French is spoken on all continents and by more than 220 million people in over 40 countries. An estimated one-third of English words are derived from French, and if you speak English then you may already know some 15,000 French words without having studied the language! This course uses an academic French curriculum with great multimedia resources, making the class ideal for a range of student needs, including students who just want to meet high school foreign language requirements for college, and also for students who may want to go further — even to AP French. The course uses the same Bien Dit curriculum as TPS French 1, but covers the material at a more relaxed pace and adds learning activities enhanced for middle school learners. Students learn vocabulary for greetings and descriptions of people, school and hobbies. They also learn the three main verb families and some irregular verbs in the past, present and near future tenses. Throughout the course, students learn about French-speaking countries and their culture. The class time is used for speaking activities, explanations, and cultural highlights, and there are several hours of work outside of class each week.