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Theme 2: Popular culture: Free time activities, Customs, festivals and celebrations, Celebrity culture (Foundation and higher).
infoWhy this? This unit motivates learners, broadens intercultural understanding and cultural awareness. Language progression: Each unit introduces high‑frequency, transferable structures that recur across topics: It also consolidates present tense, opinions, question forms, and introduces/revisits perfect tense and near future and foundation for narration in past and future.
scheduleWhy now? Question formation and inversion recur regularly to strengthen speaking exam readiness. This unit also provides more complex opinions and justifications once core present-tense fluency is secure. High‑value verbs (avoir, être, faire, aller, prendre) spiral across units, moving from recognition to accurate production in different tenses. Pronunciation (liaison; è/ê/ai; j/g/ch/gn; open/closed o; nasal vowels) are sequenced to support listening discrimination and confident reading aloud.
neurologyYou need to know
- they need to understand and use a range of time frames:
- the present tense
- the perfect tense with avoir
- the perfect tense with être
- the perfect tense of reflexive verbs
- the imperfect tense
- the near future
- the future tense
- the conditional
- they need to know key grammar, including:
- irregular past participles
- reflexive verbs and reflexive pronouns
- modal verbs in the perfect tense
- direct object pronouns
- emphatic pronouns
- possessive adjectives
- y and en
- relative clauses with que, qui, quand, où
- the imperative
- infinitives used as nouns
- prepositions with places such as à, au, aux, en
- definite and indefinite articles
- il y a and depuis
- they need to know key phonics patterns, including:
- u / ou
- oi / oy
- liaison
- e / eu
- é / er / ez
- -eur / -œur / r
- i / y / -ien
- j / g / ch / gn
- they need to know vocabulary and structures for talking about:
- last weekend and leisure activities
- TV, cinema and music
- holidays and travel
- sport and extreme sport
- birthdays, festivals and celebrations
- customs and traditions in the UK and the Francophone world
- music and film festivals
- celebrities, fame and social media
- French-speaking celebrities
- Francophone writers and their cultural influence
rocket_launchYou must be able to
- describe what they did last weekend, including when, where and with whom
- talk about TV, cinema and music preferences
- express positive and negative opinions about their own and other people's hobbies
- talk about relationships with family
- refer to events involving famous people in TV, film and music
- say where they went on holiday, what they did there, and give opinions about it
- give opinions about sport and extreme sports
- refer to major sporting events such as the Tour de France
- talk about birthdays, religious festivals and special occasions
- explain how they celebrate with family and friends
- describe local and national festivals in the UK
- talk about traditions and customs in French-speaking countries and communities
- refer to food and drink linked to celebrations
- talk about festivals in the past, present and future
- give opinions about music and film festivals, including famous festivals such as Cannes
- give opinions about celebrities
- talk about social media
- understand and give advice or tips about becoming famous
- explain what they would do to become famous
- discuss the advantages and disadvantages of fame
- talk about French-speaking celebrities, including personal information and achievements
- say which celebrity they would like to meet in the future and why
- understand and talk about Francophone writers, including where they were born, what they wrote, and their influence on culture and society
- apply this knowledge in listening, speaking, reading and writing
- use a range of vocabulary and grammar accurately across the theme