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Why learn French
French is a language of diplomacy and culture. It is spoken by more than 200 million people in Europe, Asia, Africa (including North Africa), North and South America, the Carribbean and the Pacific. It is the most widely learned additional language in the world after English. Many French and English words share the same origins from Latin and Norman French, which speeds up the path to communicative competency in French for speakers of English.Languages.Org.Au French resources
- French language
- French news
- The Changing World (formerly "The World Around Us") (2017-S1, 2019-S1 & 2021-S1)
- Diverse Perspectives (formerly "Lifestyle and Traditions") (2017-S2, 2019-S2 & 2021-S2)
- The Individual (2018-S1, 2020-S1 & 2022-S1)
- Society and Community (2018-S2, 2020-S2 & 2022-S2)
- CAL French 2017 – Semester 1
- CAL French 2017 – Semester 2
- CAL French 2018 – Semester 1
- CAL French 2018 – Semester 2
- CAL French 2019 – Semester 1
- CAL French 2019 – Semester 2
- CAL French 2020 – Semester 1
- CAL French 2020 – Semester 2
- CAL French 2021 – Semester 1
- CAL French 2021 – Semester 2
- CAL French 2022 – Semester 1
- CAL French 2022 – Semester 2
- CAL French 2023 – Semester 1
- CAL French 2023 – Semester 2
French guides, online courses and tutorial sites
These are listed alphabetically. The leading definite article is not used in determining the sequence.
BBC – "The Mind Set from Bitesize"
Learning resources by the BBC organised by subjectFrom the BBC Education home page, scroll down and select a curriculum such as England-GCSE or Scotland-Higher, then choose French from the subject options on the next screen. The audio and video resources are not available to users in the Australian region, but there are vocabulary lists and self-correcting exercises that are accessible. On selecting England-GCSE-French, eight topics are listed:
- Familiar vocabulary
- Useful phrases
- Lifestyle
- Leisure and the media
- Home and the environment
- Work and education
- French life and culture
- Grammar
BBC – GCSE Bitesize French resources previous version
This GSCE collection from the BBC contains useful resources for senior secondary French. However, as of 2018, it now appears to be a new version and it no longer allows access to audio resources for users in the Australian region.
BBC French language – Products for sale
BBC Active has a range of language books, CDs, DVDs and CD-ROMs available for sale.Bonjour de France
Bonjour de France "est un cyber-magazine éducatif gratuit contenant des exercices, des tests et des jeux pour apprendre le français ainsi que des fiches pédagogiques à l’attention des enseignants de français langue étrangère (FLE). À travers ses différentes pages, ce magazine se veut aussi un outil de promotion de la francophonie. De nouvelles rubriques interactives apparaîtront régulièrement afin que ce site soit pleinement un lieu de ressource et de partage."Centre collégial de développement de matériel didactique (CCDMD)
The CCDMD is a centre for development of teaching resources managed by the collège of Maisonneuve."Le Centre collégial de développement de matériel didactique (CCDMD), géré par le collège de Maisonneuve, est un centre de production de ressources informatisées et de documents imprimés conçus à l'intention du personnel enseignant et des élèves de l'ensemble du réseau collégial du Québec."
An example of a very useful resource for students on this website is the section "Exercices Interactifs", which has exercises with examples, correction keys and reasons for the answers on topics such as:
- Articles
- Adjective agreements
- Relative pronouns
- Subordinate clauses
- Verbs including modal verbs
Comme une française
Géraldine Lepère presents advice on her website Comme une française for expats who live in France - there are some free resources and there are others for purchase
Connectigramme
Connectigramme: "Ce site se veut une porte ouverte vers des tableaux de révision des règles du français et vers des ressources en ligne." The list of (at the time of writing) 35 links includes- Le genre
- Les articles
- Le pluriel des noms
- Le subjonctif
- Le repérage temporel
DELF sample exam papers
The DELF and DALF are diplomas awarded by the French Ministry of Education (Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale) to recognise the French-language skills of non-French candidates. These resources are managed by the CIEP (The Centre International d’Études Pédagogiques), an institution of the French Ministry of National Education.
DuoLingo – "Learn a language free. Forever."
