How to move from B1-B2-C1 in French

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Arlandryyy333
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How to move from B1-B2-C1 in French

Postby Arlandryyy333 » Fri May 26, 2017 3:20 pm

Bonjour to all! :D I am new to this forum and so glad I joined! I am a french major college student that lives in New Orleans, I have been taking french classes for 3 years, only 2 in college. This journey has been filled with so much joy but also stress. Now that classes are over, I feel as if I still can not function at the level I should be at! Listening is extremely hard for me unless I am used to the speaker's voice. I can only understand bits and pieces of French television shows without subtitles. My speaking is absolutely horrendous in terms of pronunciation. :cry: Speaking is the area I wish to improve the most, but there is not much standard French speakers in New Orleans. I just do not feel as if I am applying my French well enough. :( I am at a B1 level hoping to reach B2 for sure within a couple months. Can anyone give me techniques and experiences... on how they were able to reach B2/C1 level in all aspects of a langage. Also would love advice on books to read and ways to improve my writing as well.
Last edited by Arlandryyy333 on Fri May 26, 2017 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How to move from B1-B2-C1 in France

Postby Theodisce » Fri May 26, 2017 6:39 pm

To improve your passive skills you have to expose yourself to hundreds of hours of French content (or thousands of hours if possible). You should focus on content that you have genuine interest in. Do not be troubled when you fail to understand. It will be harsh at first but if you endure it, your passive skills will increase, which in turn will improve your active skills as well. As for pronunciation, I'm not really sure what I could recommend you; perhaps hiring a tutor and focusing on the pronunciation until it's good enough may help. If you really fail to find native speakers of standard French in your area, going online will be the best option, I mean both language exchange and payed speaking practice. But I'm sure there are some events in New Orleans you could attend and interact with the natives. Being introverted (if this is your case) is an obstacle but you should not allow it to mess up with your language goal.

Plus, it may be a good idea to keep track of the hours you devote to your French.
Last edited by Theodisce on Fri May 26, 2017 8:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Arlandryyy333
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Re: How to move from B1-B2-C1 in France

Postby Arlandryyy333 » Fri May 26, 2017 7:29 pm

Theodisce wrote: It will be harsh at first but if you endure it, your passive skills will increase, which in turn will improve your active skills as well. As for pronunciation, I'm not really sure what I could recommend you; perhaps hiring a tutor and focusing on the pronunciation until it's good enough may help.

Plus, it may be a good idea to keep track of the hours you devote to your French.



Merci beaucoup!! I am a part of the Alliance Française in my city but I have only been to a few workshops. So as far as speaking comes that's the practice I get outside of my university French classes. I've been watching Engrenages and Call My Agent both are French shows, should I keep the English subtitles on, watch with French subtitles, or just watch it without any subtitles?
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Re: How to move from B1-B2-C1 in France

Postby aaleks » Fri May 26, 2017 8:09 pm

I can only speak about my experience with studying English, not French. Besides, as you can see, I’m not reach B2-C1 level in writing, so in this case I can’t help you, but, despite this fact, my listening skill is good enough to understand any native materials. I’ve had two ‘breaking through’ moments with this skill: the first in the beginning and the second somewhere about probably B2 -> C1. Both times that happened because of an overwhelming amount of listening and re-listening to the same material several times. Also I was listening to an audio playing in the background. The strange thing is that the latter somehow helped me too, even though I wasn’t always paying attention to what I listened to. Maybe I just became accustomed to the rhythm of fast native speech.
Last edited by aaleks on Fri May 26, 2017 9:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How to move from B1-B2-C1 in France

Postby reineke » Fri May 26, 2017 8:38 pm

I suppose you meant: How to move from B1 to B2/C1 in French. We already have some immersion threads and several how-to-reach (insert the desired CEFR level)-in-x-amount-of-time..threads. "Plateaus" and "learning curves" are popular themes, too.
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Re: How to move from B1-B2-C1 in French

