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Get ready for beginners’ French
Get ready for beginners’ French

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6.1 Have a go: language skills

French language learners will develop a huge range of skills. Firstly, there are the skills generally labelled as ‘language skills’:

  • listening
  • reading
  • speaking
  • writing
  • taking part in written and spoken interactions.
Described image
Figure 9 Language skills

Listening, speaking and taking part in spoken interactions (such as conversations) are skills related to the spoken language. Reading, writing and taking part in written interactions (like an exchange in an online text chat) are written skills.

Listening and reading can be grouped together as ‘receptive’ skills – meaning they require you to understand language written or spoken by somebody else – whereas speaking and writing are ‘productive’ skills, which involve producing language yourself. ‘Interactions’ are situations where a speaker needs to both receive and produce language: for example, when you take part in a conversation, you need to both listen and speak.

Activity 4 Developing language skills

Timing: Allow about 5 minutes

Read the list of activities below, which are all typically found in a beginners’ French course to help you learn and practice language skills. For each one, tick the skill that they help develop.

a. 

interaction


b. 

listening


c. 

reading


d. 

speaking


e. 

writing


The correct answer is b.

a. 

interaction


b. 

listening


c. 

reading


d. 

speaking


e. 

writing


The correct answer is c.

a. 

interaction


b. 

listening


c. 

reading


d. 

speaking


e. 

writing


The correct answer is d.

a. 

interaction


b. 

listening


c. 

reading


d. 

speaking


e. 

writing


The correct answer is e.

a. 

interaction


b. 

listening


c. 

reading


d. 

speaking


e. 

writing


The correct answer is a.

a. 

interaction


b. 

listening


c. 

reading


d. 

speaking


e. 

writing


The correct answer is c.

a. 

interaction


b. 

listening


c. 

reading


d. 

speaking


e. 

writing


The correct answer is d.

a. 

interaction


b. 

listening


c. 

reading


d. 

speaking


e. 

writing


The correct answer is a.

a. 

interaction


b. 

listening


c. 

reading


d. 

speaking


e. 

writing


The correct answer is a.

a. 

interaction


b. 

listening


c. 

reading


d. 

speaking


e. 

writing


The correct answer is d.