Hopeless at French B

[misstery_]

So as the title suggests I am currently taking French B and am horrible at it to say the least. I can barely manage to write 100 words for our practice written assignments and even then I struggle with conjugations and repeat myself because of my extremely limited vocabulary. I've tried learning the grammar with my teacher as well as on my own but I find it really complicated and once I get it, I forget it eventually. It's also hard for me to practice since I have no exposure to the language outside class and watching movies and videos in French leaves me confused. I am hoping to score a 6 but it just seems less and less achievable with every test I get back.

 

My question is has anyone else been in a similar situation and what did you do to improve? Are there any resources out there that will allow me to learn the grammar needed for someone doing French B?

[FChaosi_]

I've been in the exact same situation as you, but with Japanese B. There were two main things I did to boost my grade - from a 2 to a 5, and hopefully soon, a 6.

I started to spend more time on learning Japanese and a little less time on my other subjects. What this did was force me to procrastinate less, as I had less time to fit in all my work, so I had to use those times in which I would do nothing/procrastinate to do my other subjects. So even though I focused more on Japanese, I still managed to keep up with my other subjects, just by not procrastinating as much. I studied Japanese every single day. Even on a bus ride or while waiting in line somewhere, you can use apps like Memrise to study.

I also got a tutor. Having someone who is there to help you one-on-one for an entire hour is so helpful and you'll learn so much from having a tutor. I only see my tutor once each week, for an hour session, but I still learn many new grammar points and tons of vocabulary every time, and get more done in that hour than I could get done alone in three - four hours!

I found that you just need to get the ball rolling: once you begin to memorize some grammar/vocabulary, other grammar/vocabulary will also be more easily remembered. Exposure to the language is very important so read and write French every single day! Good luck with improving your grade! 

[Guest]

This is literally me for French, and whilst I've only started this, it seems to be working alright-ish so far. For French, I believe there are three main points to cover if you're struggling:

• General verb conjugations
• Vocabulary
• Conjugation Exceptions

General Verb Conjugations

 

For verb conjugations, practice, practice, practice. Write down the tenses you've covered so far and practice for different regular verbs. Write it out - honestly, for everything write it out. You're more likely to remember it that way. Sometimes just do the endings or the general rules, sometimes pick various regular verbs and conjugate them in all the different ways you can (that are regular). I'd say practice once a day, maybe just for fifteen minutes, but it'll all cumulatively help. Hopefully.

 

Vocabulary

 

I have to recommend a website for this, and hopefully your school will have a subscription on it, but otherwise you may have to buy it on your own - or perhaps you could ask your teacher as I believe students get a cheaper price through the school. LanguagePerfect, honestly, is the best website you could possibly use for learning language vocabulary. It's extremely picky about how you phrase things, thus whenever you get it wrong even though you're technically right, you'll want to stab it, but that just makes it even more effective since it's engrained in you.

 

Also, it does French to English writing, French listening to English writing, Diction (French listening to French writing) then, finally, English writing to French writing. You go over that everyday for about half an hour and, damn, you're all set up for exams. I'm currently on the quest to use it to memorise the whole French dictionary... I'll keep you updated on that.

 

Conjugation Exceptions

 

Now, this is probably the part of French I (and I believe most people) hate the most. They're annoying, there for no apparent reason, and no one can comprehend their purpose other than for aesthetic reasons when speaking (and even then it's stupid). Nonetheless, we'll have to struggle on, and honestly, I recommend choosing a tense each day, and going through all the verbs that are exceptions. Again, write them again and again, and soon enough, they should become a second nature.

 

Now, I don't know how much of this will actually work for extended periods of time, but so far it's really helping! I hope this helps you out!

 

Note: For writing formats, just make an outline on paper of what you'd put down and where (dates, titles, etc, etc) depending on the format. If you want, I can send you a link/upload a document that has all the formats for IB. Just PM me and let me know!

Edited August 30, 2015 by Guest

[misstery_]

This is literally me for French, and whilst I've only started this, it seems to be working alright-ish so far. For French, I believe there are three main points to cover if you're struggling:

• General verb conjugations
• Vocabulary
• Conjugation Exceptions

General Verb Conjugations

 

For verb conjugations, practice, practice, practice. Write down the tenses you've covered so far and practice for different regular verbs. Write it out - honestly, for everything write it out. You're more likely to remember it that way. Sometimes just do the endings or the general rules, sometimes pick various regular verbs and conjugate them in all the different ways you can (that are regular). I'd say practice once a day, maybe just for fifteen minutes, but it'll all cumulatively help. Hopefully.

