Dix stratégies pour échouer en compréhension orale
A somewhat unusual approach from Commun francais setting out ten strategies that will cause you to fail at oral comprehension, rather than tips on how to succeed.
This is not as daft as it might sound since we all sometimes do things with the best intentions that hinder rather than help our progress.
It's generally good advice although on point 5, 'Regarder un film avec des sous-titres en langue maternelle', I'm not totally in agreement. I take the point that there will be a temptation for your concentration to drift from the spoken French to the English subtitles. However, I have found that the recommendation to watch instead with French subtitles can have its own problems. Quite often subtitles differ a little from the spoken words, which leaves you with the need to reconcile the two. This can be challenging as you try to comprehend the spoken words at the same time as trying to comprehend and compare the subtitles. Dealing with two streams of French in this way can in fact make life more difficult.
A further difficulty is obtaining French films with French subtitles. Streamed video often doesn't offer same language subtitles for foreign films and it's usually necessary to buy a French copy of a DVD to get French subtitles, which are generally included for the hard of hearing.
Point 8 is very important. Don't try to understand everything!
This is not as daft as it might sound since we all sometimes do things with the best intentions that hinder rather than help our progress.
It's generally good advice although on point 5, 'Regarder un film avec des sous-titres en langue maternelle', I'm not totally in agreement. I take the point that there will be a temptation for your concentration to drift from the spoken French to the English subtitles. However, I have found that the recommendation to watch instead with French subtitles can have its own problems. Quite often subtitles differ a little from the spoken words, which leaves you with the need to reconcile the two. This can be challenging as you try to comprehend the spoken words at the same time as trying to comprehend and compare the subtitles. Dealing with two streams of French in this way can in fact make life more difficult.
A further difficulty is obtaining French films with French subtitles. Streamed video often doesn't offer same language subtitles for foreign films and it's usually necessary to buy a French copy of a DVD to get French subtitles, which are generally included for the hard of hearing.
Point 8 is very important. Don't try to understand everything!