Remember when you first started learning French?
It was likely difficult at first, as you needed to learn a new way of recognizing words and sounds. But, as you became familiar with the basics, your progress likely soared much more quickly than before.
But perhaps you’ve come to a plateau and are stuck on how to keep your progress going. Many learners struggle to boost their fluency from B2 to C1 or C2 because the material at this level is much more nuanced than at A2 through B2.
If you’re aiming to improve your French even more, here are 6 simple ways to help you boost your fluency.
1. Identify What to Aim for to Achieve C1 and C2 Level Fluency
First things first: we need to know what we need to know!
Recognizing the areas we need to improve is part one of this step. Do you need help with reading, writing, listening, or speaking? Do you understand French grammar and syntax?
Try taking a fluency test to see what level you’re currently at, if you don’t already know. You can find out more about the levels of French fluency and your specific level with online tests. They may not be the most accurate, but they can give you a ballpark idea of your level.
There are a few concepts you might be less familiar with that you’ll need to learn to achieve more fluency.
- Argot
- Glidings
- Locutions
- Idioms & Figures of Speech
- Vernacular/Dialect
- Jargon
How Will You Know You’re Fluent?
To reach the level of fluency where you can feel comfortable in virtually any French conversation, quickly listening and speaking with others, you’ll need to be sure you can answer “yes” to these questions:
- Do I understand new words by using context clues?
- Do I recognize sarcasm, jokes, and cultural references?
- Can I express my feelings and thoughts just as well as in English?
- Can I adapt my ideas to fit the conversation better?
- Can I structure my storytelling and writing in a logical, flowing way?
- Do I enjoy speaking, listening, reading, and writing in French because I don’t find it difficult?
- Can I keep up a long dialogue with other people in French?
- If I don’t hear, speak, read, or write French for a long period of time, am I able to recall what I know quickly when I am again exposed?
The goal of fluency is to be able to communicate fully with another section of people so your ideas can be adequately expressed, and you can understand others fully as well.
2. Come Up with a Study Plan
Now that we know what to aim for, we need to come up with a way to achieve our goals.
SMART Goals
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
Aim to create a SMART goal for each area of improvement you’re working on.
Methods of Improvement
Determine what exercises you want to do to improve. If you have a hard time speaking, but you can read perfectly, you likely don’t need to spend much time reading even more. Instead, focus more on the thing you have trouble with.
Come up with ways to solve your specific problems.
- To improve reading, find books, papers, articles, and parts of the internet in French that you enjoy. Read as much as you can and be sure to look up words and phrases you’re unfamiliar with.
- To improve writing, practice journaling in French. Write about your day, about a scenario (real or imagined), describe your dreams, write a letter to someone, write your opinions on a current event… anything you can think about, practice writing about it!
- To improve listening, utilize audio resources to train your ear.
- To improve speaking, practice speaking out loud as much as you can. Much like the writing practice, you can talk to yourself about things from your day and so forth. Record yourself to hear your accent and speed of speech to, later on, check if you’re making progress.
Make a Schedule
If you’re casually studying at this point, just try to practice for at least 1.5 hours per week, whenever you have time.
For serious learning, put aside study time to dedicate to your practice. Aim to study for 5 or more hours per week.
Determine How You Will Measure Progress
How are you going to be able to tell when you’re improving? If you don’t keep track, you might feel like you aren’t improving at all and get discouraged. That’s why it’s important to look at your past work from time to time and appreciate how far you’ve come.
Here are some ways you might consider measuring your progress:
- To measure reading progress, choose a difficult goal book that you would not be able to read easily at the beginning of this study course. When you can read it in your mind more fluidly and understand the plat, you’ll know that you have improved.
- To measure writing, you can take practice exams and check your answers versus past answers to see how you’re coming along. Perhaps you set a goal to be able to have a chat with a French speaker on an app or website without needing to resort to English.
- To measure listening, try putting on fast-talking audio and see if you can keep up with what’s being said.
- To measure speaking, set a goal like “Able to talk about zoo animals for 6 minutes straight.” This challenge should become easier and easier as you gain confidence in your vocabulary recall and pronunciation.
3. Utilize Resources for Learning
Rather than struggle on your own or solely with traditional resources, find what helps you learn the best.
Podcasts, Movies, TV, Music
To enhance your listening abilities, use audio tools to attune your ear to the French accent and way of speaking.
Books, Articles, Social Media, Textbooks
Read fun books and textbooks to build your reading ability in equal parts enjoyable and technical.
Anywhere you can read authentic French will help you gain your bearings.
Partner Up
With apps like Tandem or Busuu, you can find practice partners willing to teach you or learn with you. Practice all 4 skills as you read texts, write texts, listen to voice clips, and send voice clips to your study buddies!
Technical Speech
Perfecting the French accent is a challenging task for the vast majority of French learners. You can improve the way your mouth and tongue pronounce French words by watching articulation videos on YouTube.
Learn even more with French online classes taught by professional tutors on Superprof!
4. Regularly Practice Speaking
Even if you are already good at speaking French, ensure you continue to practice and use your spoken French frequently.
Practicing speaking will help you improve and maintain all the other areas of language as well.
And, since the French accent is notoriously difficult to master, you can never spend too much time making your pronunciation better!
5. Test Yourself
Take practice tests for French fluency every so often to see if there are topics or questions that are still difficult for you to answer. Identify what about the question is tricky for you, and use that input to formulate your next study plan.
Practice tests help you measure your improvement as well as give you great practice.
6. Build Your Historical and Cultural Awareness
One of the most important factors for any language is how the history and culture of the place that speaks the language has influenced it, and vice versa.
The way people think is different in different areas of the world. Understanding the general frame of mind of the people you’re communicating with and the language they use is vital to reaching that C2 French level.
Need Help Advancing in Your French Levels?
It can be difficult to learn advanced French on your own. After all, you likely had instruction for a large part of your French journey to this point!
If you need assistance learning, want a pronunciation coach, or simply need french language lessons, consider hiring a private tutor!
A private French tutor can help ensure that you learn the concepts you don’t already have a firm grasp on; you won’t need to spend much time going over things you already understand.
Tutors specialize in giving personalized and immediate feedback to help you succeed faster. They can work with your unique learning style, needs, and personality to help you reach the level of French you want in the time frame you want!
Advanced French is a difficult pursuit, but it’s possible to become fluent and be able to enjoy the French pocket of the world.
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