Listening skills??? (1 Viewer)

[angelano33]

Hi

I'm doing French Continuers and haven't been on exchange, I feel like the listening part is really difficult.

Is there any sources or good listening exercise you can recommend to improve my listening skills?

Thanks

 

[Kittikhun]

Listen to French whilst reading transcripts of it is the best way, I reckon. Here's a good site for it-

http://www.tv5.org/TV5Site/7-jours/sommaire.php?id_dossier=440

RFI (Radio France Internationale) has daily 5 minute podcasts with transcripts as well. I think it was called 'français facile' or something like that.

Learn French songs off by heart.

Also, write down as much as you can of the audio during the test. You should never stop writing whilst the audio is playing.

 

[SuchSmallHands]

I like to watch French movies so I can have a bit of free time without feeling too guilty. Pretty much anything with Audrey Tautou is usually good (Amelie and Beautiful Lies, for example). If you want a completely brainless, teen-movie kind of thing, then Lol (laughing out loud) is surprisingly pretty good. If you get subtitled movies it's easier to follow, and it helps so much.

 

[glacer]

I didn't go on French exchange either, but my listening skills have improved a lot by listening to podcasts (one thing in a french day is good because they're short and have transcripts), and doing the past HSC exams. start with beginners, and then build up to continuers. Board of Studies will only have the audio for the previous two years, but your teacher should probably have files for the years preceding 2011

 

[raggiedoll]

Go on YouTube and find French comedians that make podcasts, there's a huge amount of videos on the 'French side' of YouTube that have helped me enormously with listening. I would recommend Cyprien Iov (http://www.youtube.com/user/MonsieurDream) to start off with as he speaks pretty clearly and uses language pretty familiar to the French Continuers syllabus. You can then move on with the other podcasters recommended on his channel once your listening gets better and you are used to the fast and 'mumbly' way native speakers talk. You can learn common slang used amongst French youth as well as their general culture/humour - but be careful not to use this slang in actual exams because some markers are anal and may mark you down for it (even though my teacher believes knowing slang and using it in informal registry is a sign of extensive knowledge of French). I hope this helps, I'm still in Year 11 and I would say most of my listening proficiency comes from watching so many of these videos Unfortunately there's no transcript for these videos unless you occasionally stumble across one with English subtitles, so sometimes you may not completely understand a video until you watch it again 6 months later with improved vocab.