subject: Ways to Learn French Online for Homeschoolers [print this page] . These products are not all made equally and not all of them are as effective as the others. In general, the least effective are those that encourage reading before listening and speaking. In fact, it's usually more effective to keep the listening and speaking components, to add a singing component and to scrap the reading portion until the student has a good grasp on the language.
Online learning, because of the format, is largely reading-driven. This is fine for more advanced students, but language is easy to muddle if you're learning it from the written word and you haven't much speaking experience. It's fine to teach a student the French vowel sounds but be aware that, when they start reading French, they'll likely be substituting various English vowel sounds in their heads and this can lead to bad habits. Music, specifically singing, is a great way to give kids an advantage where pronunciation and comprehension of the written word are concerned.
For homeschoolers, there is always the challenge of learning new materials without a large body of other students to provide cues to those who fall a bit behind. Singing is a good way to make up for this. Our speaking voices are adapted to our native tongues; this is where accents come from. You can learn French online and still develop excellent pronunciation habits by learning simple songs that teach basic words and phrases. Your singing voice is not so attached to the conventions of your first language and, therefore, it's easier to learn new pronunciations by singing them than it is by speaking them, in many cases.
There is the additional benefit that the best programs that allow you to learn French online through music employ musical theater. Musical theater is one of the most enduring ways to tell a story. The songs reinforce the major plot points and the story keeps the listeners engaged between songs. Where language is concerned, the songs also reinforce the major points of the lesson in a way that isn't at all tedious, making it easier for students to keep alert, absorb what they're hearing and, in the future, to recall what they heard and what they learned.
