One of the most challenging things for most people learning French is to actually speak it. This is especially important when you are in an Intensive French course and demands are constantly made on you. So, are there ways to make this easier?
Naturally! It is first useful to remember that much of your learning integration is done when you are alone. And fortunately, there are quite a few things you can do by yourself which will gradually develop your confidence and your abilities.
- Practice reading outloud. It improves your pronunciation and your confidence when you speak. This proves vital when you are trying to engage in a conversation with someone.
- Make a list of 20 topics you are personally interested in. Map them out a bit: decide what you will want to discuss. It’s OK to prepare yourself in English. Get the vocabulary you will need. Organize the main points you want to make. Start small. Your biography or your hobbies are great first topics. Your first talk might consist of 3 sentences. No problem. As you keep discussing each topic – remember they are about things you are truly interested in – your fluency will develop.
- Imagine an audience or someone you are speaking to.
- Imagine yourself in France 6 months or a year down the line, and what you would be like as a fluent French speaker.
- If you like, be an actor: pretend that you are interacting with someone. Be as dramatic as you like. No one will know.
- Speak slowly. Never, ever, ever rush. Keep your body relaxed and speak in small logical units: “in the morning………I get up………..and then…………I drink a cup of tea………..After that………I step outside………and I look at the sky. Pause and hesitate as long as you want between phrases. It is wonderful training and your speed will gradually increase. Do not sacrifice pronunciation for speed. Always sound as good as you can. This deliberate flow is the great key. You can be silent for a few seconds. No need to say uh, hm, or make puppy noises. Your imaginary audience won’t mind. As I always ask: would you rather speak bad French really fast, or good French slowly? I hope you chose the second option.
- Go around obstacles. If you do not know how to express something, set it aside. If you like make a quick written note of something you want to learn how to say.
- Set a timer for 3 minutes, and start speaking. Do not stop till the timer rings. Gradually increase the length of time to 30 or even 60 minutes.
These simple ideas will greatly improve your speaking skills in an Intensive French course. I have used them successfully with French as a baby (my native language), with Latin, English, Spanish and German as a teenager, and with Punjabi, Hindi, Italian and Mandarin Chinese as an adult. Let me know what has worked for you, or what challenges you have encountered.
Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments at info@focuslanguage.com, or call me at (602) 569-7526. To get more information about the Intensive French programs you can also go to my website: www.FocusLanguage.com.
copyright 2009 Jean-Paul Setlak
French and English have much in common, especially on the level of vocabulary. They are more distant when it comes to pronunciation. English is fundamentally a Germanic language, and its sound system reflects it. French comes almost completely from Latin, though, on the level of pronunciation, it was also influenced by the Germanic tribes which invaded Gaul (France) in the early Middle Ages. (Remember that the Franks who gave France its name came from Germany.) The famous French "R", "EU and "U" are really Germanic sounds.
So how can you maximally improve your pronunciation in French? The following ideas are meant for beginners, but they can really be applied at any level.
- Immerse yourself in the sound and sounds of the language. Listen to French
One of the most crucial and yet elusive tasks at hand when you are learning a Foreign Language is to develop your comprehension in a systematic way. Just exposing yourself to the language will not do it, or we would all learn French simply by walking around the streets of Paris. Yet, you originally learned English without knowing any other language. What made it possible? Well, for one thing, you had nothing but time on your hands laying in your crib or screaming in your playpen. You also had a good staff (Mom and Dad) taking care of your basic needs and wants, allowing you to focus on understanding what was going on around you, and learning communicate with the locals. It still took
Once you are past the tasks of learning basic French sounds, as well as some basic vocabulary and grammar, two new tasks appear before you in a French Intensive course. The first is to speak, the second is to understand. They are both challenging and call on completely different skills. Comprehension, our topic here, lies at the very core of acquiring a new language. What then, are the steps which can facilitate and accelerate your progress in understanding French natives? It is useful to recognize the various levels we go through as we move from absolute non-understanding to full knowledge and command of a language. First you hear a wall of unfamiliar and absolutely incomprehensible sounds. As your familiarity
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