TA: ressources pour commencer (beginning resources)

Bienvenue (welcome) to my new students!  Since there's no point trying to pronounce words in any language if you don't know what the letters sound like, let's start with the alphabet....

"Military-style French Alphabet": An English-speaking French teacher walks you through her version of the alphabet, set to the rhythm of a familiar military cadence ("I don't know but I've been told…").  This ten-minute video is very thorough and offers opportunities to practice single lines at a time slowly and then build up to saying the whole chant more quickly:

Want someone to walk you through the alphabet ? Tom from easytolearnfrench.com is a young Frenchman who earnestly teaches Anglophone viewers.  Do watch this at least once so that you hear a native speaker pronouncing the letter names:

Want to keep practicing but don't want to keep watching these same two videos over and over?  (Oui!) These websites have simple pronunciation activities: From Chillola.com, click on the letter and repeat:

From About.com, words that start with each letter to listen to and repeat:

This page from the BBC focuses on the trickier sounds for anglophones, including nasal vowels.  Strangely, it neglects to include U.  (My high school French teacher always told us to "round your lips as if you're going to say "ooooo" but then say "eeeee" instead.")

And, finally, here's another activity that reinforces on the vowel sounds, courtesy of hello-world.com:

As you practice the alphabet, get your kiddos involved!  For example:

• watch the above videos and do the activities with them
• challenge them to spell their names and words they already know in French
• have a contest to find the person who can recite the French alphabet fastest (forwards, and then backwards!)
• in the car, look for the letters of the alphabet in order, racing to see who can find each letter first (announce the letter name in French, of course)
• play some spelling games on a tablet or smartphone (such as French Words for Kids or My First French Words)

Enjoy, and let me know if you have any questions!

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