Ever wonder how to teach kids to read in French? Just like English, students can’t read unless they know their French letter sounds.
This raises another question: how to teach the alphabet in French. The obvious approach might seem to go in ‘alphabetical order’ – from start to finish. But as anyone who’s learned the French alphabet can attest, they’re not necessarily ordered in complexity. That means some sounds are significantly harder to articulate than others, and others make different sounds depending on the context.
Different people have different preferences when it comes to teaching French letter sounds. It’s important to know that there isn’t one correct way to do it. Each person has their reasons for a particular order.
So, what do I advise? As a general rule of thumb, I start with the vowels, then go from the simplest to the most complex consonants to pronounce. Let’s go through this approach in detail.
How to Teach the Alphabet in French
When it comes to teaching French letter sounds, I follow a two-phase approach – beginning with an introduction to the letters and then spiraling back to reinforce what we learned and to start decoding CV combinations.
Personally, I find the spiral method allows for a thorough introduction and then a deeper, more interactive review of each letter.
Phase I – Introduction to the Alphabet
In the first phase, I introduce the French alphabet in its traditional alphabetical order. Remember, we’re strictly introducing the letters and the sounds they make. We don’t try to read any syllable combinations yet. Here’s how it works:
- Daily Focus: I dedicate one day (or sometimes two) to each letter.
- Components Covered: During this time, we explore the sound the letter makes, what it looks like, how to form the letter in both its upper- and lower-case versions.
- Visual and Auditory Connection: Students see the letter and hear its sound repeatedly, building a solid foundational recognition.
Here, we’re setting the stage for recognizing and understanding each letter individually. Students need to know their French letter sounds in order to start reading, and you need to teach them explicitly. This is why my first round teaching the alphabet in our French class takes about 6 weeks.
Phase II – Reinforcement and Syllable Reading
After the first complete run-through of the French letter sounds, it’s time for round two. Thanks to the introduction, your students should be familiar with each letter. Now, it’s a matter of recall and recognition. We’re also going to add a few additional layers of complexity and application:
- Review and Reinforcement: We review all the elements from the first phase, ensuring that students recall the appearance, sound, formation, and cases of each letter.
- Reintroduction of Vowels: Right at the beginning of this phase, vowels are reintroduced, but this time mixed with consonants to start forming basic syllables right away.
- Introduction to Syllable Reading: During this phase, we begin to incorporate syllable reading. This helps students start blending letters and sounds together, laying the groundwork for reading simple words. We focus only on reading consonant-vowel sounds, like nu, li.
- Teaching Accents: Accents are super common in French words, I introduce and teach accents during this phase. Understanding accents early on is critical for decoding and accurate pronunciation.
Running through the alphabet twice helps to reinforce recognition and understanding from the start. It provides a solid foundation for future reading exercises. Want to see my full scope & sequence? This is the order that I teach the alphabet in.
In what order should I teach French alphabet sounds?
Going through the alphabet in order first is important, even if I don’t expect students to memorize it. It’s how we talk about the alphabet in everyday life, and it familiarizes students with the concept of letter order.
But in what order should you teach French alphabet sounds the second time around? Like I mentioned, in the second pass, I change the order strategically to help them decode simple consonant-vowel (CV) sounds. I mix consonants with vowels so they can start reading as of day two.
I begin with nasal and fricative sounds, like “m,” “l,” and “j,” because these continuous sounds blend more readily into vowels. For example, students can extend the sound of “m” into “a” smoothly.
Next, I introduce plosive sounds like “k,” “p,” and “d,” which, due to their explosive nature (the mouth widens as we say them), require immediate blending. While students can extend the “m” into “mmmmmmaaaaaa,” the same isn’t possible with the letter “p.”
Finally comes the most complicated sounds, such as “x” (/ks/) and aspirated “h,” which I teach as mute.
Why I Follow This Order to teach the Alphabet in French
I spend one to two days per letter. Some people opt for a “sound of the week.” The problem? According to research, this approach is much too slow; by the time the entire alphabet is covered, the school year is nearly over. Goigoux et al. (2017) found that the ideal pace is 14-15 sound symbols in nine weeks.
While my pace is a little quicker, it aligns with this research because I spiral back, teaching French letter sounds formally twice. Repetition is the foundation of learning, helping the students to recall and thus reinforce what they learned earlier.
During my classes, I focus on practical tips on how to teach the alphabet in French. By teaching how letters relate to reading and writing, I immediately transfer the sound of the letters to reading. I don’t expect all the students to suddenly grasp every letter sound. Everyone learns at different rates. That’s why spiral teaching works so effectively.
One fantastic exercise is asking the students to decode real words and nonsense words using the letter of the day and previously learned letters. Your decoding practice doesn’t have to be only about the sound you’re learning that day.
Change and update the practices described above to your teaching style. Maybe you’ve got a particular game or activity you want to include. Just remember that you should go a letter at a time, covering the alphabet in around nine weeks, and that spiral teaching is an effective way to reinforce learning.
Don’t forget to download that free scope and sequence!
