a description of our course delivery system, course mechanics, and a course schedule.

How to get Started:

This course is conducted through an online classroom. You will need to go to this classroom to obtain your lessons, work through tutorials, take quizzes, complete assignments, participate in discussions with your fellow students, and ask questions of your instructor. As soon as the registration office verifies receipt of your payment, you will be able to participate. Here's how it works:

Wait until after 12:00 a.m. (Pacific Time) on the start date for this course.
After the course begins, go to https://www.ed2go.com/hc/. The Online Classroom is open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, so please feel free to log in to your classroom at any time of day that is convenient for you.
Once on the website, click the Login link at the top right of the page.
Finally, log in with the username and password you provided us at the beginning of this orientation procedure. You should then be able to enter the online classroom and begin your studies.

Course Description

Think you need multiple classes to understand beginner French? Discover how easy learning simple words and phrases for leisure and business can be. The Beginning Conversational French course makes pronunciation simple, with phonetic spellings for every word and phrase you need to learn French. This online course even includes audio so that you can hear and practice the language with little more than a click of your mouse! You will also learn cultural tips in each lesson that will make you more comfortable in a foreign setting. The skills you obtain will not only allow you to carry on a French conversation with ease but become prepared to speak French in a wide variety of settings and situations.

Upon successful course completion, you will know useful basic French that you can confidently use when traveling. You will also understand important tips to help you blend in with and relate to foreign cultures. You will be amazed at how easy it is to speak a new language!

Course Requirements

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC or Mac.
You must have working speakers or headphones.

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 10 or later.
Mac: macOS 12 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Course Mechanics

I will make two lessons available to you every week for six weeks. You do not have to be present when a lesson is released, but you'll need to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

Once all 12 lessons have been released, I will give you a two-week grace period to complete your studies and take the final exam. This means that you have a total of eight weeks to complete this course. If you're thinking of taking another course after this one, you can avoid overlap by starting that course exactly two months after this one begins.

Lessons are released by 12:00am (Pacific Time) on Wednesdays and Fridays. To access your lessons, simply visit the online classroom (as described in the "Getting Started" section), and then click the lesson title you wish to visit.

Once the class access ends, I won't be able to send you the lessons. If you would like to keep the lessons for future reference, I suggest using the print lesson feature in the classroom.

Each time you complete a lesson, you will also be asked to complete a brief multiple-choice quiz. I expect you to complete each quiz within two weeks from the date that the corresponding lesson was made available. I realize that you are busy, and don't want you to worry if you can't complete a few of the quizzes on time due to illness, vacation, or other commitments. Once I release a lesson and quiz, I will make sure it is available to you as long as the classroom is open.

The interactive multiple-choice quizzes are designed to test your comprehension of the course material. When you complete a quiz, you will receive an instant analysis of your work.

This analysis will include a brief explanation of any errors you may have made. If you are not satisfied with your performance, you are welcome to re-take the quiz until you feel that you have mastered the quiz objectives.

Note: If you ever want to see a progress report showing your performance on the quizzes over time, simply return to https://www.ed2go.com/hc/ and click Login or Account at the top right of the page. Once logged in, click the Report tab under the course title.

Some of your lessons will also be accompanied by an assignment. The assignments are designed to help you expand your understanding of the material taught in this course. Assignments are typically more detailed and may take a bit more time to work through than quizzes.

I expect you to complete each assignment within two weeks from the date that the corresponding lesson was made available. Unlike the quizzes, your assignments will not be evaluated. Assignments are designed primarily for your enrichment. You have the sole responsibility for evaluating your performance on each assignment. If you have questions about an assignment, please feel free to use the Discussion Areas to discuss your assignments with your fellow students and me.

When you work through an assignment, you will be gaining practical first-hand experience with the new skills taught in this course. Your performance on the final exam will depend in no small part on your mastery of the assignments.

