“How can I improve my French listening skills?” asked one of my students recently. “Try listening to more French” was my immediate reply.
Of course I didn’t just leave it there. We talked about suitable resources, including past listening exams, revision workbooks and BBC Bitesize. I introduced them to a popular French news website aimed at children, and to several resources on YouTube. We even spent some time talking about how you can change the language of some shows on streaming platforms or use subtitles (top tip – if you must use subtitles, then use the ones in the target language. If you use English subtitles you will simply ignore the spoken language and just read).
The reality is that if we expect students to do well at listening to French, German or any other language, then we must give them plenty of opportunities to practise doing so. So often with exam students, we focus only on the type of texts that they will find in the exam, rather than exposing them to a wider range of language from the start.
Listening exams for A Level Students – you will be called on to listen to texts and answer questions, but also to listen to texts and then produce a written summary of the key points. You don’t have to limit your practice to just the topics in the syllabus, or just people with a very clear accent, or even just to texts read at the standard pace. You need lots of types of language, lots of different accents, and lots of practice.
Listen to the news in your target language every week. Make notes on the key stories, then check to see if you got it right.
Listen to talk radio in your target language. Music radio often plays English songs. Lovely, but not constructively helpful.
If you can, watch TV in your target language. Whichever streaming platform you use, try to resist the use of subtitles, and if you really must, then use only subtitles in the target language. TV shows are shorter and more manageable than films. If you find one that you really enjoy then you will also be more motivated to watch different episodes and to keep coming back to it.
Don’t be afraid to pause the track and go back. In the A Level listening exam, you have the control over how you use the track. You can listen to it all the way though or pause and go back regularly. My personal choice is to listen all the way through once, to get the whole picture, then to listen in chunks to give me time to make the notes I need.
Above all, for A Level students in particular, don’t wait for your teacher to present perfect listening opportunities (and if they do show the news at lunchtime, make sure you attend!). There is a lot of material to cover, and not much lesson-time in which to complete everything. You will have heard teachers say that you should spend 5-6 hours a week in independent study. This is what they mean. Make regular listening practice an active part of your study plan.
Many of us who completed our education some time ago will have memories of the humble flashcard. A piece of card, usually white, upon which we would write vocabulary to be remembered, significant dates or scientific formulae. Things have moved on now, we are all in a digital world…aren’t we?
While there are several apps which you can use to make digital flashcards, there are many reasons why I still recommend my students use physical flashcards. Here are just a few:
A quick, condensed way to review the material that you need to learn.
Small and easy to carry in a pocket
Can be “jazzed” up with coloured pens and highlighters to make it easier to remember key information
The very act of writing flashcards and deciding what the key points are, is, in itself, an act of revision
Modern research suggests that physically writing the notes, rather than typing them, helps you to remember the information more easily.
Not only should we consider why a physical flashcard is a good revision tool, but we should also think about HOW we use them. Do we sit down for an hour or more, pouring over the words and hoping they stick? Or do we visit them often, for shorter periods of time?
This latter idea is called “Spaced repetition” and is a great way to improve your memory for vocabulary (and dates, formulae, key themes etc). The idea is that our brains can only focus for a certain amount of time. In addition, regular repetition of facts, vocabulary and concepts is a good way to move it from short-term to long-term memory. After all, we didn’t learn to talk in one long study session, and I certainly didn’t learn to tie my shoe-laces in one practice.
For spaced repetition to work well, for example with vocabulary learning, we need to commit to taking positive action about the items we do not remember so well in the first session or two. It may look like this:
Day 1 – Sit down with your flashcards, go through them one at a time, look to see the answer when needed. Go through them again, and make two piles – the terms you remembered and the ones you did not remember yet. Go through the “Not yet” pile one more time. If any are still remaining in the “Not yet” pile, then use them to make a sentence.
Day 2 – Sit down with the flashcards and try them the other way around (e.g. look at the English and try to remember the German). Be very honest about your “Yes, I got it!” and “Not yet” piles. Repeat the “Not yet” pile. Make sentences with them. Hopefully the pile is getting smaller.
Day 3 – Just use the “Not yet” pile to see if you can remember them.
Day 4 – rest
Day 5 – Practice with all, being brutally honest. If there are any left in the “Not yet” pile, then see what else you could do to help. Could you write them out 5 times? Write three different sentences for each one?
The photo you can see with this blog is of two flashcards made by one of my French students, to help remind them of how to form different tenses in French. Note the use of different colours and the different way each is laid out. This is done deliberately to help the student to have a separate “mind’s image” for each tense, helping them to differentiate between them.
PS – Flashcards are now available in a range of colours, so you can have a different set per topic, or subject! You can also get them in small sizes, linked with a metal ring.
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