Consuming media in the target language is one of the best ways for language students to rapidly move their skills to a more advanced level. When you want to get your French learners (or really any language learners) to a point where they are using the language to learn new information, YouTube is a great tool!
A few years ago I started requiring my French IV students to follow a Francophone YouTuber, and they had a ton of fun with it. YouTube is familiar, accessible, and will not only boost their vocabulary and fluency, it will broaden their world view. Your students will feel a connection to the French-speaking world which will help motivate them in continuing their language learning journey. There’s also a bit of pay off. They realize “Hey! All this language learning and grammar wasn’t for nothing! I can use it now!”
Oh, and you can absolutely start this project earlier than French IV (advanced). It would be great for French III (upper intermediate) students as well.
Below is a run down of what I did.
Also, I have all the resources you need to get started implementing this project in your French classroom for free in a Google Drive you can download through my Teacher’s Pay Teachers Store. Click HERE for my TPT listing.
Helping Your Students Choose a Channel
My students were not allowed to choose a channel that was about the French language itself or French grammar. We cover that in class. They need to pick a channel on a topic that interests them personally. This way they will be more motivated to watch it, and they will learn vocabulary and terminology that’s relevant to something they care about and want to talk about.
I picked out a few examples of YouTubers to show them in class the day I introduced the project. I tried to select channels that I knew might pique their interest. I gave them this list of YouTubers to explore on their own as a starting point. It’s also linked in the Google Drive materials on the Student Directions sheet.
I wanted them to do this as a year-long project, so I gave them lots of time to choose their YouTuber. I emphasized that it was important to choose the right channel to follow because I didn’t want them losing interest and it becoming a slog. I felt it was best that they didn’t change which channel they used for this project throughout the year. And for this reason, it’s important that they choose a channel that already has a good number of videos.
I encouraged them to use the algorithm to their advantage. After watching a video they were interested in, they should click on the other recommended videos. Hopefully, they will begin to be recommended videos in French, and hopefully that will lead to them watching multiple Francophone channels on their own time.
They did have to get my approval on their chosen channel. I did this through a Google Form which is included in the Google Drive.
Here are some types of channels my students ended up following:
- Cooking
- Travel
- European history
- Make-up tutorials
- Fashion
- Fishing
- Fast-food reviews
- Vlogs
And remember, this is Francophone, not just French. The YouTuber’s nationality shouldn’t matter as long as their content is in French.
Holding Students Accountable
It’s a bit hard to grade an assignment that is “watch YouTube.” You will need to decide on a number of minutes you expect your students to watch per week as well as how often you want them to turn in check-in assignments. For example, at least 15 minutes of watch time per week with a check-in assignment due every other week.
I designed two check in assignments which I alternated.
- Vocabulary check in: Students must list 5 new words or phrases they learned. These must be new to them. They are asked to list the part of speech, the meaning, and an example sentence which they can take directly from the video.
- Check-in: A simple check in with 4 questions. Students state how much time they watched, what subjects were covered, something they learned, and something they either did or didn’t like about the video.
These are all in the Google Drive folder. You can also come up with your own ways to check in. I would have loved to have my students do some sort of short presentation on their YouTuber or do a review of their YouTuber’s channel. But, we don’t always get around to all of our great classroom ideas, do we!
A Note on Subtitles
I encouraged my students to use the subtitles in French while watching YouTube. Watching with English subtitles defeats the point of the project. Watching with French subtitles helps them catch those new words and phrases. They will be learning a lot more slang and informal French, and the subtitles will help them make sense of what they are hearing.
It’s important that they explore which subtitles are available on a channel during their selection process. If a channel does not have French subtitles available, depending on their ability level, they may struggle. I told my students that if French subtitles were not available on a channel, that may not be the best channel for them.
Click the Settings gear then on Subtitles/CC to see if French is listed as a subtitle option like in the image above. This channel offers both English and French subtitles. Sometimes the auto generated subtitles are not great, so this is something to be aware of.