I wrote the below post in another thread, either for aspirants who want to use French TEF to boost CRS points, or for generally up-skilling while waiting for immigration process to move. I'll share some of my learnings and approach, maybe it will help others.
TEF is the only exam that CIC recognizes for a maximum of 22 points for French as second language. However the more widely known exam is DELF. DELF has six levels, A1 A2 till C1 C2. Commonly, TEF is considered equal to B2. So if we are absolute beginners from a non-french speaking country, we've to improve ourselves upto B2 level to get good points in TEF. You can go to Alliance Francaise website for your country to learn about these tests.
AFI recommends about 600 hours of study + practise for each level. Based on this, it will require about 1 year of dedicated study or many years of part time study and practise to score 10+ points in TEF. I know a forum member here, who studied part-time for 6 months and nearly full-time for 6 months, and improved his CRS by, guess what, 1 point. Yes, he took TEF test and got results that gave him ONE point. This isn't to discourage anyone but to portray the reality. Maybe based on your aptitude and quality of training, you'll get more.
However if one just wants to learn french because it will help after immigrating or as a hobby, then by all means go ahead without any stress.
Of course, the best way to learn french is to go to a french speaking territory and live there for an year. Many African and Asian countries also have french as an official language, so it need not be France or Canada. But only a very small minority can undertake this journey, so the next best alternative is to do "French Immersion" in the place where you are. French Immersion means surrounding yourself with french content as much possible. For example, reading newspapers, watching television, talking to friends and relatives etc can be in French to learn fast. Practicalities will allow you only partial immersion and it would delay your learning, but thats reality.
So how do we start. You can either goto classes or learn by yourself. I tried both, and chose the latter. I found classes were very structured, slow and spread over a long period of time. For example, A1 6 months, A2 another 6 months and so on. At this rate, one will take 2 years to get to B2. In this era of technology, there is a faster way, to use books and the internet effectively. However one need to be a good and experienced self-learner to use books/internet and learn oneself.
There are three parts to a language. Grammar, Vocabulary and Usage.
Grammar starts from alphabets, to parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective..) to formation of sentences (simple, compound, complex). Usage is the common spoken language as opposed literary forms in books and newspapers. To start with, I strongly recommend the book "Easy French Step by Step" by Myrna Bell Rochester. This will help you learn all basic grammar, vocabulary and usage. It is a book to be worked upon, and not just read. I read this book about 3 times to understand concepts clearly.
Depending on how effectively you learnt that book, you'll somewhere between halfway A1 and full A1 by the end of it. Now its time to start your immersion. Once you start immersion, you can also read in parallel the below two books "French Key Words and Expressions" for learning the expressions used colloquially and "French Sentence Builder by Eliane Kurbegov" to learn formation of french sentences. I didn't really need any further books. These 3 were quite sufficient to make good progress, complemented by other resources given below.
READING
I started reading with http://www.iletaitunehistoire.com. It is collection of kids story books in french. Please note that many stories are classics so they use Passe Simple, which is not used in contemporary french (replaced with Passe Compose). I also read "La Petit Nicolas" by Sampe Goscinny. It is a great read for a french beginner.
Also, I started reading La Monde or other french newspapers for my daily news. I of course used a dictionary as an aid. I recommend Hachette Oxford French English dictionary which has a book and a mobile app version, and has excellent content.
LISTENING AND SPEAKING
I did try some videos and movies and quickly had to make up my mind that I'll struggle here. Someone said that English speakers listen for consonants and French speakers listen for vowels. With so many different vowel sounds, it is crucial to train our ears for minor vowel sounds and it is not easy.
I would advice NOT to listen to regular french movies or news as beginner. It is discouraging.
I started watching children's videos in francaise with french sub titles, such as La Petit Nicholas, Téléfrancais, Les Amies C'est magique (My Little Pony) or Dora L'exploratrice in YouTube. If you want more, you can search for any popular kids cartoons "en francaise avec sous titres" in youtube/web.
Also, you can download "French Courses" andriod app by Magikapp that has many videos with titles specially designed for beginner french listening comprehension.
