JAMB

JAMB French Syllabus

General Objectives

  • Assess written comprehension in French
  • Apply the principles governing the structure and use of written French
  • Identify how French sounds work in speech production
  • Examine the culture of Francophone West Africa and France in relation (where possible) to the home country

1. WRITTEN COMPREHENSION IN FRENCH

Topics of general and emergent interest

Content:

  • •love, life, death, politics, marriage, HIV/AIDS, communication, child trafficking, cultism, travel, corruption, money-laundering, etc.

Learning Objectives:

  • deduce answers to questions on the content, intent and style of proposed texts
  • apply reasoning skills

2. PRINCIPLES GOVERNING THE STRUCTURE AND USE OF WRITTEN FRENCH

Identification of basic form classes

Content:

  • •Nouns: simple/compound, Singular/plural, masculine/feminine
  • •Pronouns: personal, impersonal, demonstrative, possessive and relative
  • •Verbs: reflexive and non-reflexive, their moods and tenses
  • •Adjectives: qualifying, possessive, interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite, numeral, and ordinal
  • •Adverbs: common forms (with-ment, with préposition + noun), special forms, types (manner, purpose, cause and consequence, concession, place, time)
  • •Prépositions: simple (à, de, avec, avant, sur, dans), compound (à côté de, au milieu de)
  • •Conjunctions: of co-ordination (mais, ou, et, donc, car, cependant, ne…ni), of subordination (afin que, quoique, à condition que, pour que, parce que)
  • •Articles: definite, indefinite and partitive

Learning Objectives:

  • identify what constitutes the basic structures of written French
  • use the principles governing the structure of written French to determine acceptability
  • apply the structure to convey diverse messages
  • apply communicative skills

Assessment of vocabulary span

Content:

  • •words in contemporary contexts – meaning, use, opposites, Synonyms

Importance of word order

Content:

  • •affirmative sentences
  • •interrogative sentences
  • •imperative sentences
  • •passive voice formation

Identification and application of basic processes in language structure

Content:

  • •conjugation – in all tenses except l'Imparfait du subjonctif, le Passé composé du subjonctif, et le Plus-que-parfait du subjonctif
  • •négation (ne…pas, ne…plus, ne…rien, nul ne, ne…ni..ni, ne…personne, personne…ne, aucun…ne, rien ne…etc.)
  • •agreement (les beaux-arts, il les a vues les photos)
  • •pluralisation (cheval/chevaux, beau/beaux)
  • •derivation: from adj. to adv, from adj. to adj., from adj. to noun, from one degree of comparison to another

Use of French in set expressions

Content:

  • •proverbs (tel père, tel fils, petit à petit l'oiseau fait son nid)
  • •idioms (avoir une faim de loup, crier sur le toit, mourir de peur)
  • •conventional stretches (enchanté, c'est dommage, c'est formidable, stationnement interdit, etc.)
  • •speech acts (proposer, conseiller, regretter, admirer, espérer, interroger, reprocher, s'accorder, etc.)

3. WORKINGS OF FRENCH SOUNDS

Sound discrimination

Content:

  • •e.g. tout/tu, fais/fée

Learning Objectives:

  • discriminate between French sounds
  • deduce meanings out of sound combinations
  • use the above to enhance effective communication
  • assess sound groupings in terms of how they are affected by features such as syllabification, liaison, e-caduc; pause, intonation, etc.

Letter-sound correspondence

Content:

  • •e.g. ai-/e/, eau/o/

Syllabification

Content:

  • •e.g. con/tente/ment

Liaison

Content:

  • •e.g. trois animaux, des enfants

Sense groups in reading

Content:

  • •e.g. J'ai mal à la tête. J'ai mal/pas à la tête / mais au dos/. Comment vas-tu, Carol?// Comment vas-tu demain?

Faux amis

Content:

  • •e.g. librairie/library, rester/to rest, blesser/to bless

Identification of sounds to determine similarity

Content:

  • •e.g. maison/saison, dents/du, fond/fond

4. CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION

Characteristics of educational system, socio-economic life, political organization and cultural life

Content:

  • •aspects, similarities and differences of Francophone Africa and France, with reference to Nigeria

Learning Objectives:

  • identify the specific features of the culture of Francophone Africa and France (greetings, dressing, food, leisure, marriage, festival, art, profession, etc.)
  • compare these features with those of home country (where possible)
  • apply reasoning skills

Recommended Textbooks

  • Written Language: (textbook information appears to be incomplete in the source)

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