We normally meet every Tuesday but we do have holidays which often coincide with school holidays (so that grandchild minding can be fitted in). We have a considerable range of fluency and it seems to work out that all of us have an area in which we contribute, so the group thrives!

There is quite a lot of variation in format depending on where we meet and what we have been doing. We always start with catch up conversation in french, as a group or in twos and threes, usually a bit of both. We do some grammar and searching out words in the dictionary. We also do reading and translation, video and audio cassette listening and watching, with or without the printed text. We play word games. Its all lighthearted and we have such a laugh but at the same time we have all made progress and gained in confidence, learning not to be embarrassed when we make mistakes.

Our small, friendly, intermediate level group meets weekly in a member's home for about 90 minutes. Our aim is to be informal and the emphasis is always on conversation. We try to encourage one another to become more confident to speak French spontaneously, regardless of errors. The latter are 'ironed out' by a member who drops in for part of each session. He reminds us of forgotten grammar, or introduces us to new vocabulary and grammatical rules.

Our small group meets for 2 hours on Monday afternoons in members' homes. We are informal and the emphasis is on developing fluency and confidence in conversation. We don't have a french expert but every week we listen to recorded french being spoken for which we have a transcript. We read french texts - usually topical articles in magazines - and discuss any new vocabulary and phrases.

Everyday French IV comprises a group of people whose qualifications range from O-level with additional learning in non examination groups to post graduate French. The group size is small (maximum 8 – now full) because we meet in each others’ houses and we wish to give each person adequate time to speak. The lessons are given in turn by the group members.

A typical lesson may consist of a short talk given by each person in turn about interesting things that have happened during the previous week, followed by some work from a French textbook, and then some activity entirely at the discretion of the member running the lesson. The important point to emphasize is the flexibility of the lessons. Lessons typically last from 1½ to 2hrs although some members stayed for 3hrs.one week!

We are a friendly, informal group meeting fortnightly. Meetings run for two hours and we take turns in being in charge of the afternoon's session.

This means that there is no set pattern to the form that a meeting might take, which makes for a varied and stimulating approach.

We might, for example, play scrabble in French, participate in a 20 questions quiz, brush up on our grammar by looking at uncommon usages of otherwise commonly occurring verbs like avoir, or do some reading and translation.