How to Teach English to a French Speaker

French speakers - at least Europeans - have a Latin mind and don't like to get stressed. Latin have less discipline than Germans, Brits or Americans. For instance, while any French speaker would agree with you when you say "don't whine, do it!" the sentence doesn't have the same meaning for them than it can have for you. Aggressiveness isn't an option either. Work to their rhythm, it will be profitable to both you and your student.

It is also important to know that all French speakers don't speak alike. For instance, Belgians, Frenchies and Swiss don't always speak French in the same way: the pronunciation of some words is different, even the meaning and the context of use of these words can be different. Last but not least, their accent is quite different and therefore their ability to learn English and any other foreign language.

As simple example, while Belgians and Swiss use "seventy" and "ninety", Frenchies use "sixty-ten" and "eighty-ten". While Frenchies and Belgians use "four-twenty", Swiss use "eighty". Complicated, uh?

Unlike other people on Earth who hear/understand or comprehend seven (or more) different sounds, French speakers only comprehend up to two sounds of a language; mostly because most of our French sounds are "dumb sounds" or silent; i.e. "an", "in", "un", "on", "eu", "au", "ai", "ouin", "oin", "ion", "eau", etc.

In addition, we do not pronounce all letters of a word and most ending consonants of our words are silent unless they're followed by a vowel.

This is the reason why they are the worst language students. It's not their fault. It is simply the principle of the French language. So, when you teach English to French speakers, have some tips ready for them to understand how to pronounce your language properly.

Yep! Tip number three talks about how fast your speak. I've had English classes with both Americans, Brits and Belgians. Obviously, Belgians were the ones who spoke most slowly and in a most understandable way. The reason being that they too were basically French speakers. Of course, my American and English professors spoke normally but not too fast, in a way that we understood what they said.

So, make a point of speaking clearly and don't eat parts of your words, otherwise your English student will copy your way of speaking and therefore their sentences will be disastrous.

Any language teacher makes use of the phonetic alphabet. While this might look complicated to some, it is important to teach your English student how to pronounce the letters/sounds/words and recognize their signs.

Yes! The previous chapter was quite short! Of course... while it is important to recognize the phonetic alphabet, it is more important to recall that French speakers only recognize one or two sounds and the phonetic alphabet might not be sufficient to help them pronounce English properly.

Therefore I would suggest you to create some graphics that will help them. The graphics above might look funny but they would really "show" a French speaker how to pronounce English words. Actually, I translated the english words into French sounds - some of them sound by sound. And I insisted on some sounds as, for instance, the French pronunciation of the letter "W" in France is "V" and in Belgium is "W" like in English.

Example 1 French pronunciation of Orleans --> Orl-é-an (dumb "an" - French "é" - silent "s") --> Orl-ay-an
Example 2 French pronunciation of journey --> j-ou-rn-è (dumb "ou" - French "è") --> J-oo-rn-ay

I'm pretty sure you don't want your student pronounce English this horrible way!

How do I teach a French person to say the "th" sound?

Easy: tell them to do like if they would have ONE hair on their tongue (Frenchies can have whether one or more hair, lol).

English conjuguation! My personal nightmare! I'm currently level B2 on the European Language Chart, however, I still have to think twice when I write something that involves conjuguation and I'm pretty sure that I still make mistakes!

Therefore it is highly important to teach your French speaking student that they have to forget about French tenses. Let's take an example: we use simple past in literature and not in everyday language, so your student will have to learn that the English simple past is NOT the same as the French one. We don't have present and past continuous tenses in French so give them tips on when and how they'll have to use it.

It is very important to teach your English student how to structure/build their sentences. Indeed, French is a special language with sentences built in a certain way. However, when a French speaker translate their sentences, their English or any other foreign language, becomes a massacre.

So, you will have to convince your student that they don't have to pay attention to how the sentence would sound in French, the only important thing, when learning a new language is to worry about how the sentence would sound in this very new language.

For instance, explain why they are going to write "Hope to HEAR from you soon" to someone whom they are expecting to get a LETTER from. Or why they're going to meet your friends ON Friday (in French would mean "upon") and not simply Friday.

One of the things I learned when I started the Internet is that American English is different than British English. Indeed, while as a French speaker, I had to recall those specifications of the oral English - how do you pronounce "Worcestershire sauce" or even "'Worcester Sauce"; which is supposed to be easier to pronounce? - I discovered that Americans pronounce the words like I would do - by pronouncing almost all letters of the words.

One of the best ways to know how much your student evolved is by having them make a presentation. Let them choose the topic of their presentation or else, if you teach a particular side of the language - for instance Commercial English - ask them to make a presentation related to one Commercial related field, such as Marketing, Negotiation, Dealing with Complaints, etc. Require that they use the vocabulary you taught during the classes.

A presentation will allow your student to make the most out of their knowledge. Take note of all their errors during the presentation and correct them orally afterwards. Send your student a written copy of their mistakes along with the corrections so that they will better understand where and when they make mistakes.

After their presentation, give your student an English assessment chart so that they can learn how much they progressed and improved their English practice.

Above all, make your student happy and congratulate them for their efforts.