If you are teaching French in a part of the world where French is the minority language you may find it difficult to find authentic resources for your classes. With the help of the Internet, there are so many resources available to language teachers and our students. No longer must all our resources be a hardcopy in our hands.
How does one begin to search for resources? First and foremost, understanding your literacy goals for your students are is important. This may direct you to one form of resource over another. Below I have listed some resources I have used with my students with a brief description of how I have used them.
Romans/Livres: Some romans are available with an audio file that has a native French speaker reading the book. This is great for having students read along with the audio clip. In doing so, students hear native French speaker pronunciation, as well as an appropriate pace and tempo for speaking and reading. Here are two books I have used with my Core French 10-12 classes
Bebey, K. (2013). Enfin chez moi. Les Éditions Didier.
Marrama, T. (2021). Zeinixx. Independent.
Balados/Podcasts: Often podcasts have transcripts available on their website that students can read along with while listening to the podcast. Podcast can be short clips of information of 3-15 minutes, which is a good length for keeping student interest and attention.
Journal en français facile – rfi saviors
Youtube videos:
Audrey D – From Québec, Audrey covers culture, to accents, to food. A great way for students to hear different accents in Canada.
DocSeven – covers a wide range of topics from history, to culture, to geography. Its creator is from French Guiana.
Easy French – This is a great channel to provide authentic French resources to your students! The pace of the speakers is usually slow enough so students can follow along and you hear a number of accents (mostly from France).
OIFrancophonie – The channel of the Organization International de la francophonie has a number of useful, and eye catching, videos about the Francophone world. They also have a website (https://www.francophonie.org/) where you or your students can go to keep up to date with the Francophone world.
I am always looking for new resources that will show the wonders of the Francophone world, are relevant, and catches the interest of my students. If you have any to suggest, please share!