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Foundation GCSE French reading aloud help

One subscriber to my site requested more reading aloud resources for the new GCSE. Now, you can have a debate about whether it's right to have a read aloud section in the Speaking test — overall I'm not in favour — but it's here for now and Foundation students will find it a challenge, much more so in French than Spanish or German, for the obvious reasons. (Is this fair??)

High-flying GCSE French candidates will find the read aloud a breeze, as long as they don't overthink it. By Y11, the strongest students have already mastered a good level of pronunciation and can read off the page with confidence. So teachers need not spend much time on this element in the run-up to Speaking tests. Foundation candidates may, however, benefit from targeted, last-minute help. And when you look at the challenges of reading aloud in French, it's no wonder many struggle.

So whereas many students read aloud well, having picked up the skills largely implicitly, with some explicit focus on the trickiest areas, those aiming at, let's say, grades 3-5, need support.

With that said, I'm copying in here the resource I wrote which comes with some teacher intsructions in the middle. Feel free to copy and past if you think it's useful. But don't forget! My site has roghly 2500 resources, including many specifically written for exam prep. Your support would be very welcome.


Sentences to read aloud with notes on phonics

Teacher’s notes

The examples below are for the benefit of weaker students who have not acquired good pronunciation and sound-spelling habits over the years. Many students do this very well already, though the -ent ending on present tense verbs is a persistent problem in my experience.

How to use these?

1.   You could read them aloud, then do choral repetition or delayed choral repetition to encourage mental rehearsal and stronger memory traces.

2.   Give a commentary as suggested.

3.   Then get pairs to read aloud the same examples and correct each other. Monitor carefully.

4.   Then get students in pairs to try other similar examples (see the next page). These ones just have potential problem areas emboldened.


1. Le petit enfant joue dans le jardin vert.

Watch: petit (silent ‘t’), enfant (nasal 'an', silent t – risk of interference with ‘infant’ in English), jardin (nasal 'in'), vert (silent ‘t').

2. Elles habitent à côté de la gare.

Watch: Elles (s pronounced to liaise with habitent), habitent (silent 'ent'), c̫t̩ (check ̩ is pronounced Рpossible interference with c̫te)

3. Nous avons acheté du pain et du poisson.

Watch: avons (nasal 'on', mute s), acheté (check 'é' is pronounced), pain (nasal 'in' – possible interference with English pain), poisson (double 'ss' = /s/). The ‘s’ on ‘avons’ is optional. Watch the double ‘s’ in poisson – students often mispronounce ‘dessert’.

4. Il fait très froid, alors je mets un manteau.

Watch: froid ('oi' = /wa/) and silent d), alors (silent 's'), mets (silent 'ts'), manteau ('eau' = /o/) and nasal sound om ‘man’.

5. Ma sœur préfère les fruits et les légumes.

Watch: *sÅ“ur* ('Å“u' = /Å“/), préfère (accent aigu and accent grave = /e/ and /É›/) – students may say ‘préféré’), fruits (silent 'ts') – risk of interference with English fruit, légumes (silent 's').

6. Ils vont au cinéma avec leurs cousins.

Watch: vont (nasal 'on', silent t), au ('au' = /o/), cin̩ma (watch accuracy of the vowels РEnglish interference), leurs (silent 'rs'), cousins (nasal 'in', silent 's').

7. La jeune fille blonde a les yeux bleus.

 Watch: jeune ('eu' = /ø/), fille ('ill' = /ij/) – possible interference with ville, blonde (nasal 'on' and d pronounced), les yeux (s pronounced – liaison), bleus ('eu' = /ø/, silent 's' – possible interference from English blue).

8. Tu as pris ton petit-déjeuner à la cantine ?

Watch: pris (silent 's'), uvular ‘r’, ton (nasal 'on', silent n)), petit-déjeuner (silent 't' in 'petit', 'eu' = /ø/), cantine (nasal 'in', possible interference from English canteen). Check question intonation.

9. Nous habitons dans une belle maison blanche.

Watch: habitons (s on nous pronounced (liaison), silent 'h', nasal 'on'), dans (nasal 'an', silent s), une ('u' = /y/ - check precision here), belle (check the ‘ll’ is a light l, not an English-sounding dark ll)), *maison* (nasal 'on'), blanche (nasal 'an', 'che' = /ʃ/).

10. Les magasins sont fermés le lundi.

Watch: magasins (silent 's', nasal 'in'), sont (nasal 'on', silent 't'), fermés ('é' = /e/, silent 's'), lundi (nasal 'in').

 

The further examples with awkward areas in bold.

1. Mon père achète du fromage au marché.

2. Les enfants jouent dans leur chambre pendant une heure.

3. Hier soir, j'ai vu un film français intéressant à la télé.

4. Tu peux me passer le sel et le poivre, s'il te plaît ?

5. Les garçons préfèrent les jeux vidéo aux livres.

6. Elle a les cheveux longs et les yeux marron.

7. Nous prenons toujours le train pour aller chez grand-mère.

8. Il fait beau aujourd'hui, je vais à la plage avec mes amis.

9. Les fleurs de son jardin sentent très bon.

10. Vous avez combien de cousins et de cousines ?

11. Le vieil homme traverse la rue rapidement.

12. Ma sœur et moi, nous aimons manger un bon dessert.

13. Ils ont acheté une nouvelle voiture le mois dernier.

14. Tu as fini tes devoirs avant de regarder la télé ?

15. Les oiseaux chantent tôt le matin dans les arbres.


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