Postby Voytek » Tue May 30, 2017 3:36 am

If you really care about the pronunciation (that's something I recommend to all) you should start with minimal pairs if you haven't done it already. Then find some good quality youtube guide for the French pronunciation and practice it with a hand mirror till you get there. If you want to sound "like a native" I recommend Olle Kjellin's method to you.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285234145_Quality_Practise_Pronunciation_With_Audacity_-_The_Best_Method

I used it with succsess with my Swedish pronunciancion.
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Re: How to move from B1-B2-C1 in French

Postby Cavesa » Tue May 30, 2017 8:20 am

As was said, hundreds of hours of content will take care of the comprehension. Get rid of subtitles. The English ones are damaging your learning. With the French ones, you'll need to make the leap of faith one day anyways, and it will be a "shock" no matter whether you wait a week or a decade before doing it, so the sooner you start, the sooner you improve.

Pronunciation: There are various things you can do. Sure, getting a good tutor might help, but vast majority of them is simply not good. Tutors tend to be too lenient, too encouraging. They are simply not as strict as they should be. Perhaps you will have less trouble with this than me, as most tutors focus on beginners and intermediates and therefore should be able to deal with at least the most obviuos stuff, but at the advanced level, they are usually useless. Repeating after audio of good quality is another very good method. It takes time, obviously. And some people simply hear the differences between themselves and audio better and some worse, so it is hard to predict how it will go for you. Another thing are the pronunciation guides, for example CLE and Didier published such books for learners, with explanation and audio.

Hundreds of hours of tv series will help with speaking as well. However, they should not be the only component, especially at your level. I am curious, I hope you won't see any offense in this as it is not meant that way: Is your level normal for students at your university, or did you have a particular trouble that you should remedy? If the degree is just crappy and includes only B1 French, than it is pretty obvious you should continue from there as any other intermediate learner not settling for the level. Grammar is necessary, you can use for example Grammaire Progressive series, and vocabulary and other stuff. Fortunately there are resources for intermediate learners. What coursebook have you been using so far? But if the other students are at C1 or C2, and you are not, perhaps it would be worth it looking at the process and trying to pinpoint what went wrong. Curriculum for a mass of students is bound not to suit everyone, perhaps there was an obstacle that needs removing first in order not to keep you from progress.
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Re: How to move from B1-B2-C1 in French

Postby tomgosse » Tue May 30, 2017 9:07 am

I found these videos from the University of Michigan helpful : French Pronunciation. I need to start reviewing them my self. :roll:

Bon courage,
Tom
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Re: How to move from B1-B2-C1 in French

Postby Ani » Tue May 30, 2017 10:05 pm

The CLE series Ponétique progressive du français is fantastic. It should help both listening and speaking.
Then lots and lots of hours, like everyone said. I vote for french subtitles ON to start. I found that after a while it was easier to listen then to read along, at which point I turned off the subs.
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Re: How to move from B1-B2-C1 in French

Postby kensor » Tue May 30, 2017 10:13 pm

Arlandryyy333 wrote:Bonjour to all! :D I am new to this forum and so glad I joined!


Hola, hello, et alia

Arlandryyy333 wrote:Can anyone give me techniques and experiences... on how they were able to reach B2/C1 level in all aspects of a langage. Also would love advice on books to read and ways to improve my writing as well.


You mentioned you're studying at a university. An opportunity to take a course in linguistics, or to do independent study, specifically of phonology, and phonetics as applied to French, may be of interest to you. The first course is usually an introductory overview, but subsequent courses can be quite detailed in particular aspects of interest. Short of taking a course, consulting with one or more faculty who teach these subjects may yield useful references and local assistance for you.

My local university has an English major with specializations, one of which is professional writing. Adapting those degree requirements toward your preferences with a French focus would, I suspect, go quite a way toward achieving the level of French mastery that you seek.
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