Problems with french speaking?

My teacher announced that in a week or two we have a french speaking test but i'm bad at conversing spontaneously in french! I have no problem with listening, writing and reading (i'm at a higher GCSE level) but whenever it comes to speaking i always have to pause and think for long and sometimes start using spanish words instead. How can i improve my speaking?

Reply 1

Ðeggs

22

I would say try and listen to French you tube videos, French music or French radio, just try to surround yourself with French. Try and find yourself a French penpal or speak to a French person online. Alternatively you can talk to yourself and keep on trying to practice and memories certain high level phrases or words. It’s a bit cringey but it works well! In context I got a 9 at French GCSE and am currently doing French AS Level :smile:

Reply 2

Anthos

14

Original post by Deggs_14

I would say try and listen to French you tube videos, French music or French radio, just try to surround yourself with French. Try and find yourself a French penpal or speak to a French person online. Alternatively you can talk to yourself and keep on trying to practice and memories certain high level phrases or words. It’s a bit cringey but it works well! In context I got a 9 at French GCSE and am currently doing French AS Level :smile:

How are you finding French AS? I'm considering doing French A Level, and I'd like to know if it's really such a big gap between GCSE and AS/A Level.

Reply 3

rlewa

13

I used to completely panic at French speaking. Try and have conversations in your head in French and read French texts out loud to practise pronunciation. Don't panic during the assessment! Try and keep calm and remember set phrases if possible. I talk French to my brother (who's doing French GCSE now) around the house which I think helps him to get used to it and it takes the fear away so maybe try and find a French person to talk to or one of your friends taking French too.

Reply 4

rlewa

13

Original post by Anthos

How are you finding French AS? I'm considering doing French A Level, and I'd like to know if it's really such a big gap between GCSE and AS/A Level.

I know I'm not the person you asked but I do French a level (yr 13) and yes, the jump is big but it is completely manageable if you're enthusiastic about learning French and are willing to put the work in. I absolutely love doing it and have made so much progress it's honestly so satisfying and a huge motivator. I can write whole essays in French on books and films without any help and understand so much more about French society. I think as long as you love French and are willing to work on it, the jump is fine

It's a lot more grammar though, just to be warned. I personally love this but I know I'm probably in the minority.

If you have any questions I'm very happy to help :smile:

Reply 5

Anthos

14

Original post by rlewa

I know I'm not the person you asked but I do French a level (yr 13) and yes, the jump is big but it is completely manageable if you're enthusiastic about learning French and are willing to put the work in. I absolutely love doing it and have made so much progress it's honestly so satisfying and a huge motivator. I can write whole essays in French on books and films without any help and understand so much more about French society. I think as long as you love French and are willing to work on it, the jump is fine

It's a lot more grammar though, just to be warned. I personally love this but I know I'm probably in the minority.

If you have any questions I'm very happy to help :smile:

Thanks for the reply! I just had my French Listening mock yesterday, and I struggled a lot to make out what they were saying. Do you have any tips? Thanks again :smile:

.

Reply 6

rlewa

13

Original post by Anthos

Thanks for the reply! I just had my French Listening mock yesterday, and I struggled a lot to make out what they were saying. Do you have any tips? Thanks again :smile:

.

Don't panic is probably the main one. If you freak out the first time because you don't understand anything then you're probably going to miss it the second time around too.

In terms of practice, I think news in slow French and 1jour1question (although I'm not sure if this is too high for GCSE level) might be good to start with. See what you can understand and write a transcript of what's being said or what the key ideas are. Listen to French music and see what you can understand, then look up the lyrics (les paroles) and all the new words and then try and make sense of the song. I think Louane, MIKA and Angele might be the easiest singers to understand but there are some great French musicians.

A lot of it will be vocab so use quizlet or some other flashcards to practice the words expected of you GCSE French. Also learn how to say the word because often French pronunciation doesn't look like how its spelt.

Past papers are always good too and you can use old GCSE ones if you run out of new style audio clips. It's all good practice.

Reply 7

Ðeggs

22

Original post by Anthos

How are you finding French AS? I'm considering doing French A Level, and I'd like to know if it's really such a big gap between GCSE and AS/A Level.

I found the biggest gap to be in the difficulty of the listening and reading exercises. At a level you can stop the listening track whenever you want as you have your own headset, but the style of question and answer they want is very specific, and the reading exercises are a lot harder in terms of the style of question. I’ve found the content quite interesting and the diffuclty of speaking card or grammar isn’t a huge step up, I’d recommend buying the grammar and translation workbook and have a flick thorough too. We’ve just started studying the film which is difficult as it’s an authentic French film with slang and jargon but it just takes practice and vocabulary learning! I’m loving French so far :biggrin:

Reply 8

Kallisto

Entertainment Forum Helper

22

Original post by Namjoongang

My teacher announced that in a week or two we have a french speaking test but i'm bad at conversing spontaneously in french! I have no problem with listening, writing and reading (i'm at a higher GCSE level) but whenever it comes to speaking i always have to pause and think for long and sometimes start using spanish words instead. How can i improve my speaking?

Can give you just a general advice as non-French-speaker: surround yourself with the language you learn as much as possible and where you can in your private life, using media, the internet or streams in particular. @Deggs_14 made good suggestions.

Reply 9

Max A.

1

Or talk to someone who is fluent

Original post by rlewa

I used to completely panic at French speaking. Try and have conversations in your head in French and read French texts out loud to practise pronunciation. Don't panic during the assessment! Try and keep calm and remember set phrases if possible. I talk French to my brother (who's doing French GCSE now) around the house which I think helps him to get used to it and it takes the fear away so maybe try and find a French person to talk to or one of your friends taking French too.

Reply 10

abbie_laurenx

12

Original post by Namjoongang

My teacher announced that in a week or two we have a french speaking test but i'm bad at conversing spontaneously in french! I have no problem with listening, writing and reading (i'm at a higher GCSE level) but whenever it comes to speaking i always have to pause and think for long and sometimes start using spanish words instead. How can i improve my speaking?

Just speak it constantly. When you’re doing things in the house, describe it aloud in french. If you have key topics then maybe make questions on the topics then ask yourself them. Watch Netflix shows in french or french YouTube. Learn some starter phrases which will really help! Hope this helps! I do A Level French, you can message me anytime if you need help!

Reply 11

TheStudent'sDoom

13

Original post by abbie_laurenx

Just speak it constantly. When you’re doing things in the house, describe it aloud in french. If you have key topics then maybe make questions on the topics then ask yourself them. Watch Netflix shows in french or french YouTube. Learn some starter phrases which will really help! Hope this helps! I do A Level French, you can message me anytime if you need help!

I would hope that OP has done their oral exam from a year ago!

Reply 12

Dadadavavaakxx

16

Don’t worry, gcse language speaking exams aren’t as difficult as teachers say. Basically you will just need to list the stuff you know in conversation form. The teacher will literally give you the answer if you don’t know in a means of prompting you.

Problems with french speaking?

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