DuoLingo proclaims itself to be "The world's most popular language learning platform".- Each lesson includes a variety of speaking, listening, translation, and multiple choice challenges.
- Instantly see which answers you get correct.
Fiches correctives
This is an extensive resource of more than 3,000 pages, a set of "fiches correctives" titled The One-stop Fiche-Shop: an advanced students' guide to writing better sentences in French. It is the result of decades of work by James Grieve, lecturer in French and supervisor of many postgraduate students in French at the Australian National University. For more information about the author, see the CAL News page for 2020.Français avec Pierre
D'après la rubrique "Qui sommes-nous?" sur ce site, les principes du système Français avec Pierre sont les suivants:- Le plaisir, la motivation et le soutien d’une communauté !
- Apprendre dans la langue cible
- La théorie OUI mais toujours au service de la PRATIQUE
- Le professeur
- L’écoute
- La mise en pratique: l’expression
- L’ouverture et la diversité
Français Facile
Try the Français Facilelinks to:- Test de niveau ("Quel niveau avez-vous en français?")
- Cours et exercices ("Orthographe, grammaire, vocabulaire, audio")
- Participer ("Forum, Correspondants, Discuter, Contributer")
- Utiles ("Conjuguer, Jouer, Traduire, Prononcer, Vérifier, Dictionnaires")
Français Interactif (University of Texas Austin)
See the Français Interactif chapter index by themes and the grammar index - very clear home page for access to these resources
French4You
Vincent Lefrançois describes French4You as "a website dedicated to French language [with] thousands of videos to learn French from scratch or enhance your skills in French".
French About Dot Com
French About Dot Com has been re-badged as ThoughtCo Learning and Teaching French (see below)
French Tutorial
French Tutorial self-describes as: "The French Tutorial is a web-based step by step lesson covering basics, pronunciation, but also grammar, vocabulary and everyday French. It offers audio support for better oral comprehension, a table of contents and an index for faster searches."
Ifprofs
Ifprofs, Le réseau social de l'éducation en français.
"La communauté IFprofs rassemble des milliers de membres des quatre coins du monde. Vous travaillez dans le domaine de l’enseignement francophone ? IFprofs est votre réseau social."
La Bulle FLE
La Bulle FLE – Site géré par Célyne Huet; on the right, select an option to see resources for: Verbes; Grammaire; Savoir-faire; Lexique; Socio-cultural; Phonétique
La-Conjugaison.fr
La-Conjugaison, managed by L'Obs – see also below under current affairs – is one example of many reference sites for French verb conjugation, which exist because of the importance of this topic in French grammar; it also has exercices to practice verb usage, but the dictionary with definitions and synonyms is limited in scope and other sites have more on these
Lawless French
Lawless French by Laura K. Lawless, who used to run the about.french.com, has resources including lists of expressions, grammar, listening practice, quizzes and tests (with a focus on the DELF exams - see above) and vocabulary lists; for a mapping of content, scroll down and view "Quoi de neuf", "Categories" and "Lessons by topic" on the right hand side.
Le Point du FLE
Le Point du Français Langue Etrangère in its "Apprendre le français" (learn French) section provides resources with more than 7000 links grouped by topics such as:- Activités
- Vocabulaire/Thèmes
- Vocabulaire/Langue française
- Grammaire
- Conjugaison
- Ressources générales.
Mango Languages
Access Mango Languages free of charge via your ACT Public Library membership.
Podcast français facile
"Apprendre le français avec podcastfrancaisfacile.com" – Podcast français facile with dialogues, textes, grammaire, phonétique, activités, librairie
Rfi savoirs
Rfi savoirs, Les clés pour comprendre le monde en français.
Il y a beaucoup de ressources. Par exemple, le 18 septembre 2018, il y avait 2182 audios, 48 vidés, 187 dossiers, 9 collections et 159 outils pédagogiques sur ce site.
ThoughtCo Learning and Teaching French
Formerly French.About.Com, Thoughtco offers French language guides to improve reading, writing, and comprehension skills for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. Many of the articles are by Laura K. Lawless, who previously authored material on French.About.Com and who also has the Lawless French website (see above).
