Zelfstudie – Frans voor beginners

2. Deep Relaxation Power Recording

Click on the Preparation tab and play the Deep Relaxation Power Recording. This audio is designed to put you into receptive mode and release any inhibition you might have regarding understanding and speaking the French language.

It is important that you play the audio before playing the lesson material for the first time. So, remember to play the DRPR first then move to the lesson. This will help you relax and feel at ease and comfortable when speaking and understanding French.

3. YOUR DIALOGUE RECORDINGS

You’ll feel as if you’ve learnt without making any conscious effort, and you’ll be surprised to see how much you’ve retained without actually realizing it.

And if you are already familiar with the basics of French you’ll be amazed at how words and sentences will re-emerge, reactivated by our method. You’ll be able to reconnect with all of the knowledge you already have, enabling you to use those words as well.

The recordings will also allow you to instinctively grasp the grammar, and feel like it just makes sense, turning it into an easy game rather than an obscure set of ‘formulae’ you need to learn by heart.

This way, you’re going to build a strong sense of instinctive understanding and you’ll feel like you’re learning in the same way children learn their native language.

The programme is organised in 6 lessons. To set you up for success we recommend that you play each lesson several times before moving on to the next. You can also replay and listen to previous ones. Why should you do it? Because repetition is your super power here! It helps you learn everything on a deeper level: the new vocabulary and sentences will become part of your system. We can’t stress this enough: repetition is key to help you achieve the results you desire! So, don’t hesitate, play those recordings as many times as you can.

You can use the recordings in two ways. You can relax and focus entirely on your lesson. That’s ideal. But you might say “Hey Eléonore, that’s great but I have a busy schedule and I’m not prepared to sit down and listen to the recordings that long, I thought this would be quick and easy!” That’s fine too, you just need to realise that you can listen to the recordings while doing something else; walking your dog, going to the gym, doing some house tidying or sitting in the train, etc.

Whether you choose to play your lessons while relaxing or prefer to be doing something else at the same time, either is fine and you can achieve the same results with both approaches.

Also, it’s essential that you repeat the sentences out loud, in the second half of the recording when you hear your teacher saying: repeat after me. Make sure you repeat everything out loud! It is an essential practice. Don’t worry if hearing your own voice feels weird at first: you are now training your muscles to reproduce French sounds correctly and speak with clarity. Just like with a workout at the gym, you’re now training your tongue, your mouth, your lips and your vocal folds to actually make sounds or sound combinations you’ve never made before. This is a crucial part of the process for you to be able to speak French in turn.

Getting accustomed to hearing your own voice speaking French is a wonderful gift to give yourself, and even if you feel some resistance at first, give yourself a safe space to speak and enjoy all these new words. Don’t worry that it doesn’t sound perfect straight away, trust that you are doing it right and that native speakers will easily understand you.

Maybe you find that there’s some things you can’t understand? It can happen, and in this case refer to the lesson text while listening to the recording. You’ll then be able to clearly hear the words that you didn’t understand before. Do this a few times and then listen again without the written text. You’ll see how much you can remember!

After playing your recording a few times, you might realize that you know the dialogue by heart. Congratulations! Now you can move on to the next lesson, or repeat and listen to this lesson as often as you want. Remember, the more repetitions, the more successful your learning experience is going to be.

4. YOUR EXERCISE VIDEOS

Each exercise video is designed to help you express yourself and create new sentences with ease. Just like with the dialogue recordings, make sure you speak out loud when repeating after your teacher. I know I said it before but this is absolutely crucial, and I really want to stress again how beneficial it will be for you to repeat the sentences out loud.

If you’ve already been trying to learn French in the past with a different method, you might understand French well but experience difficulties when trying to speak the language. Rest assured, this is normal; if you try to learn a language by analysing it and translating it, you’ll end up being able to understand and read the language well, but you won’t really be able to express yourself.

This is because learning to speak a new language is a truly creative process for your brain. Sure, your brain requires to analyze and understand, but it also needs the motor functions to be activated for speaking and pronouncing, and the creative functions to make new sentences. You need to create the neural connections necessary to link your understanding of the language to your ability to speak and express yourself in it.

Heart of Language approaches the learning process in such a radically different way: to enable you to make new sentences, simple at first, and to use new words in a natural way. You will feel like you have words flowing through you, like the language is fluid, and you can access the words you want to use when you need them.  This feeling will also enable you to communicate with to anyone you want, friends, your colleagues, your boss… You will learn to feel comfortable speaking French in any situation.

5. The Complete texts

You can download the complete programme texts here.