Helping Your Child in French as a Second Language

The Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) encourages families to support their children through their French as a Second Language educational experience. By providing on-going support and positive encouragement, students will gain more confidence in their language skills. This can make a significant difference to your children's achievement in French.

What families can do to support

Here are some helpful tips to support your child in French:

• Help your child make connections between their first language and French
• Point out French in your community (i.e. signs, labels, brochures, neighbours, street names)
• Provide some language and cultural experiences outside of school

View the Ministry's Guide to Supporting Your Child’s Success in French Immersion and Extended French for more information on how to support your child.

Bring French into your home

To encourage your child to strengthen their French skills outside of the classroom, try bringing French into your home. Here are some ideas you can explore.

How to help your child read French

By helping your child read French you help lay the groundwork for positive learning. There are many ways you can support them even if you do not speak French. For example, you can:

• Read books with repetitive words and phrases
• Find stories and poems about relatable, everyday experiences
• Find reading materials that are fun (i.e. riddles, silly rhymes, funny songs etc.)
• Ask for their opinion about a French story by talking about the pictures and predicting what may happen next
• Have your child retell a French story they read or draw pictures of their favourite part
• Listen to French audio books
• Play French word games

We encourage you to continue helping your child read French even once they can read. If you have concerns about your child's reading development discuss your concerns with their teacher.

Mini lesson on pronunciation

While there are significant differences between the sounds of the vowels in the two languages, the consonants are essentially the same. If you are trying to help your child in their reading or pronunciation of French words, here are some quick pointers. For example:

• “h” is always silent in French
• An “s” at the end of a word to indicate the plural is silent
• “qu” sounds like “k” (not like “kw” as in quick)
• “th” is pronounced “t”
• “ch” is pronounced like the English “sh”
• “i” is pronounced like the long English “e” (bee)
• “ou” in French always sounds like “ou” in group (not out)
• “oy” and “oi” sound like the “wa” in water
• “au” and “eau” have the long “o” sound (so)
• “ez” has the long “a” sound (way)
• Accents change the sounds of vowels while “e” sounds much like the short English “e” (deck) while “é” sounds has the long a sound (hay)
• Stress falls on the last sounded syllable (“ami” sounds like “am-ee”). Words that begin with a vowel (or a silent “h”) are usually joined with the last consonant of the preceding word. It will sound as though your child is reading one word instead of two.