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Coucou la communauté des French learners !

Vous avez terminé l’Infant Stage et vous êtes prêts à commencer le Teen Stage, c’est merveilleux !

Je vais maintenant parler en anglais pour vous expliquer l’approche de la nouvelle série de vidéos spécialement conçue pour les apprenants intermédiaires ou les « adolescents » !

I am now going to speak in English to tell you more about the Teen Stage, as well as the langage acquisition process.

This series of videos is carefully crafted for intermediate learners. You can already understand a lot of French, especially the most frequents words and structures used in everyday langage. You are now at the stage where you can understand a lot but you can still not produce.

Why? Because you have listened and read a lot but it is still not enough. You have viewed 61 videos, and you have read and listen to 61 sessions to acquire the French foundation. You have had a lot of comprehensible, rich and abundant input and you now understand a lot of French. You also started to vocalize and repeat words and sentences in the Infant Stage.

Yet, you still need input. Remember that a child spends acquiring his/her mother tongue by the age of 6. It takes a child 6 years to become nearly fluent in his/her mother tongue ! And we know that langage acquisition is not complete at age 6. So you still need a LOT of hours of input. You need a LOT of input before being able to speak naturally and effortlessly.

We are talking about langage acquisition here, NOT language learning. The goal is to acquire French so that it stays in your brain forever.

In this series of videos, you are going to start producing whilst still receiving optimal input. That is to say input that is comprehensible, rich and abundant.

How is the Teen Stage going to work?

There are two sources of input: listening and reading. And there are two sources of output : speaking and writing. In this stage, you are going to listen, read and write.

Writing is a great way to start outputting or producing in French. Why ? Because it is an activity you do on your own, at your own pace. There is no pressure to respond to someone else. There is no stress. You write what you want, when you want. Writing helps you produce in a relaxed, stressfree atmosphere.

No worries! I have got your back! I am going to write with you. For the Teen Stage, you need a notebook and a pen. We are going to write a diary in French together, how exciting!

In each session, I will answer a question about myself like where I live, what I do during the day, things I love and things I hate… I will type my answer on a document and comment it as I go along. When I type the sentences, you can copy them in your most beautiful handwriting. This helps you develop automaticity over French prosody. Your hand is the extension of your brain so handwriting will help you develop fluency.

Copy my sentences and repeat out loud what I say. This is optional, but I recommend you say out loud what you are writing to boost your French fluency. When the session is over, write down your own answer about yourself. BUT don’t worry about the spelling or the grammar. Let it flow. You will be impressed at how much you can write in French already.

In this series of videos, there won’t be any French subtitles. First because I will be typing as I speak and second because you now need to get used of letting go of the subtitles. Have you noticed that when you watch a movie with the subtitles on, your eyes are immediately attracted to them ? You now need to start understanding French without support. So when I will explain or develop what I am typing, there won’t be subtitles. Little by little, you are getting used to only listening to French and not listening and reading.

Remember, your only « job » is to try to understand what I am telling you. NOT to understand everything, but to understand the gist of what I am saying. NO need to memorize. The more you listen and read, the more you will understand, the more you will acquire French.

And as always, you will also find a list of other videos, slideshows and stories suggestions which you can read and listen to. The more you hear French, the more you understand, the more you acquire French.

To sum it up, each Teen Stage session will go this way:
– Have your notebook open and a pen in your hand.
– Listen to me and try to understand what I am saying.
– Copy and repeat out loud what I am typing.
– When the session is over, write about yourself. Let it flow!

Of course, all of those steps are recommendations. They are optional. You can also choose to just watch the video , or just write and not repeat. You do what feels good!

Sit comfortably, listen, read, try to understand, handwrite, speak out loud and ENJOY.

Happy Teen Stage! Happy French acquisition!

~ FIN ~