French Practice: Resources and Strategies to Make French Learning a Habit
Learning a language requires consistency, but sometimes it may feel difficult to fit into your daily schedule.
That’s why I made this guide— to help you find a way to get that French practice in, even when you’re busy!
Whether you want to practice French online or just change up your routine to include some daily French practice, this post will give you plenty of resources and strategies to try out!
This fun website is a great resource for online French learning.
Plus, it’s totally free and has something for all levels!
For total beginners, there are some fun children’s books. They also have online French lessons that are user-friendly and easy on the eyes, and are particularly useful for vocabulary building.
If you are more advanced, The French Experiment may look too easy at first glance.
But don’t be fooled… this website has tons of lessons that cover little details you may have forgotten or never thought to study (such as conversation fillers).
Incorporating this information into your daily lesson will keep your routine fresh, varied and fun!
You need to find ways to speak with actual Francophones in order to actually develop your French skills.
Fortunately, italki makes it easy by connecting you with French tutors online.
You can choose from hundreds of tutors based on their rates, experience, teaching specialties and more. Then just select a date and time for your lesson on the italki calendar.
If you prefer to keep things on a budget, italki also has a free option to connect you with a language exchange partner.
Frantastique is another great website that offers personalized French lessons. Their philosophy is to teach you French in just 15 minutes per day.
Frantastique looks at your specific needs and tailors the materials to you. That way, you can progress as quickly as possible without covering lessons you already know.
Their program mixes short daily lessons with custom reviews of your work to focus on your strengths and weaknesses..
If you don’t already know the difference between the third person singular and plural conjugations of the verb aimer (to like), switch to French on Facebook and you can be sure you’ll never forget.
Similarly to Twitter, Facebook makes for an easy way to change up your daily routine to include French.
Read through French posts and even write your own to practice your French reading and writing skills!
If you love to watch YouTube, there are thousands of videos out there in French!
Whether you want something that is geared towards French learning or simply want to watch something you’re interested in, there are plenty of French creators you can look into!
This lovely collection of short stories will give you some great, easily-digestible reading material for shorter spurts of French comprehension practice.
The stories take on all kinds of topics and writing styles, so there’s bound to be something you’ll enjoy here for casual reading.
Another excellent collection of French learning materials, but this time it’s all podcasts (with the accompanying transcripts).
The diverse range of discussion topics found here means that you’ll get engaged in these materials easily.
Strategies for Daily French Practice
If you’re serious about learning French, you need to force yourself to sit down and study every day, even you have other things you want to do.
The good news is that there are several ways to make this easier, so that daily French learning becomes an enjoyable habit.
Here are some of the best strategies to make sure that you practice French daily:
Block out time in your calendar for daily practice. Carve out time in your schedule for daily French lessons now, and it’ll be much easier to avoid distractions.
Use the 10:10:10 daily split. You’ll study ten minutes a day of either listening or speaking and ten minutes a day of either reading or writing. The last ten minutes are for vocabulary building or verb conjugations.
Use FluentU to watch daily authentic French videos with subtitles, quizzes and flashcards.
Try the Pomodoro techniquefor studying in spurts with regular breaks. It’s a great way to keep you on track and motivated!
Prep your resources before you start. Otherwise, you’ll spend more time looking for what to work on than actually working.
Evaluate your goals. Tailor your daily lessons to where you’re currently at and what you wish to achieve in the near future.
Read out loud and record yourself speaking. This method will give you a good sense of your fluidity and pronunciation difficulties.
Change all your language settings to French. Browsing, receiving notifications and reading your social media in French helps you subconsciously pick up everyday language.
Use social media to observe and connect with French speakers. You can read French posts and eventually post your own!
Watch French movies with French subtitles. This is not only fun, but will help you practice linguistic and cultural understanding.
Get a conversation partner. You can find another French learner or a native speaker to practice speaking with on the Internet or in learning groups.
Listen to French music. This is a great method to expose yourself to the array of Francophone artists out there and get tons of intermediate French practice with style and rhythm!
Search for anything that interests you in French. Instead of looking up a fun fact in English, try searching and reading the answer in French!
Use search functions to check your grammar and spelling. It’s quick and easy.
Look for and subscribe to French language video and text sources.French-language YouTube channels are great for watching fun videos made by native French speakers.
Like anything worthwhile, learning French takes hard work and consistency. With these daily French practice resources at your disposal, you’ll look forward to studying rather than dragging your heels.
Frenchly Newsletter
