About French I: This course begins to develop the skills of understanding, speaking, reading, and writing in French. Students will learn to pronounce and use the basic sounds and intonation patterns of the language. They will master a limited set of structural and lexical objectives to be used in common daily conversational situations. They will also gain basic knowledge of contemporary French culture as they participate in language activities to develop communicative competence. Reading will be limited to primarily short passages of material covered orally and texts on culture for direct reading in French.