The development of language skills takes time, patience, and commitment. After all, the only way to get better at something is to practise. All four language competencies (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) work together; developing skills in one competency will naturally help students strengthen skills in the other competencies.
Urge your children to set aside regular time each week to undertake activities that will help them improve their French language competencies… even if they're not officially assigned as homework.
Here are a few suggestions of things that they might choose to do...
Listen to French radio
Here are a couple of channels to try. Consider programming them into your car radio so that you can listen as you're driving to school or the grocery store...
Watch French television
Here are two channels to try - the channel numbers will depend on your cable provider: CBOFT (an Ici Radio-Canada Télé station) and CHOT (a French language affiliate of TVA in Gatineau).
Here are a couple of other online channels to try...
Listening and speaking are key language strands required for students to develop a solid and practical foundation in French.
Obviously, it's difficult to improve without speaking French as much as possible. Students need to put themselves out there and practise, even if it means making mistakes. Try to help your children understand that it's far better for them to overcome their nervousness, make mistakes, and then learn from those mistakes.
Suggest that your children read aloud to themselves. This may help them to get used to the sound of their own voice speaking French, which in turn, may help them to conquer their discomfort at speaking French.
Help ensure that your children are in class daily – It can be difficult for students to make up class activities, especially in a language class where discussions are often difficult to "re-create".
Encourage your children to participate actively in class discussions/activities and to consistently speak French in class to the best of their abilities – This will help to improve their oral communication skills… and probably their mark as well (la production orale represents 25% of a student’s overall mark).
Support and applaud your children's efforts to engage in spontaneous French conversation as much as possible – Help them find a French activity to join as this will provide authentic situations in which to practice. Urge them to find a "French Buddy" with whom they can practise having conversations at their level. Even if these conversations are simple and repetitive, they will help to make your children feel more confident and reinforce their ability to speak French and improve.
Encourage your children to get a public library card so that they can take out level-appropriate French books to supplement the reading done in and for class.
Read French newspapers
Here are a couple of online newspapers to try...
For most students, writing is one of the hardest components of language learning. Obviously, the more students write in French, the better they will be at writing in French. In the same way, the more students listen to, watch, and read in French, the better they will be at writing in French.
Here are a couple of suggestions for students who want to work specifically on their writing...
Suggest that your children keep a daily journal in French – Writing even one or two sentences each day will provide regular reinforcement of this challenging skill. It will also give students the opportunity to concurrently practise the grammar and skills that they are studying in class.
Remind your children that using Google Translate (or another such program) to complete a writing assignment or asking someone to write all or part of their work for them, not only demonstrates a lack of academic integrity, it also doesn't help them to improve their own writing skills.
Urge your children to give themselves enough time to write an initial draft of their work
Encourage your children to read and understand the teacher feedback provided in class and on returned evaluations, and then to work to incorporate that feedback into subsequents tasks/assignments.
Most French students don't love grammar. Nevertheless, mastering this element of the language is necessary to communicate effectively, both in speaking and in writing.
Here are a couple of suggestions for students who need or want some extra grammar help...
Encourage your children ask for help from the teacher – Remind them not to wait until the last minute; asking for help as soon as they’re having trouble with something will give them time figure it out before it’s too late.
Suggest that your children go back to redo grammar sheets that they did previously in class, especially the ones covering concepts that they found particularly challenging – If they've carefully corrected the work in class, they can cover up the answers and try the exercises again. That way, they'll know right away if they got the answers right and where they might need to review some more.
Recommend that your children look for extra grammar practice online where explanations of concepts are right there and feedback is immediate.
Here are a couple of sites to try... (Feel free to look for other good sites and let your teacher know about them!)
This is a web-based editing tool that helps to identify definite and possible grammar and spelling errors in French writing.
Here are some things to keep in mind when using Bon Patron for your school tasks/assignments...
Students should check with their teachers before using Bon Patron on any given assignment. For some assignments, teachers would prefer that students demonstrate what they are capable of doing without such a support.
Any time that students do use Bon Patron (with teacher permission), they should follow these steps in order to be able to show exactly how they've used the program:
Compose the initial draft of the piece of writing. Save that document as the "original".
Cut-and-paste the text into Bon Patron. Immediately score the work, and cut-and-paste and save that score (+ explanations and suggestions) with the original document.
Use the Bon Patron's correction suggestions and grammar explanations to improve the piece of writing.
Score the work again, and cut-and-paste and save that score (+ explanations and suggestions) with the document. This can be done more than once throughout the writing process.
Some teachers may want students to save all of this (steps outlined above) in one document to show their whole writing process. If that's the case, students should check to see if the teacher would prefer that the work is presented in chronological order from beginning (initial draft) to end (final copy) or from end back to beginning.
If a teacher asks students to submit only their final piece of work, students should still save all of this in a separate document. That way, they can easily demonstrate their writing process, if necessary.
If the teacher's instructions differ from these, students should complete their work as per the teacher's instructions.
Students should understand that Bon Patron is not perfect; it's a useful editing tool which should not be considered as a replacement for self-editing and revision of written work.