10+ Engaging and Ready-to-Use French Lesson Plans for Teachers and Students

Bienvenue, fellow educators, and language enthusiasts! Let’s prepare for Journée internationale de la Francophonie (translated as International Francophonie Day) on March 20th. This international celebration is dedicated to the French language and the diversity of cultures that share it around the world. It serves as a moment to highlight the importance of linguistic and cultural diversity, as well as the shared heritage of the French-speaking world. It’s a great opportunity to do some fun, engaging, and innovative French class activities with your students.

This blog post presents 10+ ready-to-use French lesson ideas that can be used at Journée internationale de la Francophonie, or any other day of the year. These interactive language exercises are designed to celebrate the beauty of the French language and immerse learners in its cultural richness and linguistic diversity.

All the interactive exercises are created with BookWidgets, a tool particularly well suited for teaching world languages. You can use the exercises from this blog post directly, but if you create a free BookWidgets account you can also edit them, share them through your school’s LMS and receive your students’ answers. All the French lesson activities from this blog post are available in this group.

10+ ready-to-use French lesson ideas

1. Parle-t-on français ailleurs dans le monde ? (Is French spoken elsewhere in the world?)

In this video quiz, students learn more about the number of French speakers in the world and how the French language has spread and is evolving today. The video is from 1 jour 1 question. We’ve made it interactive by adding questions that will automatically appear in the video.

2. Le Français dans le monde (French around the world)

This French exercise perfectly complements the first one. French is spoken all over the world, so there are many interesting regional accents and variations. In these interactive hotspot images, students discover the sounds of variations from places such as Quebec, Switzerland, Belgium, Ivory Coast, Congo, and more.

3. Le sais-tu? (Did you know?)

Did you know that où is the only French word with a ù? And that George Perec wrote an entire novel without using the letter e? Discover these and more fun facts about the French language and culture in this interactive quiz for Journée internationale de la Francophonie.

4. Les faux amis (False friends)

What is pain? French bread!

The above quote is an iconic phrase from the movie Remember the Titans (2000) that shows an example of a false friend, a linguistic term for words in different languages that look alike but differ. Fun fact: the previous sentence contains another false friend between English and French. Can you find it? We’ll give the answer at the bottom of this blog post. With these flash cards, your students will discover, study and remember a few common false friends in French.

5. Les virelangues (Tongue twisters)

Of course, a pronunciation activity cannot be missing from this list of interactive French exercises. Tongue twisters, or virelangues, as they are called in French, are an excellent way to practice certain sounds in a playful way. The useful thing about this exercise is that students can listen to the correct pronunciation first, and then record their own attempt. As a teacher, you can listen to these and give them feedback.

6. L’accent (The accent)

Students learning a new language will probably speak with an accent, but that is nothing to be ashamed of at all. On the contrary, an accent carries with it a cultural background and is something to be proud of. That is the message of the poem L’accent by Miguel Zamacoïs. In the assignment below, students see a very expressive recitation of this beautiful poem by French actor Fernandel, who, with his own Southern accent, makes you feel like you’re in France’s Provence.

7. Trouvez les pays francophones (Find the French-speaking countries)

In this French snowman game, students search for the names of countries where French is spoken. They learn several things: the pronunciation of French letters (e.g. W = double V instead of double U), they discover where French is spoken, and learn the French names of these countries… all while having fun!

8. Présentez un pays francophone (Present a French-speaking country)

Ask your students to prepare their own presentation (in French, of course) about a French-speaking country. Choosing a country is done completely at random with this randomness widget.

9., 10., 11. & 12. Les plus beaux mots de la langue française (The most beautiful French words)

It is no coincidence that French is often called the language of love. The French language contains numerous words that sound wonderful. In these creative French vocabulary exercices, students will learn the meaning and pronunciation of some beautiful words such as nénuphar, flâner, mélancolie, and more. The examples show how to practice the same vocabulary list in different ways.

Flashcards are an excellent tool for practicing new vocabulary of a foreign language. In addition, students can listen to the pronunciation of the words here. There is a practice and a study mode, making studying new vocabulary efficient and fun!

A crossword puzzle is another playful way to practice (French) vocabulary. The advantage to a crossword is that the number of boxes can help students use the correct spelling for the new words.

With a memory game, students practice vocabulary in a fun way. You can choose whether they have to combine words with their description (as in this example), or e.g. with audio clips or pictures.

The last example is a French pair-matching game to practice vocabulary in. This time we chose to have them have students combine the audio clips with the words, so they also learn the pronunciation well.

Wrap up

Being a French teacher myself, it was my true pleasure to develop these French interactive exercises. I hope you can include thel in your French lesson plans and your students will like them.

If you’re looking for more ready-to-use interactive French lesson activities, we recommend the BookWidgets group “Enseigner le français langue étrangère (FLE)”. For more innovatie and interactive French lesson ideas, watch our webinar “Créer des exercices numériques pour des cours de FLE avec BookWidgets”.

How do you celebrate Journée internationale de la Francophonie with your students? Do you have any dynamic French lesson plans or fun French activities that you want to share with our community of world language teachers? Let us know via X / Twitter or in the BookWidgets Facebook group.

And, be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn! 👋

The False friend is phrase, which would translate to expression in French and not to une phrase, which is the French word for a sentence.