French news: Boost your fluency with circumlocution

Coucou les membres de la communauté,

I’m excited to share some insights from our fantastic live session last Wednesday, where we explored the power of circumlocution.

For those of you who were able to join, you know what a fun and engaging session it was.

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French news: celebrating small victories (and join me live!)

Coucou les membres de la communauté,

Today, I want to start by celebrating a small victory with you all. Elena, who joined us in April this year, recently shared that she listened to La Pause Café avec Elodie Caussé and she was able to understand the gist of it.

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accountability179 accountable179 acquirefrench76 active listener94 activelistener54 activelistening78 advanced294 advanced beginner454 advanced french93 amusing47 beginner318 celebrate26 circomlocution2 classesdefrançais40 conversation311 feedback47 feelgood30 frenchclass90 frenchclasses61 frenchculture295 frenchhistory88 frenchnews27 frenchsong14 guidance35 infolettre35 interact194 interaction47 interactive43 intermediate718 lessons36 live session100 liveclass98 motivation212 novice168 novicehigh337 online teaching29 progress112 speak85 speakfrench199 stayontrack35 stepstospeaking58 success17 teaching42 train29 training56 upper beginner449 victory4 youcandoit70 youcandothis44 zoomclass83

French news: focus on the meaning rather than the form

Coucou les membres de la communauté,

You know it: receiving comprehensible input is powerful. It is the key to unlocking your French fluency.

You know it too: the journey to mastering French is challenging.

The good news is that input alone is sufficient to first understand,

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French the natural way: 3 signs you need more input

Coucou les French learners,

When I started teaching French in England (many, many years ago!), I believed that speaking was the first step toward French fluency. I was asking my students to repeat over and over again phrases they didn’t understand… As expected, most of them ended up hating French!

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French news: maximize your French experience with the 80/20 rule

Coucou les membres de la communauté,

Today, I want to share a principle that has profoundly impacted my own language experience: Pareto’s Law, also known as the 80/20 rule.

This concept, named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, suggests that roughly 80% of results come from 20% of efforts.

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accountability179 accountable179 acquirefrench76 active listener94 activelistener54 activelistening78 advanced294 advanced beginner454 advanced french93 beginner318 classesdefrançais40 community166 conversation311 feedback47 feelgood30 frenchclass90 frenchclasses61 frenchcommunity238 frenchnews27 gocommunity27 guidance35 infolettre35 interact194 interaction47 interactive43 intermediate718 lessons36 live session100 liveclass98 motivation212 novice168 novicehigh337 online teaching29 progress112 pronounciation43 research17 speak85 speakfrench199 stayontrack35 stepstospeaking58 study3 teaching42 train29 training56 upper beginner449 warmup43 zoomclass83

French the natural way: from silence to speech – When to to start speaking?

Coucou les French learners,

This week, I want to highlight a thoughtful comment made by Sherezade in response to my recent video about reading aloud.

Sherezade suggests that reading aloud using the shadowing technique is beneficial because speaking is a physical activity.

She emphasizes the importance of physically training the tongue,

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abisproduction212 accountability179 accountable179 acquirefrench76 active listener94 activelistener54 activelistening78 advanced294 advanced beginner454 advanced french93 beginner318 classesdefrançais40 comprehensible100 comprehensible input36 comprehensiblefrench252 feedback47 fle280 freetraining2 freevideo2 frenchclass90 frenchclasses61 frenchnews27 guidance35 infolettre35 intermediate718 lessons36 live session100 motivation212 novice168 novicehigh337 online teaching29 period3 phase3 progress112 pronounciation43 silence7 silent10 speak85 speakfrench199 stayontrack35 stepstospeaking58 train29 training56 upper beginner449 video351 warmup43

French news: achieve more with less – The power of comprehensible input

Coucou les membres de la communauté,

I have some exciting news to share with you this week!

Dr Beniko Mason, who has just published groundbreaking research on language acquisition, has had the biggest impact on my way of teaching French. It is thanks to her Story Listening method that I came to build our site and provide you with comprehensible French stories.

[read more…]

accountability179 accountable179 acquirefrench76 active listener94 activelistener54 activelistening78 advanced294 advanced beginner454 advanced french93 beginner318 classesdefrançais40 conversation311 feedback47 feelgood30 frenchclass90 frenchclasses61 frenchnews27 guidance35 infolettre35 interact194 interaction47 interactive43 intermediate718 lessons36 live session100 liveclass98 motivation212 novice168 novicehigh337 online teaching29 progress112 pronounciation43 research17 speak85 speakfrench199 stayontrack35 stepstospeaking58 study3 teaching42 train29 training56 upper beginner449 warmup43 zoomclass83