The course will conclude with a final exam, which will test your comprehension of the material covered in this class. You must complete the final exam within two weeks from your receipt of lesson 12. Please review your selections before submitting. You may only submit your final exam answers once. Your performance on the final exam is the only factor we will consider when determining your eligibility for a certificate of completion. Although your quiz and assignments will not count toward your eligibility for a certificate, I do recommend that you try to complete each quiz and assignment to the best of your abilities. Doing so will leave you better prepared to pass the final exam.

When you finish your studies, please note that our classroom log-out process is fully automated. We will log you out of the classroom automatically whenever you close your browser or shut down your computer.

Questions

This course can be highly interactive, but the level of that interactivity is controlled by you. Since I can't see that puzzled look on your face, it's going to be up to you to ask questions when you get stuck.

I expect to get many interesting questions from you and your fellow students. I want to make sure that you and your classmates benefit from these often illuminating queries.

Therefore, I would like to request that you avoid e-mailing your questions to me. Instead, I have created 12 Discussion Areas in the online classroom (one Discussion Area for each lesson). To reach these Discussion Areas, all you will need to do is wait for the course to begin, go to the online classroom, select the lesson you're working on, and click the Discussion Area tile.

Your Discussion Area questions will serve as a challenge for your fellow students. Someone is bound to have an answer for you. Likewise, you should be able to find questions in the Discussion Area that you can answer. The Discussion Area will be open to you and your classmates 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Please try to visit the Discussion Area at least every other day while the course is in session, and don't be afraid to participate!

I firmly believe that the best way to learn a new skill is to teach it to others. We will all benefit by helping one another understand this complex material.

Because I don't want to see any unanswered questions, I (or one of my very capable teaching assistants) will be monitoring the Discussion Area at least every other day (excluding weekends and holidays). If you ask a relevant question, but fail to get a correct answer (or any answer whatsoever) from your classmates, then we will try our hardest to answer the question for you.

Please understand that the Discussion Area is reserved for conversations about the material in your lessons. While it is perfectly acceptable for you to employ a bit of friendly banter as you converse with your fellow students and instructors, I must ask you to always remember to stay on topic.

It is not appropriate to use the Discussion Area to sell goods or services, complain about something, or talk about subjects that are not specific to the lesson at hand, for example. Such off-topic conversations waste people's time and detract from the learning experience for all involved. I reserve the right to immediately delete any message without comment if I feel that it does not pertain directly to the material I am trying to teach.

I will also delete any messages containing language that I feel is derogatory, controversial, insulting, or otherwise inappropriate for my classroom.

Reminder

A legitimate organization would never send you an unsolicited e-mail that contains an attachment or asks for personal information. If you ever receive an unsolicited e-mail that contains an attachment or asks for personal information, delete the e-mail immediately.

When to Write my Course Administrator

As I mentioned earlier, the course Discussion Area is reserved solely for discussion of the material in your lessons.

Please do not use the course Discussion Areas for compliments, complaints, technical support, or other personal matters. Instead, please send such messages directly to my course administrator.

To contact the course administrator, scroll to the very bottom of any page within the classroom and look for the Support link.

Please understand that it may take my course administrator two or sometimes three business days to respond to e-mail, so provide plenty of time for a response.

If you need an extension, forgot your password, want a progress report, want to register for another course, or need help when you're not in my classroom, you can contact Student Support using the Help link under Resources in the footer of any page at https://www.ed2go.com/hc/.

Syllabus

Note: This course will run for six weeks. Two lessons will be released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when each lesson is released. Instead, you can take up to two weeks to complete each lesson after it is released.

Friday

In your final lesson, we will start our review. We will go over a few key points, such as pronunciation and linking words. You will even get a little more practice on those cumbersome nasal vowels. Then, you will learn how to make your own sentences. Next, you will learn how to ask questions, and we will cover a little sentence structure. Finally, you will learn some useful expressions.

Instructor

Sara Hardin

Sara Hardin is an educator with a focus on special education and language studies. She has taught special education at the elementary level for over a decade. Sara holds a BA in French, and lived in France to study at the university level. In 2000, she earned her master's degree in special education.