French B2 by 16th June

[samc]

Hello everyone

I've been learning French for a while now, but I've focused exclusively on reading up till now. I can read a French novel quite comfortably now, only having to look up two or three words per page. But I can't comprehend the spoken language at all and can barely speak it either. The DELF B2 is held in London almost exactly three months from now. I want to pass it, and I think I have a good shot because my passive base is quite extensive.

I'm currently studying a masters in finance, which is quite intense, so I think I can only spare between two to three hours a day. I've already gone through the first half of FSI basic French, which I found quite helpful. I took a look at Assimil, but the beginner's course is a little dull so I'm going to start with Using French. I'm also going to read French books while listening to the audiobook to connect what I'm reading to the sounds of the language. Lastly, I'll write 100 to 200 words a day on lang-8 answering these questions: http://iteslj.org/questions/

So my plan is
Read one chapter of a book a day while listening to the audio (Harry Potter at the moment)
1 chapter of Using French
One quarter unit of FSI French Basic
100-200 words on lang-8
I might go through one episode of RFI journal en francais facile, if I have time

I will update this log every couple of days. If anyone has any advice, it would be appreciated, especially regarding how to pass the DELFs

SamC

[Carmody]

Have you checked out Google for test questions and YouTube for ideashttps://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=french+delf+b1+

Also books at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=DELF+B2

[DaveBee]

Welcome to the forum!

For your listening comprehension, perhaps if you could find something where your subject knowledge would help you follow the topic?

Many french language radio/TV website have resources searchable by subject area: finance on France Culture, économie on France Inter etc.

TV5monde and RFI have a number of resources to help language learners, many graded by A1-B2 level.

[Fortheo]

Good luck. Reading text while listening to the audio is great and I've found that it helps my listening a lot, but I also recommend that you spend some time to dedication to listening only (no text), so that you can focus on that one task.

You have a pretty solid plan. I hope it works out for you!

[blaurebell]

For me the thing that got my listening comprehension up to speed was watching dubbed series. If your reading comprehension is already at a good level, you'll have no problems catching up with listening, because it's only a question of recognising the words, not lack of vocabulary. The way I did it was to watch the first season of a dubbed series with target language subtitles and then I just continued through the rest of the series without subs. The great thing about series is that you get used to the voices of the main characters and there are usually enough changing characters on the side to give you a variety of speakers.

Pick a show with at least 7 seasons and 40min episodes, ideally something that you find interesting and fun to watch, maybe even something you've watched before and where you know the plot. With French I watched Buffy (7 seasons), with Spanish all of Stargate (22 seasons). And many years ago watching all of Star Trek (28 seasons) was also the basis for my English listening comprehension. Action series are good because it won't matter so much if you miss any details, you'll still know what's going on. Why dubbed series? Voice actors tend to enunciate better, you can usually find reasonably accurate subtitles and there is much less slang, which you won't need for your B2 anyway. One whole series of 7 seasons is about 115h of exposure in total, which is a very good start, and you can watch it when you want to relax anyway or while you're cooking or eating - the latter is even better because you will start to learn to understand it even with lots of background noise. Don't use subtitles after the first season, it will slow you down considerably if you do! By the third or fourth season you should have about 90-95% comprehension and by the end of the series you should understand virtually everything you hear in the series. Continue with maybe another 50h of France culture and you should have no problems at all during the listening part of your B2 exam. If you get through all of that watching and listening, just keep going with native series.

And the best thing: Even something as useless as watching silly action series actually turns into a productive activity. It works! In my Spanish classes I was always the best in the listening comprehension tasks, because I just switched all my pointless procrastination to Spanish TV. Stargate is like 22 seasons, that's 360h of TL exposure while essentially "wasting my time" or ... actually not! Star Trek is a whopping 470h and I've actually watched all of it 4 or 5 times by now! Whenever I learn a new language, I just switch most of my TV to that language and re-watch my favourite series.

[Cavesa]

Hi,

I pased DELF B2 in 2010, with 50/100, which is the minimum. Part of my not stellar result were mistakes I am afraid you are about to make. Sorry, to sound negative, but there is stuff i learnt from the experience and perhaps you'll find some of it interesting. After the experience, which was quite discouraging, I passed DALF C2 in 2015 with a good grade, and especially good grade at speaking+listening.

3 months to the exam: it's high time you started working with preparatory books. That was my main mistake. Yes, you can pass without opening any, I did. But you will do yourself a favour by buying at least one and going through the exercises. As usual, test taking skills are important.

One of the troubles is writing. Some free 200-300 words long posts on lang8, that sounds nice, but it is almost useless for the exam. You should practice the typical tasks you are likely to get. Why? Firstly, the french care more about the form than the brits in their exams, it is not just about pure language skills. But that is more important at the C levels. Secondly, the tasks , while trying to look real-life like, can be pretty crazy. I had to write a complaint about damaged goods I receved from an eshop. Something I wouldn't waste more than five lines for in any language, including my native one. But I had to write the one page or so (cannot remember the word count) and that was a hell. So, try out stuff you need to know, avoid the shocks. When you are a bit more comfortable, tr writing with a stopwatch. Try out how large part of the limit should YOU keep your thinking and structure creation within, in order to finish the result text in time.

