Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Teen Struggling with French

15 replies

AmICrazyorWhat2 · 15/01/2019 23:51

DD (13) is strong in most subjects, but for some reason, languages have always been a challenge. She's studying French and today we had our second e-mail this year from her teacher saying that she's struggling with everything, from the grammar to the vocab. This teacher uses an immersion approach and DD says she doesn't know what's going on half the time.

Does anyone have recommendations for apps or other resources that could help her? My French is basic, I can review verbs and general vocab with her, but would love some teaching tips as well.

Thanks!

OP posts:
Imalittleelf · 16/01/2019 02:37

This won't help with learning but I hated languages at school could never get my head round them, could say my name and do individual words but couldn't string a sentence.... cried in my verbal exam and walked out.

I really believe some people are just not wired to learn another language.

northernstarsoutherncross · 16/01/2019 02:47

French teacher here. How about duolingo? There's also a podcast called podcast français facile. Good luck to her!

mando12345 · 16/01/2019 09:17

I was good at French at school and as an adult at classes. However when I tried Spanish using the immersion method, I found it so much harder, I really didn't like it.
When I redid French as an adult we used the French experience books, I found them so much better than the Spanish reference books which were all in Spanish!!
So I totally sympathise with your daughter, i would suggest having a look at the French experience books.

Pythonesque · 16/01/2019 11:06

I don't think an immersion approach suits everyone, especially starting older than lower primary. My son had French at school from reception but found it very frustrating until they started doing more formal written work around year 6 IIRC. He's not a particularly aural learner, and would have engaged more with written work earlier had I appreciated the issues!

I hope you can find some resources that suit her way of learning and help.

ohreallyohreallyoh · 16/01/2019 11:53

Duolingo is a great start and although sometimes tedious, will give a solid grounding in a not particularly aware you're getting a solid grounding kind of way! She can play with friends which can be motivating - it's free so get her started on that.

For vocab look at quizlet and memrise. They both work in the same way - you will find lots of teachers have inputted tons of vocab for GCSE and A Level. Just a matter of personal preference which one she prefers.

School may have a subscription to linguascope so use that if that's the case. The 'beginner' is just words (but words she will need at GCSE) and then the intermediate is a bit more complex and more geared towards GCSE (although last time I looked, hadn't been updated to the new specifications). All good stuff, if repetitive and predicatable.

languagesonline has a free part and a subscription part. Just use the free part - will help consolidate words if nothing else.

There is fun stuff such as lyricstraining.com which helps tune in to the language for listening purposes - don't necessarily need to understand, just find a song she likes that's on there and listen and listen.

If she is interested in reading, look at the French Cosmopolitan or Marie Clare or similar. She can help herself read this more easily by running the individual webpages through lingro.com - what this does is make all the words clickable so when you click, you get a translation. It takes some of the frustration out of trying to read stuff which is harder than your ability.

If you go to amazon.fr and look for Kindle books, she can probably find free children's books which are worth a read - pictures make it a bit easier to understand. Focus on what she does know, not what she doesn't (which is half the problem - they freeze with lots of content and go into 'can't do it' mode rather than try and piece together a story using what they do know and some logic).

If you have a netflix account, there is plenty of French content on there. Just use the search facility. Just be aware that a lot of it is 15 plus. Some films originally in English (not all, unfortunately) can change the language to French and add English subtitles so she can watch her favourite films again and again and again....after a while, maybe change the subtitles to French which gives a feel of immersion but if you know the film, you start to recognise words and phrases. Ditto Amazon Prime.

More often than not, it's a mindset of 'can't do it'. The chances are other students in the class don't have a clue either. I would tell her to approach the teacher for help because if teacher is sending emails home, she is concerned and should be open to discussion.

Acopyofacopy · 16/01/2019 20:11

I sometimes use Peppa Pig (Google YouTube peppa Pig en français) as a treat and kids love it because it is so
easily understandable.

Some students find it easy to learn bigger chunks rather than single words off by heart, so “J’aime lire” rather than “je” + “aimer” + “lire”. You might be able to find suitable Knowledge Organisers online, Michaela School have some on their website iirc.

AmICrazyorWhat2 · 16/01/2019 23:25

Thanks for all the great advice!

I've talked to DD about it and we're going to try some of these resources.

I agree, not everyone takes easily to languages and immersion definitely doesn't fit every learning style. We've got to figure our what works best for DD.

OP posts:
BlankTimes · 16/01/2019 23:50

The BBC have loads of free info
www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/

randomsabreuse · 17/01/2019 00:01

Duolinguo and Memrise are good for vocab and grammar learning and should fit with an immersive approach. For books think about books she knows already that are pretty simple and go on from there. Things like Harry Potter are helped by knowing the story and are really good translation.

DH liked asterix books/graphic novels for his GCSE revision... had them in both English and French...

Ancienchateau · 17/01/2019 08:53

Duolingo is good for vocab and grammar but it also helps with pronunciation which is key to French especially if the classes are completely in French (which is great imo).

Watch French films with subtitles in French.

Read the adverts in French magazines. You can find free subscriptions online.

AuLoinSontVontLesNuages · 17/01/2019 09:31

French teenager TV

This is the trailer from the first episode - this is one recommended by le monde des ados

French youtubers bloggers

-Beauty

www.youtube.com/channel/UCzivjQrmkTJZtgiNcjLuRdg

lilinailart.over-blog.com/2015/11/ma-routine-visage-avec-melvita.html

If you can list some of her interests I'd be more than happy to do a quick and better google of some french content.

Acopyofacopy · 17/01/2019 21:30

If you decide to read books, you could read them side by side (parallel reading).
I would stay away from Harry Potter though. All the magical vocabulary will not help with GCSE, something like Diary of a Wimpy Kid would be more useful.

christmaschristmaschristmas · 18/01/2019 18:23

Get her some grammar and vocal books and work through them with her.

If not I would suggest a tutor.

SoupOnMyTableNowSir · 18/01/2019 21:18

Ds1 is now in year 11 but started off doing Duolingo daily. Then swapped over to Memrise as recommended by the school.

Once he got into year 10 the whole class was set up on Memrise so there was competition between classmates.

I would ask school if this is something they do later on and start your child with the app. I like memrise. Ds1 uses it for German, Ds2 who is year 8 uses it for French.

It is literally 5 minutes a day at the start, they do it in the morning after breakfast as part of their morning routine. This has helped them massively with language.

Frenchfancy · 18/01/2019 21:23

Try a website called français facile. It has loads of worksheets for all different levels. Languages are hard.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread