This Wednesday, November 16, 2022, Radio France internationale is launching “Le français facile avec RFI”, a new site for learning French with world news. This platform, renovated and adapted to mobile devices, allows learners to improve their French using radio elements, in particular its flagship production, the “Journal en français facile”, enriched with a synchronized transcription.
” It is 4 p.m. universal time, 5 p.m. in Paris, the time of the newspaper in easy French ». In studio 31, of Radio France Internationale, in Issy-les-Moulineaux, Adrien Delgrange begins the presentation of an edition of information of a particular kind that listeners of world radio know well. “ We have two objectives: on the one hand, to allow those who wish to improve their French. For this, I use simple, appropriate and contextualized words. And on the other hand, we offer listeners a real 10-minute newspaper of international news live “explains the journalist.
For more than twenty years, the “JFF” has been acclaimed by listeners learning French, especially in its digital version. It is even one of the most listened to RFI podcasts on podcast platforms and on RFI websites. So much so that when the management of France Médias Monde, the parent company of RFI, launched the project to overhaul its French learning offer, the idea of making the Journal en français facile its driving force became obvious and even inspired its name: “Easy French with RFI”.
Until now, RFI’s French learning offer was available on the RFI Savoirs website, a platform that brought together both French as a foreign language (FLE) teaching resources and content intended for high school students, students or curious wishing to enrich their knowledge in fields such as history, geopolitics, economics or science. Two pillars therefore, but aimed at two different audiences. Hence the choice to separate them to create two platforms. RFI Knowledge has already joined the Admiral rfi.fr site, with a dedicated page offering original educational articles and a selection of podcasts or archives. As for the productions intended for learners and teachers of French as a foreign language, they now have a dedicated website to discover here: https://francaisfacile.rfi.fr/.
An “Enhanced Journal in Easy French”
In addition to its new streamlined interface adapted to mobile phones, one of the original features of this new setting lies in the highlighting of the radio. This has always been at the heart of the learning method of RFI’s French language service. But now, the latest editions of the ” Easy French newspaper are on the front page of the homepage. An “augmented” JFF, moreover, thanks to an intelligent reader. It allows learners to listen to the newspaper, by reading the transcript which scrolls in sync with the sound, with the possibility of moving forward or backward in the newspaper and slowing down or speeding up the reading.
The navigation of the site has been greatly improved to allow Internet users to immediately find the content adapted to their needs. In addition to the “Journal in easy French”, learners can discover the latest episode of Yvan Amar’s daily radio column, ” The words of the news », which explains with a smile the terms of the newspapers of topicality.
“Easy French with RFI” also offers exercises, classified by level, by objective and by theme. These self-correcting activities allow Internet users to improve their oral comprehension using authentic radio excerpts, in fun educational courses.
For teachers of French as a foreign language (FLE), a dedicated space offers educational sheets associated with RFI programs to work in class from the radio.
Podcasts
The “Easy French with RFI” site gives pride of place to podcasts. In addition to the “Easy French Journal” and Les mots de l’actualité, the new platform offers audio series,one of the originalities of the production of the French language team of RFI. These are real fictions in several episodes, ideal for non-French speakers who wish to learn French. Foreign visitors will find them easily thanks to the site’s multilingual navigation interface. These bilingual series are already widely used in French as a foreign language classes around the world. The latest of these fictions, ” The neighbors of 12 bis »a co-production of RFI and France éducation international, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, tells the story of a young foreigner who has just arrived in France and discovers life in Paris, with the help of neighbors in her apartment building.
“La puce à l’oreille”, Lucie Bouteloup’s funny and lively column which explains the expressions of the language of Molière, finally completes the podcast offer of this new French learning site.
The “Le Français facile avec RFI” site was produced by the teams of the Digital Environments Department of France Médias Monde, with the graphic studio of FMM, the French language team of RFI and the digital department of RFI.