You are learning French, but you have difficulty speaking. You are afraid of saying something foolish. If someone asks you a question in French you have a mental block and forget everything that you have learnt in French. Don’t be afraid, you are not the only one with this problem! Communication doesn’t come automatically, you need practice (a lot)!!
Generally speaking, when you begin to learn French you concentrate on the exercises in the language manual. You register in a language school and listen to the teacher from the back of the class. You memorise the words, learn the grammar, begin little by little to write compositions and understand more and more of the recordings that the teacher plays for you. After a certain time you reach a level where you feel that you more or less know the French language. Encouraged by this idea, you plan a trip to France or you try to make French friends in your own country. That’s when the disappointment comes: in front of real French people, when you need to speak to them, not a word comes out. A complete mental block, you can no longer understand anything. You get the impression that the energy you have invested in learning French has been wasted. When you find yourself in such a situation you have to admit one thing: there is a large gap between what you can write and what you can say in French. While you were learning you forgot to develop communication skills, you thought that they would just come by themselves. Unfortunately that is never the case…
The solution: start working without delay on oral expression with a French teacher. You cannot acquire this skill on your own, for you need to converse with someone. Your teacher will ask you questions, will correct you and help you express yourself better.
If you start to learn French with us on Skype as a beginner, you will see: you will make progress in oral expression at the same speed as for written expression! You speak French from the first minute onwards with your native-speaking French teacher. It’s really the most efficient method!
If you have been learning French for some time, but have the impression that you are more advanced in written than in spoken French, lessons on Skype are made for you! You learn to practice out loud with all the knowledge that is in your head!
Here are some more tips that you can use outside your lessons on Skype for speedy and successful improvement:
Say what you know, make use of the French words that you have learnt! Be honest: it’s easier to practice what you know that what you don’t…
Express yourself SIMPLY! That will give you self-confidence and help you speak French in a fluent way.
Use body language, intonation, gestures.
Start looking for situations where you can speak with French people. You have to “dive in at the deep end” as early as possible, even if it is difficult, otherwise it just doesn’t work.
If you can’t find anyone… talk to yourself! The advantage of this technique is that it is not stressful… You are face to face with yourself, no-one else can hear you! You can talk about anything you want: how you spend your day, the summary of a book, an interesting event in the newspapers, etc. Express your thoughts! Talk about your opinions and your impressions! It is important to exercise this technique by talking aloud, because, if you only speak “in your head”, you won’t practice the pronunciation! (Advice: if you don’t want people to give you strange looks, just use the earpiece of your mobile as if you were talking on the phone).
Don’t forget: the ability to communicate is a major skill!!! If it’s not for communicating with other that you are learning a language, then what’s the point of learning?
frenchfromanywhere.com was created to help you to speak, understand and write French fluently. Discover our communicative method on Skype and book your free trial lesson! Learn French with us on Skype!
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You have questions about French lessons on Skype. You need more information about the lessons, the method or the teachers. Contact us: info@frenchfromanywhere.com