There are many resources online that allow people to learn French with little to no price involved. French is a very popular language, with an estimated native speakership of 200 million people (http://www.utm.edu/staff/globeg/profren.shtml.)
Here are several French courses or places that link to French courses
http://www.frenchtutorial.com/standard/toc.php
http://globegate.utm.edu/french/globegate_mirror/frlesson.html
http://www.realfrench.net/index.php
The Foreign Service Institute is the United States’ diplomatic service training school. Their language materials are all in the public domain. Several French courses are available here:
http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=French
The Defense Language Institute is the United States Army’s principal language training organ. They produce courses for multiple languages that are in the Public Domain. The following is a link to the DLI Basic French course:
http://www.tlwh.com/johnson/HOME.HTM#french
Edit: 16/11/09 1:40PM – I just realized the link I provided for the DLI course excluded the textbooks. Here they are, provided by the Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC):
And a French proficiency test:
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~IK2R-MYR/acctopma.htm
