Suggestions for making French the best I can

[Kfamily]

We have a French program that we like and will use (L'Art de Lire from Nallenart). But, I worry that since I don't speak French I will not teach it as well as it should be taught. I would like to hire a tutor in the near future but that isn't really possible right now. From those of you who speak a language fluently, what suggestions do you have to make learning a language most effective? I have plans to watch some movies in French, listen to audios of children's stories, have French tea time and play conversation games.

Our French tea time we tried last year went well enough. It was very stilted and of course we quickly reached a point where we repeated ourselves. I typed/printed sheets for our French tea folder with basic tea vocabulary and some basic questions. I let each of my dds choose a topic and some basic vocabulary/sentences about this topic. I knew this would start out very awkward. I'm hoping this will improve.

 

Any suggestions to help me improve our use of French? If I can get my older dd through all 6 levels this is supposed to be the equivalent of one year of high school French. I would love to have her ready for French 2 by 9th grade (next year). Any advice?

 

Thankfully, my younger dd has shown an interest in learning German (as well as French)...this I have some practice with! (My mother was born in Germany and I took German in high school but I am not fluent here either.)

Edited September 1, 2010 by Kfamily

[Luckymama]

:bigear:

[Guest Wendy Lawrence]

Greetings,

First, I highly recommend checking to see if your city has a local Alliance Francaise (AF) chapter. AF offers numerous French cultural learning and speaking opportunities as well as a variety of conversational classes and formal classes for adults and children. Ours even offers a home-school discount. I minored in French as an undergrad and lived/studied in France for a summer. Years later I reconnected to my French background with AF in the K.C. Missouri area. Now, my daughter who is nine has taken classes and is currently getting tutored by a wonderful French teacher at AF in the St. Louis area. AF is truly the place to go to hear the French language and experience the French culture.

Second, I recently ordered the new French series by Memoria Press. I have been very impressed with the well-respected Latin series from Memoria Press. The materials from Memoria are extremely user friendly to parents who don’t have experience with the language. The Latin book, cd and teacher’s manual are incredible. I am expecting the same from its French series.

Good luck in your French journey!

[Kfamily]

Thanks Wendy, I will look into the AF chapter in our city. I didn't know about this resource so if one is available near us that would be very helpful.

 

We actually started our French lessons with First Start French (Memoria Press) and did the first 18 chapters of that book. Unfortunately, since I don't speak French myself we found that the book didn't work well enough for us. I felt strongly that we needed more practice than the workbook provided and I worried I was not very good at making my own practice sheets. Well, I did make my own, but wanted a program with more practice and variety. We found L'Art de Lire and both girls enjoyed it. I found with this program we liked the audio better.

 

Thank you again for the information about the AF chapter.

[Whereneverever]

Switch a lot of your media to French. Put movies on in French, preferably without subtitles at least some of the time. You need to get your ears used to the speed and cadence of French.

I'd also get books written in French- simple ones, or magazines. http://www.amazon.com/Lisons-comme-ca-Glencoe-McGraw-Hill/dp/0658017411 Amazon has some graded readers.

 

HTH!

[Kfamily]

Thanks!

 

I love the reader you linked. I put it into my Amazon cart already. I only have a couple of children's audio books and my older dd sees these as too young. This one will be great for her.

[sarawatsonim]

We are using Nallenart as well and my dd loves it. I took French all the way through high school but at that time I didn't care to learn so I didn't retain anything. We don't have any language opportunity classes here which is frustrating. The only option that way is to send her to French Immersion public school which is not going to happen. I'm in the same boat as you and will be listening in for recommendations if you don't mind :001_smile:.

[Kfamily]

I don't mind at all...listen away!:001_smile:

 

I think it is great you're starting this off at her age. I wish I had my act together better than I did and had provided this for my girls at an earlier age. My younger dd did get started with a little by age 6.

[Ester Maria]

I will also have an 8th grader starting French this year. :)

 

She has to go through Taxi! 1-2 (those extremely thin red and green textbooks and workbooks), which is IMO quite a disastrous course by many of its aspects though it moves quickly, but that's what she, formally, has to start with. By the end of the second book it should be an A2 equivalent.

 

Get solid bilingual dictionaries (one for each direction) and a good monolingual one (Le Robert, for example) that she can use as a help. Le Robert also has a new edition of Le Robert Junior, which is aimed as dictionary and reference for French elementaries, and which older kids that are beginning to learn French may profit from as an additional tool. We also have Hachette's grammar and you can also get something like these exercises by levels.

 

Next, there are a LOT of online documentaries and stuff like that that she can supplement her learning of other subjects with - in French. On youtube you even have recitations of French poetry, something like

, and I intend to have my daughter help herself this way with French literature before we can tackle big works (my daughter is a false beginner though, spent a lot of time around francophones and in francophone countries, so she already surfs the web in French, listens to some French music and such recitations of her so-adored Baudelaire; see, for your daughter it might be something else - my daughter's taste in poetry is currently quite morbid - but this Baudelaire REALLY got my daughter going, she found a really big motivation in desire to read him in original, learn some of the poems by heart, etc.). Even if she doesn't understand, it's good just to hear the language, especially if she sees it written as she hears it.

