French in Action

A video instructional series in French for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 52 half-hour video programs, audiocassettes, coordinated books, and Web site

This series uses active participation to increase fluency in French, while introducing French culture. Pierre Capretz’s proven language-immersion method is presented within a humorous teleplay with native speakers of all ages and backgrounds. The storyline of an American student and a young Frenchwoman’s adventures in Paris and the French countryside is reinforced by Dr. Capretz’s on-camera instruction.


1 – Planning and Anticipating I
Greeting and leave-taking; talking about health; expressing surprise; planning and anticipating; expressing decisiveness and indecisiveness. Subject pronouns; masculine and feminine adjectives and nouns; definite and indefinite articles; immediate future; agreement in gender and number; aller; être; present indicative of -er verbs.


2 – Planning and Anticipating II
Greeting and leave-taking; talking about health; expressing surprise; planning and anticipating; expressing decisiveness and indecisiveness. Subject pronouns; masculine and feminine adjectives and nouns; definite and indefinite articles; immediate future; agreement in gender and number; aller; être; present indicative of -er verbs.


3 – Planning and Anticipating III
Greeting and leave-taking; talking about health; expressing surprise; planning and anticipating; expressing decisiveness and indecisiveness. Subject pronouns; masculine and feminine adjectives and nouns; definite and indefinite articles; immediate future; agreement in gender and number; aller; être; present indicative of -er verbs.


4 – Names and Origins
Numbers; expressing age; giving commands; necessity; negation. Numbers 1-29; avoir; avoir in expressions of age; ne … pas; imperatives of -er verbs; il faut and infinitives.


5 – Physical Characteristics I
Reality and appearance; describing oneself; talking about sports. Numbers 30-100; faire; aimer and faire with sports; questions with intonation, inversion, and est-ce que.


6 – Physical Characteristics II
Reality and appearance; describing oneself; talking about sports. Numbers 30-100; faire; aimer and faire with sports; questions with intonation, inversion, and est-ce que.


7 – Kinship
Talking about family relationships; asking the identity of people and things. Numbers 100-999,000,000; dates; partitive; possessive adjectives.