In addition to the two, you HAVE to find some people to practise your conversation. You can find them using www.preply.com, lang-8, italki.com or other language pairing web sites. I found a tutor in preply to practise my spoken french at $3 to $5 per hour. This is absolutely necessary!
Other web resources for listening
Radio Francaise International facile - Journal en francais facile: https://savoirs.rfi.fr/fr/apprendre-enseigner/langue-francaise/journal-en-francais-facile-du-25112015
(some 319 days worth of audio can be downloaded free)
The website and app - News in Slow French
Yabla.com has many videos - I subscribed for this site, but only for 1 month
VOCABULARY
It is true that if we know 10,000 most commonly used words in a language, we can understand 90% of regular usage. There are many websites that list the 10K most frequently used words in French, starting from 1 - etre. 2 - avoir, 3 - je, 4 - de, 5 - ne and so on. I recorded those words and their meanings, 100 at a time, and used to hear the recording while driving etc. This was very effective and I was able memorise about 2K words in 3 months and my french level improved substantially, even to the level of DELF B1.
I would recommend ensuring you know atleast the top 1000 words and really familiar with the next 1000. One can never move beyond beginner if we don't know what is the french word for car (voiture - comes at 600), computer (ordinateur - comes at 1200), neighbour (voisin at 1800) or each (chacun at 2400).. you get the drift.
Vocabulary lists
http://french.languagedaily.com/wordsandphrases/most-common-words-3
https://quizlet.com/10716652/flashcards
http://www.memrise.com/course/131111/5000-most-common-french-words-2/
http://www.lepointdufle.net/p/enfants.htm#fr
http://www.bonjourdefrance.com/exercices/contenu/17/preparationDelf/449.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/French/comments/jvkt4/some_free_but_still_good_quality_resources/
https://plus.google.com/+BryanDenny/posts/2x97mxTS3Kd
VERBS
French and Spanish have verb conjugations which make them a bit more challenging for English speakers. The Myrna Rochester book referred above, will already give you a head start with conjugations. In addition I wrote down Top 10, then Top 30, and then Top 100 verbs and used internet games to test my conjugations. It is interesting to learn and will become more interesting as you move forward.
https://conjuguemos.com/list.php?language=french
Linguasorb has a good listing of verbs that can be printed out
BOOKS
Easy French Step by Step by Myrna Bell Rochester
French Key Words and Expressions The Combined Book by Saul H Rosenthal
French Sentence Builder by Eliane Kurbegov (practice makes perfect series)
ANDROID APPS
SpeakEasy French Lite - for pronunciations of beginner sentences
News in Slow French
Reverso Context Traduction
Conjugaison VTFC, French Trainer and French Verbs Master for conjugations
Oxford Hachette En-Fr dictionary
GOOD WEB RESOURCES
http://www.fluentin3months.com/forum/resources/sources-im-using-for-french/
https://www.youtube.com/user/learnfrenchwithalexa/videos
http://www.iletaitunehistoire.com/
DELF 1 Practice
http://www.ciep.fr/en/delf-prim-delf-delf-junior-version-dalf-diplome-detudes-langue-francaise-diplome-approfondi-langue/listening-comprehension-exercise-1
DELF A2 book
http://www.goyalpublisher.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=category&virtuemart_category_id=138&Itemid=489
TEF VIDEOS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEA-HS_-mlM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTQEA4bNu3Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA3YECQDtOU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oQmWhOvo-4
Listening exercises:
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/f/frenchlisteningexercises/exercise1.asp?strReferringChannel=resources&strReferringPageID=tcm:4-724781-64
http://frenchtutorial.com/en/learn-french/present/group3
Translation website
http://www.systransoft.com/lp/french-english-translation/
Use traduction features for translation
WEB TIPS
https://sites.google.com/site/francaislyceemarrakech2/connecteurs/productionecrite
WRITING PRACTICE
https://sites.google.com/site/francaislyceemarrakech2/connecteurs/productionecrite
http://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/french.html
https://t.co/2umAbNxcuQ
La Parure + Audio CD (Level 1) (French Edition)
francaisfacile.com/cgi2/myexam/voir2.php?id=72469
TEF is the only exam that CIC recognizes for a maximum of 22 points for French as second language. However the more widely known exam is DELF. DELF has six levels, A1 A2 till C1 C2. Commonly, TEF is considered equal to B2. So if we are absolute beginners from a non-french speaking country, we've to improve ourselves upto B2 level to get good points in TEF. You can go to Alliance Francaise website for your country to learn about these tests.
