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This study seeks to determine whether grammatical and presentational features of authentic non-fiction French texts are in any way related to the level of difficulty of texts as perceived by students who have taken Advanced Subsidiary Level (AS). The notions of text and genre are examined, as are the processes of reading in the first language (L1) and in the foreign language (L2). The question of ‘readability, and that of ‘authenticity’ in L2 are also examined. In order to ascertain students’ reactions to different text-types, 150 texts from French sources were gathered and classified. 100-word samples of each text were analysed for various linguistic features. Statistical tests on these were carried out, as well as statistical tests on the visual elements and layout of the whole texts. Further linguistic analysis was carried out within the text-type groups in order to ascertain their grammatical features. 31 students from local tertiary institutions were interviewed, and their perceptions on a sample of the texts were sought. This included the grading of texts for difficulty on a 1-5 Likert scale. The results of the interviews were triangulated with the statistical and linguistic analyses. A relationship was found between text-type and level of perceived difficulty. In the light of these results, the distinction between genre and text-type was examined, and a way was found of linking these into a textual taxonomy, which has close relations with the grammatical and presentational features which characterise the various text-types. In the light of these results, the question of the ‘topic approach’ to the teaching of French is examined, and a way found by which text-types that are perceived to be simpler are studied before those which are perceived to be more difficult. This approach advocates a more logical continuum of grammatical presentation than has hitherto been witnessed in course books for French at this level, while retaining the semantic integrity inherent in the ‘topic approach’.

Whereas in Czech there are three verb moods, in French a fourth one is to be found, being defined as the "subjunctive mood". The subjunctive does not exist in Czech which often makes it hard to handle by students as well as teachers. The main aim of the thesis is to map the ways of presenting the French subjunctive verb mood in selected grammar handbooks intended for students and teachers of French and outline the different approaches to describing its parameters. Subsequently, the second objective here is to analyse the methods of presenting the subjunctive in selected textbooks and workbooks used when teaching French at Czech schools. The thesis is divided in three parts. In the initial one, the different approach to presenting the subjunctive in the referential grammar book of P. Charaudeaua - Grammaire du sens et de l'expression is analysed together with the ones applied in the FLE grammar books by G. D. de Salins - Grammaire pour l'enseignement/apprentissage de FLE, M. Callamand - Grammatique vivante du français and in the slightly different grammar book by A. Monnerie-Goarin - Le français au présent. To be able to meet the target of the analysis and find out how a verb mood of a typologically different language is presented to an exclusively Czech audience, the Czech-written grammar book of...