Beginners- How to improve? (1 Viewer)

[SSRabbitohs2009]

Bonjour tout le monde.
Okay, I just got my half yearly results back (87%- will that help my UAI- considering that I want to study International Studies?) and my fault would definately be the listening.
So, what would you suggest doing to better my listening skills?

Merci.

 

[xxstef]

listen to radio, there is a whole lot of stuff here to choose from (news, music, etc):
France radio stations streaming live on the internet - Listen online

also listn to sbs news.

hope that helps and good luck!

 

[Kittikhun]

listen to radio, there is a whole lot of stuff here to choose from (news, music, etc):
France radio stations streaming live on the internet - Listen online

also listn to sbs news.

hope that helps and good luck!

Yes, this does help but listening to French without knowing what they are saying is a bit of a hard way to improve one's listening comprehension. It will help in improving your accent but for listening comprehension it probably won't help that much, unless if you have the transcripts or lyrics in front of you which then would help you in your listening comprehension profoundly.

Anyway, what works for me is to watch movies in French with French subtitles or to listen to music while reading the printed paroles[i/]. Listen to as much French songs as possible. What works for me is to get out my MP3 and listen to my French songs while reading the lyrics in front of me. After a few times of repeating this the words of the song will stick in your head and voila, better listening comprehension skills! Here are some other songs that I asked some Francophones for on a cooking forum-

Quelles sont les chansons que vous pr�f�rez ?

Some of them are hard and most of the time I didn't understand 90% of what they were saying the first time I heard the song.

Reading will also help a lot and will build your vocabulary so when you listen to French radio and hear the new words that you have learnt they will stick in your head after that! So read, read and read as much French as you can! If you have Firefox make

RFI - Radio France Internationale, actualité Afrique et monde en français et en langues

as one of your saved tabs so when you open your web browser you could view and read all of the world headlines in French all in 10 minutes. Listening to the français facile audio on the site also helps me too. Make sure, that you have constant exposure to French as well but the important thing is read, read and read!

Here is another site my OHS teacher gave me. i don'' if you've received it before but if you've haven't here it is!

French videos

Finally go to the NSW HSC Online site and listen to the French Continuers listening practice exam audios. Listen to all of them. I repeat, all of them.

http://www.hsc.csu.edu.au/french/continuers/skills/listening/cont_list_skills/Listening_skills.html

Now this here will help you a lot. You'll kick French ass after that!

Bonne chance SSRabbitohs2009!

 

[cerys]

^ Lol thanks for the links. Will be leeching them as well since my French is utter fail and I have my speaking/listening after the holidays @ OHS.

I'm so screwed.

 

[Kittikhun]

You're not screwed! Pas du tout! Get out the past Continuers HSC Exams and practice off them. You should kick ass in begineers after that! (In truth I find the begineers exam tougher than the continuers which is why I argued my way to follow the continuers course at OHS!) I also recommend you get this book here-

Amazon.com: The Ultimate French Review and Practice (Book+ CD-ROM) (Uitimate Review and Reference Series): David M Stillman, Ronni L Gordon: Books

And this one, if you have the time for it-

Amazon.com: The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice (The Ultimate Verb Review and Practice Series): David M Stillman, Ronni L Gordon: Books

Be warned, though, that I haven't tried the last one yet but everyone is giving it good feedback so yeah, I'll just recommend it to you from that. .

Just master your French grammar and you should be fine. After that you'll just need to build your vocab and you'll be fluent en français in no time.

Paix! Et n'oubliez jamais que quand on veut, on peut!

Kittikhun

 

[elh45]

Yabla French - French Immersion TV

 

[Kittikhun]

Yabla French - French Immersion TV

Awesome! Thanks for the site.