Gaining Confidence With Your Written And Spoken French

Wouldn`t it be great if we could look inside our minds and work out how we learn languages like French ? And find out why it is that some people can pick things up very quickly, often with other languages as well, while others struggle with remembering words, phrases, verbs, tenses and the like ... frustrating to say the least ! After all, we have more or less the same opportunities to learn at school or at college, and are of much the same level of intelligence and potential for the most part.

Maybe there are clues in how we learn to speak our own language at a very young age, when our minds are open to picking things up in the way that suits us best - be it visual learning (from written material, or matching facial expressions with sounds), aural learning (the sounds of the words that lodge in our minds) or kinetic learning (associating words with actions, doing things, or having things done for us). Very often it is a blend of these three styles that helps us develop our language skills at a young age. And along with this comes a lot of daily repetition, at certain times, with certain sounds and specific things happening (food time, bath time, play time etc.)

The challenge we have with learning languages like French is that our schools / colleges / learning places often do not have enough resources to help all of us to have our own learning plan and way of working that suits us best. The style offered by your teachers at school / college will work for students who "get it" within the chosen learning environment without any outside help. This suggests that the style of teaching offered at the place of learning is therefore not for everyone - and so some will be naturally disadvantaged.

This is not to say that schools and colleges are not doing a good job - it is just more complicated than that ... if you are in a class of 20-30, that means that for each subject, 20-30 learning plans should be in place for each subject - far too high a workload for busy schools with the resources they have.

So, how does gaining confidence with your French link with the above ? It may well be that the way that you are taught the language, or how you get on with your teacher, is not optimised for you developing your confidence with your French language skills. You may feel that Teachers go too fast, too slow, don`t encourage you enough in the way that suits you best, have enough time for you, or fill in enough of the rich story of life in France for the subject to come alive for you, get your attention and make it enjoyable to learn, develop and practice. These feelings can discourage confidence and mean that you are not doing as well as you could.

If you have a desire, means and goals with a subject like French, one to one tutoring can help you develop your confidence in the language and bring significant benefits and success to your learning. With a personal tutor, you can develop your confidence in your learning in a way that suits you - once you have worked together to uncover your learning style, what triggers you picking up words, phrases and tenses (and just as importantly remembering them) - and encouraging you in the right way at the right time. Oh, and I forgot another important thing for deep learning - fun !