 

Whoever mentioned AF, that's a REALLY good idea. We're members of a few foreign institutes and it really is an amazing place to meet other people who speak the language, get books, etc. Graded/simple readers are also good for starters, and they're likely to have them.

Edited September 1, 2010 by Ester Maria

[Luckymama]

Bummer, the AF chapter nearby doesn't offer classes, just cultural and social activities.

[Ester Maria]

Bummer, the AF chapter nearby doesn't offer classes, just cultural and social activities.

They probably have a library, right? Use that.

[Kfamily]

Thank you, Ester Maria.

 

I found this book: Introduction to French Poetry A Dual Language Book

 

Here it is at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-French-Poetry-Dual-Language-English/dp/0486267113/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283354899&sr=1-1

 

I would like to let my dd use this book too. I would love to find a french audio to it or something like this that comes with audio, but I have not found it yet. If we use it without audio, I'm afraid we'll ruin the sound of it.

 

What do you think of doing things like keeping a copybook (I would let her use the above book to copy the poems in French as well as excerpts of literature.) Do you think this would be helpful?

 

What about doing dictation in French?

 

We have a dictionary but not the one you recommended so I'll look into adding that one. I love the idea of supplementing other subjects. Is a monolingual dictionary one that is French only? Also, I know of a really great used book store with some books in French. Would purchasing any of these be a good idea?

 

I thought to myself if Ester Maria replies she might tell me to work on my own French first. :D (And then I realized that was a good idea too!)

Edited September 1, 2010 by Kfamily

[Ester Maria]

What do you think of doing things like keeping a copybook (I would let her use the above book to copy the poems in French as well as excerpts of literature.) Do you think this would be helpful?

Absolutely!

French orthography can be quite tricky, and the best way to get used to it is by reading a lot and copying poems, passages and so on. It's definitely a good idea.

What about doing dictation in French?

We do dictation in all languages, the only difference being that those in Hebrew - and from this year, obviously, French too - are on a lower literacy level.

 

However, beware of one thing - French phonetics. If you can't speak French with relatively good accent and intonation, dictations are very difficult (they're difficult enough even if you can :D). In that case, I recommend using tapes and have your daughter play/stop them as needed and do dictation that way, rather than with you reading the text. Any audio from a French textbook or curriculum that studies approximately the same things as your daughter will be good. It will also sharpen her listening and comprehension skills significantly.

I love the idea of supplementing other subjects. Is a monolingual dictionary one that is French only? Also, I know of a really great used book store with some books in French. Would purchasing any of these be a good idea?

Yes, a monolingual dictionary is something like your home Oxford - English with explanations in English, rather than translations to Italian. They also often have special pages of illustrations of various things, aparature and so on. The reason why it's good to use them is to get used to the language more, since that way you often learn additional words as you learn a new word, or learn what are potential synonyms and antonyms, how to phrase an explanation of a concept in French, which verbs go with certain nouns, what are expressions linked to those verbs, etc. Don't let it overwhelm you and feel like you need to learn all that's written in an entry - but it's good for the exposure. And then later ditch completely bilingual dictionaries (other than for translation exercises, if you do those) and learn to think in a language through that language only.

 

Purchasing books in French is always a good idea. She may not be able to read them yet, but they'll be handy later, and she can try to read passages or use them for grammatical exercises (I do that: open a random book and ask kids to analyze sentences to the best of their ability).

[Kfamily]

Thank you so much!

I will remember to use audio as much as possible. One aspect about L'Art de Lire is that it does include some basic phonics work. This helps me too!

 

 

 

Everyone has been so encouraging and helpful!:001_smile:

[Hedgehog]

We bought L'art de lire (Nallenart) as well to use this year. I really like the fact that it teaches some basic grammar.

 

Purchasing books in French is always a good idea.

 

:iagree: You should be able to get some from Amazon, or maybe a homeschool resource website. We have 4 "Max et Maxine" story books which come with an Audio CD and a song. I also have - from a long time ago - some translations of the Beatrix Potter stories which are more complex in their language than Max et Maxine.

 

I'm a bit lucky in that my mom is bilingual French-English so she helps me get good resources. We picked up a great song book again with a CD and the kids listen that as much as they do their story CDs. We've had it quite a while and I often hear them singing along. I'm not sure they understand everything they're saying but it'll come!!

[sarawatsonim]

I also agree with the French story books suggestion. We found a lot of them at a used book store and have been reading them daily. We usually will read the same one over and over many times. I like these ones as well, because we can read a page in english and then immediately in French as well it has a pronunciation guide at the back.