French the natural way : trust the process

Coucou les French learners,

I am back from a wonderful weekend in Erlangen, Germany where I got to listen to my idols, Stephen Krashen and Beniko Mason.

They are my heroes in the field of Second Language Acquisition! I got to spend the entire weekend listening to them at the Story Listening workshop,

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acquisition65 acquisition process41 apprendslefrançais91 benikomason4 ci145 cicommunity102 compelling input31 contedusenegal2 coucou9 Education20 enjoy48 fle269 francaisfacile37 francaislangueetrangere56 francophone81 francophonie82 french acquisition12 frenchexpressions46 keepitup11 learnfrenchthenaturalway59 lefrançaisavecaliceayel50 lefrançaisnaturellement92 listen283 maychallenge12 networking2 process22 pureci43 relax48 rich content105 richinput154 self french205 senegal5 sla123 slerlangen182 Stephen Krashen11 storiesfirst11 storylistener103 storylistening142 tale117 TCI74 trusttheprocess78 workshop6 youcandoit70

French the natural way: listen to stories!

Coucou les French learners,

Last week, I mentioned a story I co-created with a learner to help her remember a list of words she had to memorize. I strongly believe in the power of stories because when your mind listens to a story, it generates multiple connections.

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accuracy4 acquire50 acquirefrench76 active listener94 ci145 compelling39 complexstructures1 comprehend52 comprehensible100 comprehension250 confidence92 fable59 fables21 fle269 fluency107 free voluntary reading32 french for free4 french input13 french stories5 frenchvocabulaire113 Great Story Reading Project11 IB9 language acquisition229 learnfrench20 lefrançaisnaturellement92 listeningfirst20 listentofrench6 listentostories41 online french22 online french tutor4 power15 powerful6 pureci43 rangeofvocabulary3 reading252 reading skills1 retell3 retelling4 self confidence54 self french205 sla123 Spanish33 spanish input3 spanish story3 stories40 story script6 storylistening142 structures7 TCI74 teachfrench12 understanding22 untargeted structures1 vocabulary256 weekly french33 weekly input15 writing skills1 youtube channel52

French the natural way: the only cure is more input!

Coucou les French learners,

Last night, I was tutoring a 12 years old French student and she had to learn a list of vocabulary about all the different rooms in a school: la cantine, le gymnase, la salle des profs, le laboratoire… Instead of having the learner memorize each word and repeat them after me,

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acquire french11 acquisition process41 apprendslefrançais91 belles histoires1 challenge22 challenge de la semaine1 children magazine2 children story15 ci145 ciworks1 compelling input31 comprehensible100 comprehension250 daily french3 daily french input12 easy french51 Education20 enjoy48 fle269 french acquisition12 french children books8 french for free4 french immersion23 french teacher4 frenchstorytime26 language acquisition229 learnfrench20 lefrançaisnaturellement92 listen283 messages3 natural approach59 online tutor3 online tutoring6 podcast127 read40 self french205 setting2 setyourself3 sla123 spanishplans1 Stephen Krashen11 stories40 TCI74 teachfrench12 Tuesday french stories3 understand67 watch52 weekly french33 weekly videos55 youtube67 youtube channel52

French the natural way: how to access input?

Coucou les French learners,

I have just finished reading this fascinating article by Steve Kaufmann on how learning a new language is a subconscious process. Basically, the author explains how he learned Romanian by first reading a lot about Romania in Romanian! He says: “

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