French in Action

French in Action
	Mireille Belleau and Robert Taylor at La Closerie des Lilas
Genre	Educational television series; Romantic Comedy
Created by	Pierre Capretz
Starring	Valérie Allain; Charles Mayer; Virginie Contesse; Pierre Capretz
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	French
No. of episodes	52 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	WGBH, Yale University, and Wellesley College
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	30 minutes per episode
Release
Original network	WGBH, PBS
Picture format	Color
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	1987 – Still running
External links
	Website

French in Action is a French language course, developed by Professor Pierre Capretz of Yale University. The course includes workbooks, textbooks, and a 52-episode television series.

The television series — the best-known aspect of the course — was produced in 1987 by WGBH, Yale University, and Wellesley College, and funded by Annenberg/CPB, and since then, has been aired frequently on PBS in the United States, developing a cult following^[1] for its romantic comedy segments interspersed among grammar and vocabulary lessons.

In 2010, Yale University hosted a 25th anniversary reunion in celebration of the programme's success.^[2]^[3]

Origins

During the Second World War, Yale's Professor Emeritus of Romance Languages, Jean Boorsch, had produced for the American ASTP (Army Specialized Training Program) and the Navy V-12s (V-12 Navy College Training Program) an approach to oral French component, using an immersion technique that he published in 1944 as the "Méthode Orale de Français",^[4] remarkable for its precision. It had two main characters Mireille and Robert. Between 1960 and 1961, Prof. Boorsch and Prof. Capretz worked on an oral method, which was never published, in which they had kept the names of these two characters.^[5]

Prof. Capretz maintained these names in tribute to the "Method Boorsch" in each of the versions of his own "methods" before reaching the current FIA. He had the opportunity to progressively develop the characters themselves during this evolution.

Cast

Pierre J. Capretz - Narrator
Valérie Allain - Mireille
Charles Mayer - Robert
Virginie Contesse - Marie-Laure
Julie Arnold - Cécile
Patrice Bachelot - Jean-Luc
Franck de la Personne - Hubert
Jean-Claude Cotillard^[6] - Mime/Homme en Noir

Format

Each episode is half an hour long. Early episodes have four main elements:

a classroom session, featuring Prof. Capretz explaining the basic ideas of the episode to a group of international students.
an excerpt from an ongoing story, filmed especially for the series, and framed as a narrative that Prof. Capretz and his students are inventing in order to practice their French. The story focuses on American student Robert Taylor (Charles Mayer) and his French love interest Mireille Belleau (Valérie Allain).
clips from French films and television shows illustrating the new vocabulary words of the lesson.
a brief Guignol-style puppet show recapping some element of the episode's story. (Filmed at the Théâtre Vrai Guignolet at Champs-Élysées)^[7]

In later episodes, the classroom section is omitted, and the episode begins with the excerpt from the ongoing story.

The series uses context and repetition, rather than translation, to teach the meanings of words. With the exception of a brief English language introduction at the beginning of each episode, the series is conducted entirely in French.

Episode List

This information is sourced from the Lerner.org website for French in Action^[8]. Where the episodes are free to view in North America.

Orientation

An introduction to French in Action: its creation, its components, and its functioning. How to work with the video programs and how to integrate them with the audio and print components. This is the only program in English; the others are entirely in French.

Planning and Anticipating I

Greeting and leave-taking; talking about health; expressing surprise; planning and anticipating; expressing decisiveness and indecisiveness. Subject pronouns; masculine and feminine adjectives and nouns; definite and indefinite articles; immediate future; agreement in gender and number; aller; être; present indicative of -er verbs.

Planning and Anticipating II

Greeting and leave-taking; talking about health; expressing surprise; planning and anticipating; expressing decisiveness and indecisiveness. Subject pronouns; masculine and feminine adjectives and nouns; definite and indefinite articles; immediate future; agreement in gender and number; aller; être; present indicative of -er verbs.

Planning and Anticipating III

Greeting and leave-taking; talking about health; expressing surprise; planning and anticipating; expressing decisiveness and indecisiveness. Subject pronouns; masculine and feminine adjectives and nouns; definite and indefinite articles; immediate future; agreement in gender and number; aller; être; present indicative of -er verbs.

Names and Origins

Numbers; expressing age; giving commands; necessity; negation. Numbers 1-29; avoir; avoir in expressions of age; ne ... pas; imperatives of -er verbs; il faut and infinitives.

Physical Characteristics I

Reality and appearance; describing oneself; talking about sports. Numbers 30-100; faire; aimer and faire with sports; questions with intonation, inversion, and est-ce que.

Physical Characteristics II

Reality and appearance; describing oneself; talking about sports. Numbers 30-100; faire; aimer and faire with sports; questions with intonation, inversion, and est-ce que.

Kinship

Talking about family relationships; asking the identity of people and things. Numbers 100-999,000,000; dates; partitive; possessive adjectives.

Describing Others I

Describing others; talking about games; expressing agreement and disagreement; talking about time; talking about the weather. Present tense with il y a ... que and ça fait ... que; possessive and demonstrative adjectives; stressed pronouns; venir; savoir versus conna;ître.

