French the natural way: is speaking good enough?

Coucou les French learners,

It is that time of the year when we remember our past and our ancestors. On Monday, the French commemorated the end of la Première Guerre Mondiale, the First World War, also called l’Armistice. Last year’s newsletter was all about that special day.

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11novembre3 191419183 abonnement9 abonnetoi39 acquisition65 acquisition process41 armistice5 audiobook63 audiolivre19 autonomous reader42 autonomouslearner202 boostyourfrench72 compelling39 compellinginput8 comprehensible input36 comprehensiblefrench241 comprehension250 culture246 easyfrench66 effortless9 fluency107 fluent57 fluentinfrench58 frenchbooster24 frenchculture295 frenchlearner58 frenchreader46 frenchstories6 greatwar6 histoiredefrance137 krashen5 listenandread3 livreaudio40 livresenfrançais9 louisiana7 louisiane6 marieetmédor38 member24 membership21 relax48 relaxing12 self confidence54 selflearner9 sla123 slowfrench64 speaking73 stressfree43

French the natural way: 3 tips to acquire French

Coucou les French learners,

c’est l’automne, fall is on its ways!

“Fall is the spring of winter”, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

I miss the beautiful Ilm park in Weimar and the forest in Thuringia,

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abonnetoi39 activelistener54 activelistening78 activemember12 audio55 audiofile2 audiolivre19 automne7 autumn9 compelling input31 comprehensible input36 comprehensiblefrench241 comprehension250 easyfrench66 easyreader83 extensivereading15 fall17 fle269 francaisfacile37 francaislangueetrangere56 frenchculture295 frenchlove11 frenchlover9 frenchreaders66 frenchstories6 gradedreaders12 keepitsimple10 krashen5 listen283 livresenfrançais9 marieetmédor38 marieetmédoràparis24 membership21 newseason7 podcast127 poem71 simplify5 slowfrench64 stories40 targetlanguage1 youtube67 youtubeuse33

French the natural way: the Din in the head

Coucou les French learners,

Est-ce que tu as un vacarme dans ta tête ? Do you have a din your head?

There is nothing worse than silence, it precedes the din. Involuntary Mental Rehearsal

Last week I read this interesting article published by Jeff McQuillan about the “Din in the Head”.

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French the natural way: détends-toi, ça va bien se passer !

Coucou les French learners,

C’est le début de la semaine, it is the start of the week and to start off on the right foot, pour commencer du bon pied, RELAX!

The Affective Filter

Noam Chomsky,

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affective filter6 benikomason4 brittany5 calm6 castle23 chateau4 ci145 couccou1 dontgiveup4 Education20 enbretagne17 enfrance35 enjoy48 enmaifaisdufrançais9 envoyage17 facilitator4 fle269 francaislangueetrangere56 France221 frenchculture295 frenchtradition49 frenchvocabulaire113 guided tour2 halfway1 histoiredefrance137 keeplearning42 language learner6 languageacquisition49 lefrançaisavecaliceayel50 lefrançaisnaturellement92 lefrancaispartout10 listentostories41 low affective filter25 maychallenge12 online teaching29 pureci43 relax48 relaxmax11 rich content105 richinput154 self french205 sla123 slerlangen182 storiesfirst11 story46 storylistener103 storylistening142 stressfree43 suscinio1 TCI74 trusttheprocess78 youcandoit70

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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French the natural way: joyeux anniversaire !

Coucou les French learners,

Quelle semaine ! What a week!

Input alone is sufficient

My lovely grade 12 IB Spanish learners passed their oral examinations on Thursday. Instead of going through long lists of vocabulary related to the topics they had to talk about,

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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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