Wednesday 29 December 2010

My favourite books to teach French

The books I use most for adults are 'Grammaire en dialogues' (CLE) by Claire Miquel, niveau débutant andniveau intermédiaire. They both come with a CD. These books are organized the same way: each lesson has a realistic dialogue to do with work or family life. It is followed by a grammar page then an exercise page. After a few chapters, there is a 'bilan' to practice the last chapters' grammar points. It's a good way of seeing if you need re-explaining and more practice. 

Most of my students also have 'Grammaire progressive du français', niveau débutant or niveau intermédiaire(the latter is the blue one shown here, the beginner's one is orange). 

More on the other books in another post. Feel free to email me or write a comment if you have questions. 

I would like to read simple stories in foreign languages

If you would like to read native French stories, you can buy some Easy readers. They exist for French, Russian, Greek, German, Spanish and Italian. Let me know if they exist in other languages.

There are organized in 4 categories: 

A: based on a vocabulary of 600 words

B: based .... "      of 1200 words

C: based...... "          1800 words

D: based on a vocabulary of 2500 words

You can find these 2 books below on amazon. If you find it hard going, it's normal, and trust me, it will become easier. Some have a glossary inside, at the end. Others have some pictures describing some words on some pages. Bonne chance! 

The books I use to learn Greek

 

Some books come from France, others from the UK. At the bottom, you can see a Greek Easy Reader in orange. It has a small glossary at the end. I wish it was more than 2 pages long.

The most important book in my learning is  Ellinika Tora 1 and 2. I'm now studying the 2. It took me at least 2/3 years to do the first one. 

Le mot et l'idée by Agnès Salvaterra is a book from France, it is only vocabulary organized in topics such as 'La maison', 'le corps', 'la religion', 'les sciences', 'expressions et proverbes'...