Since curating resources for my students’ Independent Exploration this summer, I have been discovering a lot of new YouTube videos and channels. In this post I will share over 30 of my favorites with you. As I discover new channels, I will come back to this post and share them here. These are channels that are either of interest to French teachers, learners, or both, but most of them are especially useful for French learners. With each channel, I will share one of my favorite videos from the channel.
Max Reisinger
Max is an American high school student whose family moved to France for 7 months. On his channel he has shared a wealth of videos showing what his life and education are like in French from an American teenager’s perspective. The videos are in English, but they have immense cultural value for students. Kids like to hear from people their own age who think like them, so Max’s point of view will pique their interest. There are moments and language here and there throughout the videos that might not be school appropriate, so be sure to preview the videos first and potentially remove any unwanted portions using EdPuzzle or a similar program.
France24 English
France 24 is a French public broadcast service and although they have a channel in French, I like this English language channel for its easy to digest explanations of French culture and traditions. It would be great for remote learning to introduce students to a topic of study.
FrenchPod101
This channel offers a number of videos in French with English subtitles, making it easy for novice learners to follow along while they receive input. I especially like their explanations of holidays and other traditions.
EasyFrench
This channel features interviews with young people in France discussing (in French) a variety of topics relating to French culture and daily life. The videos are subtitled in both English and French.
Alice Ayel
Alice Ayel’s channel features a variety of videos that are useful for French students, but I especially like her stories, which she tells slowly with the aid of visuals. You can also turn on subtitles to follow along in English.
Comme un française
Géraldine’s videos help French learners navigate real life language and culture. They make a great supplement to what we teach in class and would be the perfect extension to a remote learning lesson.
French Possum
This channel features videos in French that are subtitled in English which center around French language and culture.
Sylvia Duckworth
Sylvia Duckworth is a French teacher in Canada whose extensive YouTube channel features a wide variety of videos of interest to French teachers and learners. I especially appreciate the French language videos she has taken the time to subtitle in English. Also of note are her many playlists on a variety of topics.
Français Immersion
Thomas is a native French speaker whose videos explore basic French language and culture. His videos are a nice way to supplement my own instruction because it gives them a different voice and a native speaker perspective.
Maman Doudou
This channel features children’s books read slowly in French. What’s great is that you can choose to turn on subtitles as well. I have found that middle schoolers absolutely love having stories read to them in French, even if they are for younger children, because the illustrations and simple language aid in their understanding and in turn build their confidence.
Solidarité Laïque
Solidarité Laïque is an organization that promotes equal rights and education throughout the world. What I especially like about their YouTube channel are the videos showing what a typical school day looks like in various francophone countries in Africa. The videos contain mostly simple language. They illustrate the hardships that many of these students face, which provides an opportunity for reflection, comparisons, and discussion.
France Bienvenue
This channel features audio clips of native French speakers. They would be great for listening tasks, although they tend to be a little more advanced than what I would use with my 7th graders. You can also go to their website for transcripts and explanations.
Francés Fácil
This channel features French music videos subtitled in French with words being highlighted as they are sung, but what I really like about this channel is the reading of Le Petit Prince.
K-Boyz TV
This channel features videos in French made by two young French brothers. Their videos are wholesome (which can be hard to find among YouTubers!) and engaging.
Petit Nicolas
This is the official YouTube Channel for the TV series based on the Petit Nicolas book series. There are a number of episodes and clips on this channel.
Peppa Pig
Many of my students love Peppa Pig, so this official French-language channel is a boon, with lots of videos that students can watch independently, or potentially as part of a lesson.
Trotro
Trotro is a French animated children’s show about a rabbit. While I haven’t had a chance to share these videos with my own students yet, several teachers in the French Teachers in the US Facebook group stated that their students love them, so I’ve added a few to my Independent Exploration playlists for students to explore.
ONF
This channel for the Office National du Film du Canada is a treasure trove of all kinds of videos. While there are lots of short subjects suitable for novice learners, there are longer videos for more advanced learners and plenty of videos that teachers may find suitable for their own entertainment or continued studies.
Planète Animal
This is a channel that features videos with tips for pet owners and videos of interest to animal lovers. I thought it made a great addition to my Independent Exploration resources, but there are a number of videos in here that would make great authentic resources for lessons.
