The Course Metropolitan French FAST is a language course by the Foreign Service Institute.

Download (100 MB)

If you want to sound like a french native speaker, this course if for you! You might want to use this course together with the FSI French Basic Course.

Download (130 MB)

This Headstart French Course is especially design for french in Belgium.

Download (291 MB)

The book “Liberté” by Gretchen Angelo is a high quality first-year college French textbook.

Download:
Student Edition PDF (11MB)
Instructors Edition PDF (12MB)

This website has a lot to offer for teachers and people studying on their own. There is actually so much on this website that it is easy to get lost in it. For example it includes a page explaining how to type French accents on your usual keyboard here. Below are some places that should be especially interesting if you are a student or a teacher.

For students, here are the places highly relevant for you. In the “start learning” page there is a section called “French tools”, it is full of good material! The “Verb Conjugator” will certainly be your friend for many months to come as it gives you ALL the “conjugaison” of a lot of common verbs. But even better is the “learn French checklist” which is actually a 6 months free course. It has lessons for every day! Here is a direct link. Choose a month and start learning.

Teachers should not limit themselves to the “Teachers” section! As mentioned above, this web has resources all over the place. If you are looking for something specific use the search button, it works pretty well. Worth mentioning is the grammar tools and the survival vocabulary which are well designed. The teaching tips is also quite interesting has it highlights tips shared in the teacher forums as well as the comments of the editor, who has clearly been teaching for a while but who just share her feelings and experience in a way that is rather helpful.

Get started exploring: French.about.com

This series of tutorials cover beginner to intermediate levels. It can be used as a self-learning tool or as a resource for teachers. There are quite a lot of MP3 coming in each section. The MP3 are good because the sound is clear, the pronunciation is good and the accent of the speaker is not too strong. The person who did the recording is from the South-East of France, Haute-savoie, but his accent is really soft and it is a good exercise for French learner to get used to the regional accents. The MP3 can also be conveniently downloaded as ZIP files. Theses French lessons are divided in 7 main sections, with about 20 points by section. So you have something to study for a while! Each section is huge but the subdivision in points makes it easier to use. Each point is properly explored and gives a good understanding of the vocabulary and grammar studied. There are also good exercises to make your work each point. The whole series of tutorials is very coherent, well thought and very clear.

Check out this series of tutorials: French Tutor

This web site is part of the French international channel and it’s for advanced level. There are a variety of resources and some learning tools such as tongue twister, crosswords games and dictionary.Idiomatic expressions “le professeur” pick a very common expression every week and explain its origins and modern meanings. Literature news and expressions pick a novel regularly and tell you about the story, background and cinema adaptation.
Check with Langue française for more details.

If French pronunciation scares you or if you are wondering about the difference between é and è, here are some free resources for you to distinguish and learn French phonetics. This website will help you to improve your pronunciation and become a master in French phonetics. It is also a good resource for teachers. All the exercises are really well thought and will teach you how to distinguish between similar sounds.

Check it out http://phonetique.free.fr/alpha.htm

Byki is a powerful and personalized free language-learning system and it’s available in over 70 languages. Learn different languages in a faster and better way. Finding good resources and sharing the learning with other users in the online community. It runs under Windows XP, Mac, PocketPC and Palm. The “Express” version is free and covers beginners level. This is a full learning methods that focused on the most commonly used vocabulary and common expressions. The method is based on flash card and help you to build your own vocabulary quickly.

You can give it a try at Byki.com

jump-gate.com provides free lessons for French beginners to be able to read and write in French and make a simple conversation.