Embedded Files
While reading is one of the most common ways learners expose themselves to new vocabulary and genres of the French language, it can be difficult to read something in another language and make sense of all the words put together in context. The tools below provide learners with tools to help understand the main idea behind a text. They also provide authentic reading contexts that are more informal than a traditional French language learning situation which may remove some of the anxiety related to reading in French.
Read&Write for Google Chrome is an extension that provides reading and writing supports for Google Docs, the web and PDFs stored in Google Drive. These supports include reading text out loud, picture dictionaries and a translator to support struggling readers. The voice to text function, as well as the dictionary can be switched to French to help French language learners specifically.
The French Words profile on Instagram is a profile that posts one new French word a day with a translation in English. This page can help new French language students learn how to read new words in French without actually realizing they are learning. Exposure to these new words in very low stakes environments can help increase vocabulary retention without adding on stress and anxiety to the language learning process.
"Les nouvelles" are news websites that are written in French. Reading French news sites is one of the best ways to pick up vocabulary because often times the reader is already aware of the event that they are reading about. Perhaps they have heard about it on the news or read about it on their English language news sources. Because they may have prior knowledge of the event in their first language, they can better make sense of the vocabulary in the French language. The most popular French news outlet is "Le Monde," which is linked, but there are many other great ones as well:
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse