Best self-study strategies to learn French
French has always been a popular choice among language learners, and it is currently still ranked as the fifth most widely spoken language in the world.
When it comes to the features of the language, its unique pronunciation is distinctive and particularly melodic, so much so that French is considered the most romantic language in the world. Learners are eager to tackle the challenge of mastering it, aiming to capture the allure of native speakers.
However, studying French is also riddled with pitfalls that many learners encounter sooner or later, and in this post I'll share what they are and how to overcome them with the best self-study strategies you can start using right away.
Common challenges
Like many languages spoken nationwide with a rich history, French boasts a number of variants, including various dialects and local accents. The common challengaes for all French learners, despite the dialects, are:
• Fast Speech
Keeping up with the fast speech for which Romance languages are notorious is a wild ride; in this aspect, it is no different from Spanish or Italian. Anyone who has ever tried to tackle these two will know what I am talking about.
• Pronunction
Closely connected to its fast speech, that appealing pronunciation comes with a set of intricate rules as well as numerous exceptions. For instance, determining whether or not to pronounce the final consonant of a word can feel confusing. While the final ‘s’ in Paris is silent, in a word like bus it is pronounced. In plus, the ‘s’ is usually silent unless it appears at the end of a sentence, where it is pronounced. The rules of liaison (the practice of fusing sounds between words) and certain exceptions add to the complexity, as pronunciation can vary depending on the word sequence.
• Spelling
To complicate matters further, there is little correspondence between the spelling of words and how they are pronounced.
• Grammar
Moreover, French grammar can feel especially overwhelming, particularly due to its abundance of particles and its complex verbal system, which is full of exceptions and strict rules regarding the subjunctive mood.
My personal journey learning French
Like many learners, my experience learning French has been a bumpy road filled with difficulties. I studied it at university, where the courses were firmly grounded in linguistic theory but included only one hour of speaking practice per week. While this theoretical knowledge helped me understand the intricacies of the language, I struggled to make progress in my conversational skills and speaking confidence.
My classmates agreed, so we arranged to have a couple of extra hours for independent conversation sessions. I was also fortunate to have a native speaker in my household; my French-born grandma often switched to her native language without warning to ensure I would get some extra speaking practice.
Aside from the additional sessions with my peers, I also sought effective strategies to give that extra boost to my individual study sessions.
Activities
Drawing on advice from trusted professors, my grandma's hands-on approach, and my own trial-and-error experiences, here are the activities that worked best for me in building confidence in processing and decoding sounds on the one hand, and in consolidating and broadening my vocabulary on the other.
• Dictation
Dictation exercises are often included in the curriculum of French courses, and they highlight the importance of proper spelling in the language. This is especially important given the frequent gap between pronunciation and orthography (the way sounds are written), which is often one of the biggest challenges not only for learners but also for native speakers themselves.
In fact, should you ever feel confident in your abilities, you can even participate in one of the many dictation competitions that attract both learners and native speakers.
I will admit that I was very skeptical at first, thinking dictation was an activity best suited for children just beginning to learn a language by playing with its sounds. I believed that, for adults, reducing listening practice to dictation could be too simplistic an approach.
However, I quickly discovered the numerous benefits of dictation and realized how misguided my assumptions had been.
First of all, it addresses the oral aspect of French from a different angle: since it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by fast speech and lose track, regular dictation practice helps you develop an intuition for how the 'wall of text' you hear can be broken down into smaller words.
This, in turn, allows you to gradually fill in the gaps for the parts you missed, helping you get closer and closer to the overall meaning of the text or sentence. Developing this intuition is an extremely reliable resource and will prove a very useful stepping stone in your journey toward mastering listening proficiency.
And the best part is, you can practice all on your own! There are plenty of online resources available (e.g., by typing ‘dictée français’ on any search engine of your choice), and you can easily adapt classic listening exercises to fit this task.
• Memorization of example sentences
This technique was championed by French author and teacher Daniel Pennac, who, in his autobiographical novel School Blues, shared numerous strategies he uses with his high school students to prepare them for their exams.
He noticed that students tended to make the same grammatical mistakes in their essays and began to wonder how he could help them overcome the issue. After some trial and error, he realized that having the students memorize excerpts from authoritative literary sources equipped them with a stable reference for correct particle and accent usage.
I adapted this approach for myself while learning French by keeping a record of formulations and expressions that were particularly challenging for me, such as the use of the ne explétif.
Obviously, there is no need to go through entire excerpts from philosophical volumes. However, if you gradually compile a collection of example sentence related to language points that you find especially elusive, it can become a valuable learning tool. While it may require significant effort initially, this exercise definitely pays off in the long run.
• Speech shadowing and repetition out loud
This technique involves mimicking and repeating after native speakers in real time, focusing on intonation, rhythm, and accent.
This exercise, for example, helped me unlock the secret to pronouncing nasal vowels — there's no nasal consonant at all after! The vowel and nasal consonant merge into a single nasal vowel, so there’s no need to add the m or n.
• Listening practice reading along subtitles
Watching films with subtitles is a useful method for improving listening skills, as it helps you develop the ability to keep up with natural, fast-paced speech. Similar to dictation, the goal is to pick up the sounds, the separation of words, and the correspondence between the way words are pronounced and the way they are spelled.
This involves picking out TV series, films, or any type of native content. Once you’re familiar with the plot and dialogue, you could give it another go by watching it again without subtitles to further reinforce your listening skills.
This might seem like a given, but it’s especially useful when it comes to the news. If you can find access to official news channels like France 24, this can be very beneficial because news broadcasts often repeat their segments.
Additionally, journalists are typically trained to speak with a neutral accent, as the content is intended for a nationwide audience and for non-native speakers as well.
Moreover, you'll learn relevant vocabulary to discuss and understand current topics, helping you stay up to date with the latest social conversations. The benefits are countless!
• Warm-up activity before every session
Finally, let me state the obvious: by regularly dedicating 5 to 10 minutes to reviewing previously covered topics, I was able to consistently reinforce what I had learned.
Warming up offers several benefits, as you can tailor this activity to your own needs and preferences. It could be a quick grammar exercise using various online resources, or you might write a short text about a topic you covered in your previous session. The sky's the limit!
Final thoughts
I encourage anyone looking to master this beautiful language to persevere and seize every opportunity for practice. Whether it’s watching French films or utilizing any online resources, every little effort can contribute to your success.
Consistency and curiosity are key!