Learning Method

I made this page to introduce you five methods (or five techniques-five practices) that you can use to learn the French Language. If you are going learn a foreign language, the teacher is not going to do all the work for you. You need to do it by yourself, you need to be active in the French learning language process. So, here are five approachs to study the French language with different ways.

1 – To live in France or in a French speaking country

The first approach is to live in France or in a French speaking country. Spending time in France, having French friends, talking to the employees in the shops and people in the subway. Trying to speak the French language with your English speakers friends, reading signs, ads and everything in the French language. When you are learning the French language you see different signs, you are listening to persons that are saying different things that you have never heard before. It stays in your head because you make associations, you associate the time, the place, a story that is associate to the first time you heard these words. It is very helpful.

2 – To attend French courses

The second language approach is to take French language courses. You are going to work a lot, you are going to study a lot. There are different points of views about the advantage of taking French language courses. If you believe you are going to learn the French language just by attending courses, that is not going to happen. You need to put effort to get the knowledge and the ease, to learn the French language, it is not possible just learn the language at school. With courses you are going to see that you are going to pinpoint some elements of the French language  that you need to consolidate. If you have been studying alone for a long time, you know that you do not know everything of the French language and you do not feel 100% comfortable with some elements of the French language, for example you do not know exactly how to use some French grammar rules. It is not so easy to know what are the elements of the French language you have difficulties to progress on. So the professor is going to help you with that. He (or she) knows very well the French language so you can easily ask specific questions. You can as well speak with the other pupils, asking questions-answering, giving examples. You can as well ask them what they think about the way you speak the French language, is it right or not ? They can give you a feedback. The courses are very sueful.

3 – The LinQ app

Here is the third one : the LinQ app. It was created by Kaufman who is  a polyglot. You are going to listen to audio files, to read some articles in the French language. A thing I like is that you are reading an article and listening to the audio of this article at the same time. It is nice because when you do not know a word you can click on it and you get the meaning of it.  So it reminds you the French words that are in your long-term memory and the French words that you need to review more to put them on your long-term memory. It is a nice application. You can have a look at the website as well.

4 – Intensive reading

The fourth approach : to practice reading in a precise way. Before doing this I suggest you to read some articles, books,.. you like to read, to do it for fun without wanting to know the French grammar rules, just to get the pleasure of reading in your target language. Reading to understand what you can understand. Some people said that it could be one of the best method to learn a foreign language (for you the French language).

5 – To use a notebook

The fifth approach is to use a notebook, to have a notebook in your bag everywhere you go, and everytime, almost everytime. When you see a new word in the French language that you really want to remember, you write it down, so you can make a big list of French vocabulary. You are going to do it times to times. Sometimes you want to say something but you are not sure of how to say it, so you can write it down in your notebook, and you can work on it later on. For example you can choose that you can use one page for one day and to write down around 10 French words on it. You can create flashcards based on your notebook, and everyday before going to sleep (it is better for the memory to do it just before going to bed), you read them. I suggest you to writ the English word on the left page for example and the French word on the right page, and a phrase as an example. It is a good way to learn vocabulary.

So, here are the five techniques that you can use to learn French.