Listening: there are more parts to my advice here. My listening in 2010 was pretty poor, but still better than my speaking (a bad result, coming from a weird subject, my low skills, and non-standard examining conditions I should have complained about immediately and have them rectified). In 2015, Listening was above the C2 requirements , the audio seemed suspiciously easy, and speaking was very good. (Much better than writing ). What chnged? Approximately 250 hours of tv series. Yes, I was speaking for several hours before the exam with a tutor but I didn't improve during that time (we were focusing more on my writing, and I am actually disappointed, thinking about the mistakes he simply let pass, I don't think it was well invested money, I should have found someone much more strict). The huge amount of listening helped.

Of course, you don't have 250 hours just for listening, nor should you, you are going for B2, not C2. But I agree with the advice given here: find a good quality dubbing (those are in general easier than originals) and go through at least two seasons, three if you can, more if you get extra time. Get immersed in it.It will feel tough at first, but it will be a good investment. Your listening will get to the needed level, even though it won't be enough immersion time to have a larger effect on speaking, in my opinion, you really need more for that.The second part of your listening preparation should be tasks from your preparatory book. If you can get through one r two such books, you should be prepared. I am not saying RFI is bad, it is not. But you don't have time to waste on stuff that might be too easy or very different from the likely exam content. The usual topics get more or less regurgitated, that is anohter bonus.

Audiobook HP is not bad, in general, but I think it may be too easy. In DELF, they use radio bits and similar stuff, not such extremely clear one speaker audio. And if you still need to "connect the spoken and written French", you are probably not ready for B2. So, I suppose you are just underestimating yourself with this activity.

Reading: Regular reading is a great learning activity. No doubt about that. But! From my experience, I don't think one chapter a day is useful.
I found it much better to spend an hour or two reading just twice per week, rather than a few pages per day. But this might be individual, I admit. But anyways, you seem to be reading really well already , so perhaps you should focus on other activities, since you have just 3 months before the exam. That is just based on my experience: it is so easy to procrastinate from the harder study methods with a good book

Your courses. I am not arguing against their quality in general, not at all. The problem is, that neither FSI nor Assimil (don't trust the label on the cover) are made to give you the base for a particular CEFR level. Classical classroom aimed courses are better at giving us the idea of what is expected at the level, in terms of grammar, vocabulary, writing genres, and listening, despite the fact that they are not sufficient on their own. They try to include speaking and writing activities and ideas too, which is another bonus. The trouble is that majority of classroom aimed French courses is really crappy. I fioud two series to be useful: Alter Ego and Édito, while I personally liked Édito more. Perhaps the preparatory books can serve instead of such courses, perhaps not, it is up to your consideration.

For some supplements, some of which could be used instead of normal courses like Édito perhaps, are Grammaire Progressive and Vocabulaire Progressif by CLE, niveau Avancé. Or, there are, I think CLE is to thank again, books Production Orale and others, named after the skills you are to train with them, and they are CEFR labeled.

I really hope I haven't just discouraged you.

[samc]

I am extraordinarily grateful for all the comments and advice you've all given.
I've been preparing for a meeting with my dissertation supervisor tomorrow, but after that I'm going to think about improving my learning plan in line with your advice. I'll post a more thorough update tomorrow evening.

Samc

[samc]

Ok, new plan. What you all wrote (especially what Cavesa wrote) made me realise that if I want to reach my goal of B2 by mid-June I need a better plan.

Over the past couple of days I have been following this:
3-5 hours per day comprised of a mix of French TV (with subtitles), Listening-Reading Harry Potter and RFI Journal en Francais Facile, going through the videos and exercises on TV5Monde, doing one or two Assimil chapters, and casually listening to RFI or Harry Potter with no written accompaniment. I have taken a book out from the library that is focused entirely on written French, which I will go through assiduously, and I have downloaded Alter Ego B1 and B2.

I'm pleased with my progress over just the past two days. I've gone from understanding almost nothing orally, to being able to pick out a significant amount of words and phrases. As I hoped, my terrible aural skills are quickly catching up with my much better reading skills.
I'm keeping a record of the amount of hours I put in each day to keep myself on target.

So far I've been aiming for quantity of material rather that quality of comprehension, and I've seen limited but good results so far. I was wondering if anyone has any opinions on this style of learning, specifically whether it is better to go over and over a piece of material until one can understand everything perfectly without written aid, or whether its better to cover as much material as possible without worrying about perfect comprehension.

SamC

[rdearman]

So far I've been aiming for quantity of material rather that quality of comprehension, and I've seen limited but good results so far. I was wondering if anyone has any opinions on this style of learning, specifically whether it is better to go over and over a piece of material until one can understand everything perfectly without written aid, or whether its better to cover as much material as possible without worrying about perfect comprehension.
SamC

In my opinion it is both. Find yourself a small 2-5 minute segment and listen to it again and again while trying to transcribe it. (You can find free transcription software for your web-browser here) while you listen extensively on an ongoing basis.