Introduction
Oxford Take Off In French is designed to help the beginner develop the basic language skills necessary to communicate in French in most everyday situations. It is intended for learners working by themselves, providing all the information and support necessary for successful language learning.
How to use the course The book and the recording are closely integrated, as the emphasis is on speaking and listening. The recording contains step-by-step instructions on how to work through the units. The presenter will tell you when to use the recording on its own, when to use the book, and when and how to use the two together. The book provides support in the form of transcriptions of the recording material, translations of new vocabulary, and grammar explanations. You'll find this icon
in the book when you need to listen to the recording

1 (recording/book) Read the unit objectives on the first page telling you what you will learn in the unit, and then begin by listening to the dialogue on the recording. You may not

understand everything the first time you hear it, but try to resist the temptation to look at the transcript in the book. The first activity on the recording will help you develop your listening

skills by suggesting things to

concentrate on and listen out for. You'll be given the opportunity to repeat some of the key sentences and phrases from the dialogue before you hear it a second time. You may need to refer to the vocabulary list (book) before completing the second activity (book). Listen to the dialogue as many times as you like, but as far as possible try not to refer to the dialogue transcript (book).

2 (book) Once you have listened to all the new language, take some time to work through the transcript, Vocabulary, Language Building, and activities in the book to help you understand how it works.

3 (recording) Then it's time to practise speaking: first Pronunciation practice and then the Your turn activity. You will be given all the instructions and cues you need by the presenter on the recording. The first few times you do this you may need to refer back to the vocabulary and language building sections in the book, but aim to do it without the book after that.

4

(book) The fourth learning section, Dossier, concentrates on reading practice. Try reading it first without referring to the vocabulary list to see how much you can already understand,

making guesses about any words or phrases you are not sure of. The activities which accompany the text will help you develop reading comprehension skills.

5 (recording/book) For the final learning section, return to the recording to listen to the Story. This section gives you the opportunity to have some fun with the language and hear the characters in the story use the

language you have just learnt in

different situations. The aim is to give you the confidence to cope with authentic French. There are activities in the book to help you.

6 (book) Return to the book, and work through the activities in the Test section to see how well you can remember and use the language you have covered in the unit. This is best done as a written exercise. Add up the final score and, if it is not as high as you had hoped, try going back and reviewing some

of the sections.

7 (recording/book) As a final review, turn to the Summary on the last page of the unit. This will test your understanding of the new situations, vocabulary, and grammar introduced in the unit. Use the book to prepare your answers, either by writing them down or speaking aloud, then return to the recording to test yourself. You will be given prompts in English on the recording, so you can do this

test without the book.

8 (book) At the very end of each unit you will find some suggestions for revision and ideas for further practice.

Each unit builds on the work of the preceding units, so it's very important to learn the vocabulary and structures from each unit before you move on. There are review sections after units 3, 7, 10, and 14 for you to test yourself on the material learnt so far.

Other support features

If you want a more detailed grammar explanation than those given in the Language Building sections, you will find a Grammar Summary at the end of the book. For a definition of the grammar terms used in the course, see the Glossary of Grammatical Terms on page 245.
The Answers section will give you the answers to all the book activities. Some activities require you to give information about yourself, so you may also need to check some vocabulary in a dictionary.
At the end of the book you'll find a comprehensive French-English Vocabulary.

The French Language
The aim of this course is to
people (tu being the informal and vous the formal 'you' form), which
introduce French as it is spoken in affects pronouns, possessives, and
France and French-speaking countries. Even if you are a complete beginner, you are probably already familiar with a good range of French words such as bonjour, au revoir, baguette, croissant and expressions such as c'est la vie, carte blanche, déjà vu,
or je ne sais quoi. Moreover, as French and English share a common source in Latin, many words are similar in both languages.
Despite the efforts of the Académie Française, an association of scholars and writers founded by Richelieu in the seventeenth century with the aim of preserving the purity of the French language, French has borrowed many English words over the years. Le sandwich. le tee-shirt, le week-end, and,
more recently, le web and on-line are but a few examples. Beware! The meanings of some of these words have evolved in mysterious ways. Un parking is a car park and un smoking is a tuxedo... As French (like Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian) belongs to the Romance group of European languages that are derived from Latin, nouns are either masculine or feminine, and articles and adjectives have to agree with the nouns they accompany. French has a greater range of tenses and more variation in verbs parts than English. French
i also has two ways of addressing
verb forms.
Like English, French is not a phonetic language: a single sound can be represented by a variety of different spellings and a single letter can correspond to a variety of different pronunciations. Learning to communicate in another language may be challenging, but it is also a very rewarding and enriching experience. Most French speakers you will come across will be impressed by your attempts and very encouraging. We have made this course as varied and entertaining as possible, and we hope you enjoy it.
Pronunciation
To achieve good pronunciation, there is no substitute for listening carefully to the recording and, if possible, to French native speakers, and trying to reproduce the sounds. you hear. Here are a few guidelines for you to keep in mind when doing so. You will find this section most useful if you listen to the Pronunciation section on the recording as you read it.