Need French speaking resources? I’ve got you covered!
I began teaching French 15 years ago, and the first thing I realized was that I had NO good teaching materials to get students speaking French in class. Good oral communication skills are so important in the world language classroom, but it’s not always easy to get students to talk.
Some of my students were shy, some didn’t want to mess up, and some just didn’t have the proficiency to perform at the level of course they were in. However, all of them wanted to be able to speak much more than they cared about conjugating verbs!
In those 15 years, I’ve taught FSL and immersion. Over the years, I’ve taught grades 4-12, so I’ve made resources that were really fun for my 9 year-olds and others that were really effective and fun for my 18 year-olds.
Here are some of my favorite French speaking resources!
French Speaking Cards
These are so much fun, because you can grab a few each day for a quick Q and A or use one of the structured activities explained in the packs for a fun new way to get students speaking French.
These school-themed cards were a favorite of my French 1 middle schoolers during our À l’école unit.
Here’s my favorite way to use these:
1. Print and cut out the questions, and give each student a question that they will ask to the class.
2. If space allows, have the students form two circles. The inside circle should face the outside circle and each student should have a partner. If you have an odd number of students, just rotate a student in after each round. If you don’t have space (I never do!) just have them make two lines facing each other.
3. Pick a side/circle to start asking the questions. All students should respond as thoroughly as they can, and always in complete sentences!
4. Switch sides.
5. Rotate one student to the left or right. Only one circle or line will move during this activity.
6. When finished, collect all questions, then ask the class to give sample answers.
Even the less talkative students will benefit from this, because they won’t be singled out to talk in front of the whole class. 🙂
These French conditional speaking prompts were really popular with my AP French class as we prepped for their big exam. They were also really popular with middle school immersion!
French Find Someone Who
I love these survey-style activities for beginners, because they are great at getting students to answer using complete sentences. Because they are practicing with very specific structures, even intermediate students can benefit from these activities when reviewing structures like the imparfait or the futur simple.
This futur proche speaking activity is my go-to when teaching the verb aller, because it really helps students understand conjugated and infinitive verbs. Because they need to answer in the negative form at times, it’s a great way to practice that, too!
Find all my French find someone who activities here.
French Board Games
These aren’t exactly speaking activities where students are conversing, but they are created to be done orally. I love these, because students have a lot of freedom when choosing their answers. It’s really easy to create differentiated French activities, because you can require students to provide a one or two word answer, respond in complete sentences, or even incorporate specific words from a French vocabulary list.
When my students have a new vocabulary list they are practicing with, an image-based game like this French chores vocabulary game is a lot of fun. They have the freedom to create original sentences, and because they get to play with a group, it’s a fun way to get those new words down!
When we’re working on verb conjugation, I love playing verb-based board games like this French -er verbs game. You can have students just conjugate the subject and verb, but it’s really easy to make it more challenging by having them use complete sentences.
Find all my French board games here.
French speaking dice
These are definitely were a favorite of my younger students! Students roll the dice and make sentences using the words shown. Use the subject die along with the image die to make it more challenging, or just have them use the image die to practice with the vocabulary. This speaking activity also includes a writing page, so students can do this alone or as a learning center rotation.
This set of French clothing vocabulary dice is extra fun, because it includes different dice for summer and winter clothes, so you can even talk about the weather if you want.