Describing Others II

Describing others; talking about games; expressing agreement and disagreement; talking about time; talking about the weather. Present tense with il y a ... que and ça fait ... que; possessive and demonstrative adjectives; stressed pronouns; venir; savoir versus connaêtre.

Encounters I

Starting a conversation; talking about seasons and time of day; exclamations; talking about studies; referring to lack and abundance; expressing approval and disapproval; reacting to compliments; expressing politeness. Immediate past with venir de; direct object pronouns; reflexive verbs; imperative and pronouns; demonstrative adjectives and pronouns; interrogative adjectives and pronouns; parler versus dire; imperfect; imperfect of être and avoir.

Encounters II

Starting a conversation; talking about seasons and time of day; exclamations; talking about studies; referring to lack and abundance; expressing approval and disapproval; reacting to compliments; expressing politeness. Immediate past with venir de; direct object pronouns; reflexive verbs; imperative and pronouns; demonstrative adjectives and pronouns; interrogative adjectives and pronouns; parler versus dire; imperfect; imperfect of être and avoir.

Encounters III

Starting a conversation; talking about seasons and time of day; exclamations; talking about studies; referring to lack and abundance; expressing approval and disapproval; reacting to compliments; expressing politeness. Immediate past with venir de; direct object pronouns; reflexive verbs; imperative and pronouns; demonstrative adjectives and pronouns; interrogative adjectives and pronouns; parler versus dire; imperfect; imperfect of être and avoir.

Encounters IV

Starting a conversation; talking about seasons and time of day; exclamations; talking about studies; referring to lack and abundance; expressing approval and disapproval; reacting to compliments; expressing politeness. Immediate past with venir de; direct object pronouns; reflexive verbs; imperative and pronouns; demonstrative adjectives and pronouns; interrogative adjectives and pronouns; parler versus dire; imperfect; imperfect of être and avoir.

Occupations I

Talking about work; degrees of assent; days and months of the year; buying and spending; approximating; talking about years and centuries. Aller versus venir; prepositions; contractions of definite article with de and à; adverbial pronouns y and en; vouloir, pouvoir; c'est versus il/elle est; ne ... plus, ne ... jamais; pronoun on; indirect object pronouns; formation of adverbs.

Occupations II

Talking about work; degrees of assent; days and months of the year; buying and spending; approximating; talking about years and centuries. Aller versus venir; prepositions; contractions of definite article with de and à; adverbial pronouns y and en; vouloir, pouvoir; c'est versus il/elle est; ne ... plus, ne ... jamais; pronoun on; indirect object pronouns; formation of adverbs.

Occupations III

Talking about work; degrees of assent; days and months of the year; buying and spending; approximating; talking about years and centuries. Aller versus venir; prepositions; contractions of definite article with de and à; adverbial pronouns y and en; vouloir, pouvoir; c'est versus il/elle est; ne ... plus, ne ... jamais; pronoun on; indirect object pronouns; formation of adverbs.

Occupations IV

Talking about work; degrees of assent; days and months of the year; buying and spending; approximating; talking about years and centuries. Aller versus venir; prepositions; contractions of definite article with de and à; adverbial pronouns y and en; vouloir, pouvoir; c'est versus il/elle est; ne ... plus, ne ... jamais; pronoun on; indirect object pronouns; formation of adverbs.

Education I

Identification and description; talking about occupations; talking back; excusing oneself; expressing incredulity. Passé composé; plaire; negation with jamais, rien, personne; mettre, boire; passé composé and direct object pronouns; savoir and infinitives; agreement of past participle with avoir.

Education II

Identification and description; talking about occupations; talking back; excusing oneself; expressing incredulity. Passé composé; plaire; negation with jamais, rien, personne; mettre, boire; passé composé and direct object pronouns; savoir and infinitives; agreement of past participle with avoir.

Education III

Identification and description; talking about occupations; talking back; excusing oneself; expressing incredulity. Passé composé; plaire; negation with jamais, rien, personne; mettre, boire; passé composé and direct object pronouns; savoir and infinitives; agreement of past participle with avoir.

Getting Around I

Using the telephone; receiving invitations; expressing optimism and pessimism. Passé composé of reflexive verbs; passé composé with être; agreement of past participles; future.

Getting Around II

Using the telephone; receiving invitations; expressing optimism and pessimism. Passé composé of reflexive verbs; passé composé with être; agreement of past participles; future.

Food and Drink I

Talking about food and drink; ordering in a restaurant; thanking hosts. Future of irregular verbs; relative pronouns qui and que; imperative with direct and indirect object pronouns; position of en with object pronouns; ne ... que; expressions of quantity; vowel change e/è.

Food and Drink II

Talking about food and drink; ordering in a restaurant; thanking hosts. Future of irregular verbs; relative pronouns qui and que; imperative with direct and indirect object pronouns; position of en with object pronouns; ne ... que; expressions of quantity; vowel change e/è.

Food and Drink III

Talking about food and drink; ordering in a restaurant; thanking hosts. Future of irregular verbs; relative pronouns qui and que; imperative with direct and indirect object pronouns; position of en with object pronouns; ne ... que; expressions of quantity; vowel change e/è.

Transportation and Travel I