 

Vocabulary

 

I have to recommend a website for this, and hopefully your school will have a subscription on it, but otherwise you may have to buy it on your own - or perhaps you could ask your teacher as I believe students get a cheaper price through the school. LanguagePerfect, honestly, is the best website you could possibly use for learning language vocabulary. It's extremely picky about how you phrase things, thus whenever you get it wrong even though you're technically right, you'll want to stab it, but that just makes it even more effective since it's engrained in you.

 

Also, it does French to English writing, French listening to English writing, Diction (French listening to French writing) then, finally, English writing to French writing. You go over that everyday for about half an hour and, damn, you're all set up for exams. I'm currently on the quest to use it to memorise the whole French dictionary... I'll keep you updated on that.

 

Conjugation Exceptions

 

Now, this is probably the part of French I (and I believe most people) hate the most. They're annoying, there for no apparent reason, and no one can comprehend their purpose other than for aesthetic reasons when speaking (and even then it's stupid). Nonetheless, we'll have to struggle on, and honestly, I recommend choosing a tense each day, and going through all the verbs that are exceptions. Again, write them again and again, and soon enough, they should become a second nature.

 

Now, I don't know how much of this will actually work for extended periods of time, but so far it's really helping! I hope this helps you out!

 

Note: For writing formats, just make an outline on paper of what you'd put down and where (dates, titles, etc, etc) depending on the format. If you want, I can send you a link/upload a document that has all the formats for IB. Just PM me and let me know!

 

Thank you so much! This helped heaps

[misstery_]

I've been in the exact same situation as you, but with Japanese B. There were two main things I did to boost my grade - from a 2 to a 5, and hopefully soon, a 6.

I started to spend more time on learning Japanese and a little less time on my other subjects. What this did was force me to procrastinate less, as I had less time to fit in all my work, so I had to use those times in which I would do nothing/procrastinate to do my other subjects. So even though I focused more on Japanese, I still managed to keep up with my other subjects, just by not procrastinating as much. I studied Japanese every single day. Even on a bus ride or while waiting in line somewhere, you can use apps like Memrise to study.

I also got a tutor. Having someone who is there to help you one-on-one for an entire hour is so helpful and you'll learn so much from having a tutor. I only see my tutor once each week, for an hour session, but I still learn many new grammar points and tons of vocabulary every time, and get more done in that hour than I could get done alone in three - four hours!

I found that you just need to get the ball rolling: once you begin to memorize some grammar/vocabulary, other grammar/vocabulary will also be more easily remembered. Exposure to the language is very important so read and write French every single day! Good luck with improving your grade! 

 

Yeah I think I might look into getting a tutor. Thanks!

[Guest]

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[El :3]

Hey there! I've been on straight 7s for French B - if you want, I'm willing to exchange contact details and act as an online tutor for free

 

Quizlet is a great place to start for vocab and grammar - there are literally thousands of flashcards, and some are even dedicated to IB vocab! If you have a French textbook (e.g. I have Le Monde en Francais), to practice your oral skills just read out any French you can find in the textbook. Read it slowly, listen to yourself talk (record yourself talk!). Any words you're unsure of? Dedicate a notebook to writing down the French word and the English translation (make your own vocab list), and revise as much as you can. What I do is I browse www.wordreference.com to find French translations for any English word that I want to use. I also do this in my spare time to boost my vocab (yes, this is essentially just reading a dictionary but trust me this helps so much!). And if you're struggling with your written work, I suggest to do your best to write a piece (even if it's only 100 words) and hand it up to your teacher to get it marked with feedback. Maybe try to increase your responses by 50 words every month or every few months so you can eventually get to that 350-400 word limit The feedback from your teacher is priceless because it allows for you to learn even more grammar in the context of your own work, as well as seeing what you're good at, and what you can improve on. 

 

That's just some of my advice, and let me know if you're interested in the tutoring - I'm willing to even Skype call once a week to help, and I'm from Australia too :3

Edited August 30, 2015 by El :3

[Charleen]

For grammar, I would suggest taking all of the different grammar tenses you've learned and writing the rules and examples for them and make them into a grammar booklet. This really helps, especially when you've forgotten the grammar you've learned. Here are the grammar tenses you should know: 

 

-Direct and indirect object pronouns

-Imparfait

-Futur simple

-Futur proche

-Present

-Passe compose

-Double direct object pronouns

-Present participle

-Imperative

-Subjunctive, past subjunctive

-Conditional, past conditional

-Negative expressions

-Plus-que-parfait

 

For increasing vocabulary, I would suggest reading news articles online in French that you already know a bit about, and writing down all the words you don't know and translating them with a dictionary. After, take all the new vocab and put it into a Quizlet flashcard set or use Anki and make a flashcard deck to study from, which is a spaced repetition software that helps with building vocab.