TV5Monde
The levels used by TV5Monde are from the Council of Europe's Common European Framework of Reference for Languages- Séries d'exercices - A1 débutant (explorez les liens: Première classe, Thèmes, Collections)
- Séries d'exercices - A2 élémentaire
- Séries d'exercices - B1 intermédiaire
- Séries d'exercices - B2 avancé
Un jour une actu
1jour1actu is a current affairs site for children, but is also useful for learners of French.
"Chaque vidéo d'1jour1question t'explique avec des mots simples ce qui se passe dans le monde et autour de toi. Elles sont réalisées à partir de questions d’enfants de ton âge : la rédaction d’1jour1actu en reçoit plus de 300 chaque semaine !"
En savoir plus : Infos animéesUn jour une question
1 jour 1 question is an information site for children, but is also useful for learners of French.
"Tu te poses des questions ? Nous, on y répond ! 1 jour, 1 question répond chaque jour à une question d'enfant en lien avec l’actu, en une minute et trente secondes. Le commentaire explicatif est toujours drôle, le dessin est léger et espiègle. L'intention est d'aider l'enfant à construire son propre raisonnement et à obtenir les clés qui lui permettront de se forger sa propre opinion."
Université du Québec à Trois Rivières Université du Québec à Trois Rivières – École Internationale de FrançaisFrom here, choose Services Pédagogiques – Outils Pédagogiques on the left
Then select one of the levels (Niveau Débutant, Niveau Intermédiaire; Niveau Avancé)
French reference
Online sources to look up words and phrases – a quick option is to run a Google search with the required expression in English followed by the words "in French", eg accommodation in French, then select from sources (some of which also provide an audio version of the French) such as the following (listed alphabetically):- Bab.La French and English
- Cambridge French and English
- Collins Dictionary English and French
- Bescherelle (with Conjugueur)
- Dict.CC
- French language resources / ressources de langue française
- French Linguistics
- Larousse French and English (select the circular arrows icon on the Larousse page to switch from Français-Anglais to Anglais-Français)
- Linguee English and French
- Reverso Dictionary
- Synonymo (for synonyms)
- Systran online translation – This uses Systran machine translation technology for translation between languages.
- Word Reference
French news and current affairs
These are listed alphabetically. The leading definite article is not used in determining the sequence.- Le Canard Enchaîné – a satirical and investigative weekly established in 1915
- Charlie Hebdo – as the title implies, this satirical commentary site, launched in its current form in 1992, is published weekly (journal qui se proclame satirique, laïque, politique et joyeux)
- Le Petit Journal (Canal Plus) – daily 15-minute satirical news round-up (eg Tweet "Le secret du mensonge moderne c'est juste de raconter tellement de conneries que la vérité se noie dedans")
- Le Courrier Australien – this French-language periodical, established in Sydney in 1892, describes itself as "the longest running foreign-language newspaper in Australia"; it is in digital format since 2016
- Europe 1 – Current affairs via streamed video
- Le Figaro – founded in 1826, another major French daily
- France 24 – Current affairs via streamed video
- France TV, France 2, 8 pm bulletin – Current affairs via streamed video
- L'Express – a conservative weekly publication founded in 1953, originally left of centre and shifted its perspective to the right, owned since 2014 by entrepreneur Patrick Drahi
- French Culture – This list of French television stations accessible on internet streaming is from the French Embassy in the USA; a few links such as the one for LCI are no longer current (for the correct LCI link, see below)
- L'Internaute – for details about coverage, see Qui sommes-nous
- Journal en français facile – un journal géré par Radio France Internationale (RFI), prévu pour ceux qui apprennent le français (a news site designed for learners of French)
- LCI (news channel of TF1 – Le 20h (8 pm news) – Current affairs via streamed video
- Listen Live – List of radio stations streaming live on the internet
- Le Monde – established in 1944, considered by many to be the most important French daily newspaper
- l'Obs – previously known as France-Observateur and then Le Nouvel Observateur or Le Nouvel Obs, this weekly was founded in 1950, renamed in 1953 and again in 2014
- Le Point – a conservative weekly publication founded in 1972 by a team from L'Express
- News in Slow French – Weekly News in Slow French with audio and text; after hearing/reading the preview, scroll down and select "Continue with News Stories" for more
- TF1 Le Quotidien avec Yann Barthes – Current affairs via streamed video
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