Self-review means listening to your own French and deciding what to change next. It is most useful when you judge intelligibility, meaning whether a listener can understand each word, instead of chasing an accent. This lesson gives a short routine you can repeat after any speaking practice.
It is the last lesson in sound, spelling and intelligibility and uses the skills of the three before it.
Why avoid an automatic accent score?
A score is one number about many things. It does not tell you whether the problem is a silent letter, a missing liaison or a vowel blur. It can also encourage you to copy a “native” sound rather than make each word clear.
A better judge is a person. If someone who has the written script can write down what you said, you have real evidence of clarity.
What routine can I follow?
- Pick a short script, one or two sentences you can read.
- Record it once at natural pace, with no stopping.
- Listen once without the script and note what you hear.
- Listen again with the script and tick the checklist below.
- Ask a listener to write down what they heard, then compare.
- Choose one target for the next recording and repeat.
| Check | What to listen for |
|---|---|
| Silent letters | Did I say a final consonant I should drop? |
| Vowels | Are u and ou different? Are nasal vowels clear? |
| Consonants | Is ch like “sh”? Is ç like “s”? |
| Links | Did liaison happen where needed? |
| Groups | Do I stress the end of each group, not every word? |
| Pace | Is every sound still clear? |
Worked example
Script: Hier, j’ai mangé un croissant chez ma grand-mère. (Yesterday, I ate a croissant at my grandmother’s.)
A learner records it and listens once. Filled-in review:
| Check | Result |
|---|---|
| Silent letters | I said the t in “croissant”. Fix: drop it. |
| Vowels | “grand” has a clear nasal vowel. Good. |
| Consonants | “chez” sounded like “kez”. Fix: use the “sh” sound. |
| Links | None needed between words here. |
| Groups | I paused after every word. Fix: group it. |
| Pace | Clear. |
The friend who listened wrote: “Hier, j’ai mangé un croissant kez ma grand-mère.” The error in chez appears again in the friend’s writing, which confirms it is a real problem. Target for the next recording: the ch sound in chez, then the final t.
The mistake to watch for
Learners often trust a score or a feeling instead of evidence.
Mistaken review: “The app gave me 85 so my French is fine,” or “I sounded awful, so I stopped.”
Neither version tells the learner which sound to fix.
The correction is to turn the result into one specific target. “I will say chez with the sh sound” is something you can practise. “Improve my accent” is not.
Keep recordings, so you can compare week by week and see that a target is fixed.
Check yourself
1. Your friend writes “j’ai mangé un croissant” correctly after hearing you. What does that show, and what do you still check?
Show answer
It shows that the sentence was intelligible. You can still check the checklist for smaller issues, such as a sounded final t, and choose one target.
2. After a recording you find three problems. How do you decide what to work on?
Show answer
Pick the one that most changes understanding, such as a vowel swap that changes a word, before small differences. Work on one target at a time and record again.
3. Why is “improve my accent” a weak target?
Show answer
It is too general to practise. A strong target is specific, such as “drop the final t in croissant” or “say u with the tongue forward in tu.”
Where this leads next
Use this routine whenever you finish the integrated practice set. The same skills support speaking tasks later in speaking preparation and interaction.
A teacher who listens with you can sort the problems by importance, which is what we do in online one-to-one French tuition.