Bon Travail! Great Tips for Helping Primary Pupils to Master Learning French

Teaching foreign languages at primary level can be challenging, but often enormously rewarding. Learning another language can help pupils to gain better understanding of their home language too; discovering where words come from and giving them the confidence to make comparisons with their own language and culture.

Some top tips to get the best from your French primary lessons

There are many ways to get your class really actively engaged with the French language, and as a teacher, you've probably got a lot of tips of your own to share.

If you're looking for further inspiration, here are just a few top tips for you to use in your next French lesson.

  • Create a whole class display. Pupils of all ages respond really well to visual stimulus, and in particular, colourful wall art can really assist with the learning process. As a class, prepare a list of common French words and assign a word to each student, for them to draw an accompanying picture to. Then stick them all up on the wall as a useful reminder each lesson.

    Choose from our wide range of French resources here:

  • Have an 'assistant'. Enlisting the help of a French speaking 'assistant', such as a hand puppet or cuddly toy, is an excellent way to get kids used to hearing the language spoken aloud. Pupils will interact with the 'assistant' in a playful way, which always makes the process of learning that much more fun!

  • Allow them to listen to themselves. If you have access to equipment such as a video camera or a tape recorder, let the pupils join together in teams and arrange a speaking activity, where they can then hear (or even see) themselves talking the language when the video or audio is played back. This can really help with developing confidence.

  • Use an AFL teacher stamp (in French, of course!). An assessment for learning teacher stamp is a fantastic device anyway, but using one in French, such as this one, gets students used to seeing feedback in the French language. The helpful icons provide reminders as to the meaning of each phrase.

There are, of course, many more great ideas for inspiring your primary class when teaching French. If you have some ideas of your own, why not share them on the Classroom Capers Facebook page? If you want to purchase a French language teacher stamp, you can simply explore our extensive collection of classroom stamps online :