Philip Morgan
This channel features a variety of videos that are subtitled by hand, most notable episodes of Petit Nicolas. While subtitles provided on YouTube are great, many of them are auto-generated and then auto-translated, and are as a result not of the highest quality. Having access to human-created subtitles makes these videos even more accessible to students. If you’re not a fan of subtitles, you can always turn them off.
Des racines et des ailes
Des racines et des ailes is a TV show about the history and culture of France. Not being geared towards kids, I wouldn’t cite most of the videos as particularly of interest to the 7th graders I teach nor level appropriate for them as novice learners (unless they were watching with subtitles), I think the videos are great for advanced learners or teachers looking for some material to further their studies. The videos are both interesting and informative.
Vous-savez-qui
This channel, whose title is a reference to the character of Lord Voldemort, is a Harry Potter fan channel featuring a variety of videos exploring the ins and outs of the popular book and movie series. I mostly liked it as an Independent Exploration option for my students, but again, these videos could be incorporated into lessons or assessments as well.
A Green Mouse
This channel features a wide variety of video resources for French (and Spanish) learners, but what I like best are the simple stories in French, many of them about the author’s dog (because animals instantly up the engagement level!).
Brèves de classe
This channel features short educational videos aimed at kids, which are filmed in classrooms. While I haven’t determined exactly how I’ll be using these videos with my students, I see a lot of potential here.
Olive Us
While new videos haven’t been posted to this channel in years, the existing videos are well worth a look. These videos feature snippets of life in France from an American family living abroad. My favorite two videos, and ones that I often share with my students are Betty in Paris (below) and How to Visit a French Bakery. There is little to no spoken language in the videos, so these are more for the cultural benefit, but that also makes them ripe for all sorts of discussion-based activities in French.
Parole de chat
This hilarious channel features videos of cats dubbed with dialog in French that appear to match their mouth movements and what they are doing. I’ve used them on alternate schedule days where I and in moments when I have a couple minutes left over at the end of class. Caveat: many of the videos contain inappropriate language, so you might need to use EdPuzzle or a similar program to crop them, or opt to use one of the videos that does not contain any inappropriate language.
Translator Fails
While the videos on this channel won’t teach your students any new language or culture, they do drive home one of the enduring understandings I want my students to walk away from my class with, which is that there is a human element to linguistic communication, and that translators are not a substitute for human interaction. These videos highlight the inadequacies of Google Translate and remind students that these tools are not as useful or as infallible as they might like to believe. And yes, the texts read in the videos were run through multiple languages before being translated back to English to exaggerate the inadequacies, but as language teachers, we know that translators frequently make mistakes (sometimes embarrassing ones), despite all the improvements that have been made to them over the years.
DreamWorksTV Français
The official channel for DreamWorks in French features all sorts of children’s shows, songs, and movie clips. The Trolls movie is heavily featured on this channel. This content makes a great resource for students to explore independently.
Dokéo TV
Dokéo is a channel for young children. Videos feature stories, songs, and riddles.
Conte-moi la francophonie
This channel features stories from French speaking countries around the world told by students as well as animated stories told by adults. Some of their videos only seem to appear in their playlists.
Universal Music France
YouTube is my favorite place to discover new music, and this channel has lots of music videos from popular French artists.
Denkleinrider
This channel features songs from Disney movies in various languages with subtitles and a translation. It’s the perfect way to show students that songs, just like many other things, cannot simply be translated word for word!
Air Caraïbes
This is the official channel for the airline, but what I really love are the beautifully filmed promotional videos for various francophone Caribbean countries and regions.
AATF
This is the official channel for the American Association of Teachers of French. The real highlight of this channel is the extensive playlists featuring a wide variety of videos teachers could use with their students.
Drew Binsky
Drew Binsky is a travel blogger on a mission to visit every country in the world. His videos explore the culture and customs of the various countries he visits. They are in English, but some of these could be great videos to invite students to explore independently.
Hors frontières
This channel is run by a French videographer with a similar mission to Drew Binsky, except he does not speak in his videos and lets the scenes and the people in them take center stage. Because of this, some of the videos may be a little less engaging, but you could show portions of them and he does have a few compilation videos set to music.
PubTélé
This is a great channel to find ads and PSAs in French.
And hey, did you know I have a YouTube channel? I’ve had one for years but until recently I hardly ever posted anything. You can explore some of the resources I’ve uploaded and also explore the playlists I’ve created for my students’ independent exploration.
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