Tag Archives: extensive listening

Extensive Listening

24 February, 2026Resourcescomprehensible input, extensive listening, French, French language, language, language acquisition, language learningSandra Bogerd

Mostly I have focused on extensive reading, both in my research and practice. This is obvious from my DELF results, where listening, and especially speaking, were much worse than my reading and writing results in French. To build skill in listening requires suitable comprehensible input. There are various podcast and youtube channels that are recommended. Some have beginner content, others intermediate, and others cater to multiple skill levels. Partly for my own benefit and partly as a resource for others, I thought I’d list those I have found out about.

I should also mention that if something is too hard to comprehend because of the speed, you can always slow it down. If it is too hard because you are unfamiliar with most of the words, it is best to start with something easier and/or do more reading first. (Also, if it is too easy, you can speed it up).

Beginner channels.

https://www.youtube.com/@FrenchComprehensibleInput – starts at A1 but also has content for higher levels. An engaging personality.
https://www.youtube.com/@FrenchHappens – a small set of complete beginner comprehensible input
https://www.youtube.com/@Frenchinmotion – slightly faster than French Happens, with lots of concrete nouns introduced both written and spoken.
https://www.youtube.com/@Dreaming-French – a mixture of easy French videos and some more intermediate. There are a few Canadian French videos here, which can be useful. I like Audrey’s beginner videos.
https://www.youtube.com/@aliceayel – start from story no. 1. Alice Ayel also has more advanced content.
https://apprendre.tv5monde.com/fr starts at A1 but is at full native speed. It’s good to do these in addition to the slower examples above, particularly if you are going to be assessed. However, they may only feel comfortable after listening to some of the intermediate channels below. The A1 content seems to be aimed at children.
https://francaisfacile.rfi.fr/fr/ is similar to TV5Monde, in that it is at native speed but has more content aimed at adults at A1. The speed can be altered.

There are also a few easy songs you can listen to (based on repetitiousness and vocabulary size).

Intermediate channels

For the intermediate channels, you may need to have developed your vocabulary a bit more via extensive reading with graded readers and the like.

At the intermediate level, the innerfrench.com is the most recommended. It starts slowly and has many episodes, which generally become gradually more difficult, apart from a few exceptions. There are some interesting topics amongst the series.

Another that has some interesting comprehensible content is Français avec Fluidité. There is an A2+ playlist (start here) as well as various interesting topic playlists. I feel as though it is slightly more difficult than the innerfrench podcasts but still quite comprehensible for an intermediate.

Little Talk in Slow French is beginner-intermediate level but has some words translated into English during the podcast.

Lingua.com has recordings that are labelled with CEFR competence levels, from A1 to B2, with questions to test your comprehension. They also have resources for other languages.

Elsewhere

Since creating this post, I have learnt that there is a comprehensible input wiki with resources for many languages. The French list of listening resources is more comprehensive than what I list here, so worth checking out.

The Easiest Songs in French

7 December, 2025Resourcescomprehensible input, comptines, extensive listening, French, French language, French songs, language, language acquisition, language learning, songs, vocabularySandra Bogerd

Someone recently asked whether there were any A0 songs in French for improving listening skills. There may be some learner songs. I wrote a few to go with my comic books but they are optimised for reading, not listening.

So what would be the criteria for easy songs? I think that the easiest would have a very small set of words and be repetitive. Where two songs equate in vocabulary and repetition, perhaps the one with the easiest grammar or the most standard expressions would be ranked easier.

I cannot comment on whether there are any easy popular songs. Most have extensive lyrics, with only the chorus being repetitive. However, in the collection of children’s songs (comptines) and folk songs, several can be found. Some were printed in my old Horan and Wheeler textbooks. Others I have found elsewhere. Given the above criteria, here is my list and a rough sequence of difficulty based on vocabulary size; type-token ratio, which captures repetitiveness; and a grammar scale. Beginners will probably want to read the lyrics for the first few listens.

Song	Vocabulary Size	Lyrics Length	Type Token Ratio	Grammar Level	Measure
Bonsoir mes amis	3	21	0.143	0	0.06
Savez-vous planter les choux ?	19	118	0.161	1	0.23
Frère Jacques	7	14	0.500	1	0.25
Sur le pont d’Avignon	23	130	0.177	1	0.27
Alouette	13	96	0.135	3	0.28
Quand trois poules	14	29	0.483	1	0.29
Dansons la capucine (or more seriously)	26	91	0.286	1	0.32
J’ai mangé un croissant	10	20	0.500	1	0.32
Au petit pas militaire	12	39	0.31	3	0.33
J’ai mangé un croissant remix	19	56	0.339	3	0.39
Didi et Dada	32	72	0.444	1	0.41
J’ai du bon tabac	34	111	0.306	3	0.48
La mission	33	48	0.688	1	0.49
Au clair de la lune	70	133	0.526	4	0.86

Two Great Language Acquisition Resources

9 August, 2017Reviewsextensive listening, extensive reading, French, French language, German language, language acquisition, language learningSandra Bogerd

German Extensive Reading Stories

I’ve recently been reading the ebooks by André Klein. He provides a collection of reading material in authentic German for beginners and intermediate learners, with comprehensive glosses of expressions used in the stories.

I have now finished reading the first four in his Dino lernt Deutsch series for beginners. I think they are a fantastic resource for German learners. Now, as a caveat, I must say that I’m a false beginner for German, since my Dutch background makes German pretty easy to understand, so how it reads for someone of purely English-speaking background or other language backgrounds I can’t comment.

Each book consists of ten short stories, but all follow the adventures of Dino, as he lives in and travels through Germany. I’m guessing the format is as it is, so that when commencing reading, the learner can feel that they have achieved something by reading one short story.

The stories are not greatly dumbed down, in that there are smatterings of dialect (also translated), which somewhat increase the load on the learner. As I’m generally interested in language, I find this quite interesting. However, it may make the stories somewhat more challenging for the beginner.

He also has a couple of picture story books. These have little text and the language is not necessarily easier in terms of vocabulary load and grammar. They are, however, pleasant reads. I think the language is somewhat more constrained in the Dino series, so they are probably more useful for extensive reading.

André Klein’s books are found on Amazon, Smashwords and elsewhere. He also has more language resources on his website.

French Listening Resources

I’ve been floating around some Facebook groups about languages lately. One provided a link to the series Extra French. I hadn’t come across this before, but for me it is entertaining, in sit com format, and simple enough to follow. It’s probably a good place to start for listening practice, other than the practice of listening to stories while following the written text.

Another resource I’ve heard about recently is related to specific CEFR levels. Find French oral comprehension activities there. Good practice for those wanting to sit DELF/DALF exams.

Gnomeville

My language learning comic books and language musings