Improving French (ab initio)

[Hearts]

My weaknesses would be writing up and presenting aloud on the spot.

I'm jut not really sure what the best way to 'get better' at writing and speaking basic french would be. would it be to practise grammar over and over? would it be to practise speaking more?

help! what should i do?!

[HOTTESTVIPblackjack]

ok you should probably try to talk to friends that also take french outside of class so that you practice speaking more

[Wicquor]

This thread.

Gogogogogo.

We discussed similar stuff there and I believe it will be of use to you~

[The Rainbow Connection]

Okay, so despite the fact that I do Italian Ab Initio, I might be able to help.

When I was preparing for my oral, I literally spent around 15-30 minutes each night speaking to myself in italian. During lunch times at school I would meet up with my friends and speak in italian for the whole lunch. I really recommend this as it builds up your confidence around people Speaking to yourself is just to confirm grammar and to gain some structure to your responses. Look over all the topics that you have studied and prepare some sample responses. Practice those - it will help you have some information at the top of your head when the time comes for the conversation.

You don't want a question like: what movie have you watched recently - to come up without previously thinking of a made-up movie! I prepared around 8-15 questions for each topic i covered (around 17). Yes, it is good to double up within questions because it is unlikely a teacher will ask: what is your fav. movie and what is your fav. book. Use the same fake movie as your book! Don't do more than necessary.

In terms of writing - that is what I'm practicing for my italian exam (which is in may). I recommend consolidating all the grammar and making sure that you know how to use it effectively. Write a ton of responses and just email them to your teacher to mark. Use websites like quizlet to help you remember vocab and use busuu if your teacher is a bit slow in responding!

If you have any more specific questions about the course in general feel free to ask - the ab initio syllabus is (generally) the same despite the language!

[ChocolateDrop]

You could try recording yourself speaking French and play it back to see if you got the pronunciation and accent right. There's some websites in which you can get audio of different words. Like this one for example. This may help your french speaking confidence. If you have some willing French/ francophone friends you could talk french with them, text french, calls in french, social media chat in french. Any willing francophone victims people really.

Reading french articles/ watching french news and then reproducing them in a french text format may help. You could listen to french music an watch french movies.

[lharley]

I'm in HL French, and something that really helped me grasp the language when i was starting out was watching youtube videos in french! There are tons of options from vloggers to makeup gurus to kids shows, and they teach you the accent and lots of colloquial phrases that often you won't pick up in class. They're also better than full length movies or shows because there's no stress if you don't understand what's happening.

[susanne]

I suggest that you practice your french speaking like your IOP; or just do it with a friend