AFI recommends about 600 hours of study + practise for each level. Based on this, it will require about 1 year of dedicated study or many years of part time study and practise to score 10+ points in TEF. I know a forum member here, who studied part-time for 6 months and nearly full-time for 6 months, and improved his CRS by, guess what, 1 point. Yes, he took TEF test and got results that gave him ONE point. This isn't to discourage anyone but to portray the reality. Maybe based on your aptitude and quality of training, you'll get more.
However if one just wants to learn french because it will help after immigrating or as a hobby, then by all means go ahead without any stress.
Of course, the best way to learn french is to go to a french speaking territory and live there for an year. Many African and Asian countries also have french as an official language, so it need not be France or Canada. But only a very small minority can undertake this journey, so the next best alternative is to do "French Immersion" in the place where you are. French Immersion means surrounding yourself with french content as much possible. For example, reading newspapers, watching television, talking to friends and relatives etc can be in French to learn fast. Practicalities will allow you only partial immersion and it would delay your learning, but thats reality.
So how do we start. You can either goto classes or learn by yourself. I tried both, and chose the latter. I found classes were very structured, slow and spread over a long period of time. For example, A1 6 months, A2 another 6 months and so on. At this rate, one will take 2 years to get to B2. In this era of technology, there is a faster way, to use books and the internet effectively. However one need to be a good and experienced self-learner to use books/internet and learn oneself.
There are three parts to a language. Grammar, Vocabulary and Usage.
Grammar starts from alphabets, to parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective..) to formation of sentences (simple, compound, complex). Usage is the common spoken language as opposed literary forms in books and newspapers. To start with, I strongly recommend the book "Easy French Step by Step" by Myrna Bell Rochester. This will help you learn all basic grammar, vocabulary and usage. It is a book to be worked upon, and not just read. I read this book about 3 times to understand concepts clearly.
Depending on how effectively you learnt that book, you'll somewhere between halfway A1 and full A1 by the end of it. Now its time to start your immersion. Once you start immersion, you can also read in parallel the below two books "French Key Words and Expressions" for learning the expressions used colloquially and "French Sentence Builder by Eliane Kurbegov" to learn formation of french sentences. I didn't really need any further books. These 3 were quite sufficient to make good progress, complemented by other resources given below.
READING
I started reading with http://www.iletaitunehistoire.com. It is collection of kids story books in french. Please note that many stories are classics so they use Passe Simple, which is not used in contemporary french (replaced with Passe Compose). I also read "La Petit Nicolas" by Sampe Goscinny. It is a great read for a french beginner.
Also, I started reading La Monde or other french newspapers for my daily news. I of course used a dictionary as an aid. I recommend Hachette Oxford French English dictionary which has a book and a mobile app version, and has excellent content.
LISTENING AND SPEAKING
I did try some videos and movies and quickly had to make up my mind that I'll struggle here. Someone said that English speakers listen for consonants and French speakers listen for vowels. With so many different vowel sounds, it is crucial to train our ears for minor vowel sounds and it is not easy.
I would advice NOT to listen to regular french movies or news as beginner. It is discouraging.
I started watching children's videos in francaise with french sub titles, such as La Petit Nicholas, Téléfrancais, Les Amies C'est magique (My Little Pony) or Dora L'exploratrice in YouTube. If you want more, you can search for any popular kids cartoons "en francaise avec sous titres" in youtube/web.
Also, you can download "French Courses" andriod app by Magikapp that has many videos with titles specially designed for beginner french listening comprehension.
