Learn French in Your Own Time (French At The Open University)

Member Name: frangliz

Product:	French At The Open University
Date:	16/11/06 (1022 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Flexible Study

Disadvantages: A lot of self-discipline required

The range of Open University French courses goes from beginner to advanced and can lead to a formal qualification, such as a certificate or diploma. It is not possible to gain a Bachelor's Degree in French as the number of courses is insufficient, but you could combine French with Spanish, German, or a number of other courses in the field of arts/humanites. For a thirty-point course you will need to set aside about seven or eight hours a week for studying, and twice that for a sixty-point course. Most courses start in February, terminating with an examination the following October. The beginners' course commences in November and finishes in October the following year. You can study from the Republic of Ireland and continental Europe, but fees will be considerably higher than for the UK.

If you successfully complete Bon Départ, the beginners' course, followed by the Level 1 course Ouverture, you will receive the award of Certificate in French. Each of these is a thirty-point course. Final assessment has both a written and an oral component, the oral one being carried out at a compulsory group tutorial. If you continue with the Level 2 course Nouvel Envol followed by the Level 3 Nouvelles Mises au Point, you will be awarded the Diploma in French. These are both sixty-point courses, and Nouvel Envol includes a week-long residential school at the University of Caen in northern France. For these two courses, final assessment takes the form of both a writing and a speaking exam that at a regional centre to which you have to travel.

For each of the four courses mentioned above, you can choose between two versions. One offers face-to-face tuition in groups, which usually takes place on a Saturday and is considered by most to be fun. The other version offers online tuition, again in a group situation, and could suit people who do not wish to travel or are not free on Saturdays. For both versions, your tutor will mark the written or spoken assignments that you complete during the course and give you feedback on them. Tutors are generally very helpful. You will have access to discussion rooms on the website, where you can talk to other students. All the courses provide books, other printed materials, audio materials and video cassettes (except for Bon Départ, for which there are no videos). You will need to buy a grammar reference book and a good bilingual dictionary, plus the Larousse French dictionary and one other set book for the Nouvelles Mises au Point course.

Bon Départ will bring you to the approximate equivalent of GCSE level in the course of a year. No previous knowledge of French is required, although it is an excellent way of picking up your French again if you are out of practice. Emphasis is on listening and speaking more than reading and writing. The audio materials include authentic recordings from Avignon that allow you to hear French spoken at the usual pace by native speakers. Throughout the course you have t complete six tutor-marked assignments, or TMAs, some of which are written and some oral. The grades you receive for these count towards your final mark.

To embark on the Ouverture course you would need GCSE French or equivalent. There are four tutor-marked assignments, both spoken and written which again, count towards your final grade. The course aims to develop the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. You will also gain an insight into French culture and society. The course fees for both Bon Depart (starting November 2006) and Ouverture (starting February 2007) are £395.

With a fee of £935 for the February 2007 start, Nouvel Envol is a relatively expensive course; this is because of its residential school component. It is well organised and structured, but is quite a step up from Ouverture, so you do need to be committed. As it is a sixty-point course, there are nine tutor-marked assignments, some of which are written and others spoken. Anyone who feels that the monthly tutorials do not give sufficient practice for the speaking assignments might try to form a local group of students that meets weekly. On the other hand, the summer school proves to be an excellent way of improving your spoken French as well as being an enjoyable social occasion.

Nouvelles Mises au Point is the final Level 3 course that leads to the University's Diploma in French. Some criticism has been made of the fact that its so-called 'contemporary' elements have now become out-of-date, so you may be disappointed if you are hoping to study culture or science in modern France. The history elements of the course, on the other hand, are extremely worthwhile. Altogether there are nine tutor-marked assignments; some are written and some spoken. This course is another big step up in difficulty and workload; it would be a lot for someone working full time to take on. The fee for the course starting in February 2007 is £680.

If you just want to spend a week in France improving your existing speaking and writing skills, the Level 1 Action in French course could be the ideal way to do so. The course, which takes place once a year in May at the University of Caen, is not suitable for complete beginners. Although it is intensive, it can also be a lot of fun. There is an oral assessment to be recorded prior to attending the course. No information is currently available on the course fee for May 2007. (I will try to update this.)

My main criticism of the Open University is that their online tuition is not compatible with Apple Macs, and I had to opt for telephone tuition as an alternative. There was only one other student in the same situation in my region, so I did not get to experience group tutorials other than the one face-to-face session that was offered.I personally had an excellent course tutor who had dual French and British nationality. She organised one extra telephone tuition session when she thought that the university had left too long a gap between the scheduled ones. Her comments on my Tutor Marked Assignments were always detailed and constructive.

You do need to be well organised and highly motivated for this type of study. The advantages of course are that you can study at the time that suits you best. When you complete a course, you can take a break for a year if you want to. There is no compulsion to complete a particular qualification.

I can imagine that some people might prefer to have one-to-one private tuition where a tutor can focus on their particular requirements and work on their weaknesses. However, if you want to gain a qualification and progress from one level to the next within a well-organized framework, the Open University is a very worthwhile option.

Summary: A high-quality distance French course leading to a qualification.