Studio France - Speaking French

Studio France is delighted to welcome back Marie-Thérèse Jacquier for the second year of workshops. Even after just one workshop with Studio France, Marie-Thérèse had more students than she could teach. So this is a workshop where you need to book early to ensure your place.

Marie-Thérèse Jacquier is a professional teacher, and hosts a workshop of 5 full days. She teaches French in a way that will inspire you for the whole year. As with all our tutors at Studio France, we place more importance than anything on the quality of teaching and Marie-Thérèse is not an exception. She will guide you through the week ensuring that each lesson is valuable and enjoyable. The maximum number of students within the whole group is 6.

 

Workshop Description

 

Arriving into Toulouse, you will be met at the airport and driven the 1hr 15mins to the hamlet of Labathe-Bleys. Rather than make you jump right in to a full speaking French environment, we take the first evening meal and following day to explore the beautiful area, visiting a local market, discovering Cordes-sur-Ciel and getting to know the other members in your group. Marie-Thérèse will be there to encourage you to talk in French, but we do not want you to lose sight that you are on holiday and this week is an opportunity to enjoy being in France.

On Monday, and for the next five days, you start your day with a delicious breakfast of warm croissants, hot coffee/tea, seasonal fruits and homemade jams in Pippa & Julia's kitchen. 

Then you take the very short walk across the village green to the class room. Marie-Thérèse will divide the group in half (depending on skill level), so during the week you will work both within the whole group as one, but also find yourself in an advantageous situation of only having 2 or 3 fellow students in your own group to have some really intensive teaching.

 

This ensures you receive a combination of teaching, during the periods when working in a tiny group you will specific help with conversation, comprehension and being able to converse in a range of areas.

When working on your own, you will have been set a task to complete. This could include watching a video and practising your comprehension, working on some grammar; approximately for 1 hour. This gives Marie-Thérèse the opportunity to ensure you are understanding what is being taught.

Experience has taught us that it is critical that every student is given the opportunity to work at their own skill level, find out exactly which areas of French they want to improve and improve them in a way which enables them to retain what they are being taught.

 
The aim is for every student to have a good amount of tuition as well as some time to work on their own.

At the lunchtime break, taken from 12:30 to 2:00, there is a delicious lunch, giving you an opportunity to continue speaking French if you wish, but in a more informal manner. However, we also find this is a great opportunity to give your head a rest and just enjoy being outside in the sun. This week is something which will benefit you, not just bombard you. It is better to learn something well, be able to use it and feel confident, rather than feeling swamped. Marie-Thérèse joins the lunch for those who really want to stay in French, have the opportunity to continue practicing their conversation can do so, but this is optional.

Having spent all day from 9:30 - 5:30 being totally immersed in the French language (unless of course we give ourselves a break over lunch and perhaps coffee!), there is an additional opportunity to continue talking French over dinner. As with all our workshops, there will be another group of people following a different activity during the day and so over dinner French is sometimes spoken, but not always and this is lovely as it allows you to just to sit back and chat with your fellow guests in English. Meaning you work hard but also relax, enjoy the wine and delicious food which Studio France prides itself on.

On the Friday evening Pippa and Julia treat you to a dinner to remember and your own sense of achievement and enjoyment will be celebrated.
 
 

 
 
Last up dated Septembert 2007