In addition to the two, you HAVE to find some people to practise your conversation. You can find them using www.preply.com, lang-8, italki.com or other language pairing web sites. I found a tutor in preply to practise my spoken french at $3 to $5 per hour. This is absolutely necessary!
Other web resources for listening
Radio Francaise International facile - Journal en francais facile: https://savoirs.rfi.fr/fr/apprendre-enseigner/langue-francaise/journal-en-francais-facile-du-25112015
(some 319 days worth of audio can be downloaded free)
The website and app - News in Slow French
Yabla.com has many videos - I subscribed for this site, but only for 1 month
VOCABULARY
It is true that if we know 10,000 most commonly used words in a language, we can understand 90% of regular usage. There are many websites that list the 10K most frequently used words in French, starting from 1 - etre. 2 - avoir, 3 - je, 4 - de, 5 - ne and so on. I recorded those words and their meanings, 100 at a time, and used to hear the recording while driving etc. This was very effective and I was able memorise about 2K words in 3 months and my french level improved substantially, even to the level of DELF B1.
I would recommend ensuring you know atleast the top 1000 words and really familiar with the next 1000. One can never move beyond beginner if we don't know what is the french word for car (voiture - comes at 600), computer (ordinateur - comes at 1200), neighbour (voisin at 1800) or each (chacun at 2400).. you get the drift.
Vocabulary lists
http://french.languagedaily.com/wordsandphrases/most-common-words-3
https://quizlet.com/10716652/flashcards
http://www.memrise.com/course/131111/5000-most-common-french-words-2/
http://www.lepointdufle.net/p/enfants.htm#fr
http://www.bonjourdefrance.com/exercices/contenu/17/preparationDelf/449.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/French/comments/jvkt4/some_free_but_still_good_quality_resources/
https://plus.google.com/+BryanDenny/posts/2x97mxTS3Kd
VERBS
French and Spanish have verb conjugations which make them a bit more challenging for English speakers. The Myrna Rochester book referred above, will already give you a head start with conjugations. In addition I wrote down Top 10, then Top 30, and then Top 100 verbs and used internet games to test my conjugations. It is interesting to learn and will become more interesting as you move forward.
https://conjuguemos.com/list.php?language=french
Linguasorb has a good listing of verbs that can be printed out
BOOKS
Easy French Step by Step by Myrna Bell Rochester
French Key Words and Expressions The Combined Book by Saul H Rosenthal
French Sentence Builder by Eliane Kurbegov (practice makes perfect series)
ANDROID APPS
SpeakEasy French Lite - for pronunciations of beginner sentences
News in Slow French
Reverso Context Traduction
Conjugaison VTFC, French Trainer and French Verbs Master for conjugations
Oxford Hachette En-Fr dictionary
GOOD WEB RESOURCES
http://www.fluentin3months.com/forum/resources/sources-im-using-for-french/
https://www.youtube.com/user/learnfrenchwithalexa/videos
http://www.iletaitunehistoire.com/
DELF 1 Practice
http://www.ciep.fr/en/delf-prim-delf-delf-junior-version-dalf-diplome-detudes-langue-francaise-diplome-approfondi-langue/listening-comprehension-exercise-1
DELF A2 book
http://www.goyalpublisher.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=category&virtuemart_category_id=138&Itemid=489
TEF VIDEOS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEA-HS_-mlM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTQEA4bNu3Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA3YECQDtOU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oQmWhOvo-4
Listening exercises:
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/f/frenchlisteningexercises/exercise1.asp?strReferringChannel=resources&strReferringPageID=tcm:4-724781-64
http://frenchtutorial.com/en/learn-french/present/group3
Translation website
http://www.systransoft.com/lp/french-english-translation/
Use traduction features for translation
WEB TIPS
https://sites.google.com/site/francaislyceemarrakech2/connecteurs/productionecrite
WRITING PRACTICE
https://sites.google.com/site/francaislyceemarrakech2/connecteurs/productionecrite
http://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/french.html
https://t.co/2umAbNxcuQ
La Parure + Audio CD (Level 1) (French Edition)
francaisfacile.com/cgi2/myexam/voir2.php?id=72469
