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If you listen to a podcast, while also being able to follow along the written text, you can:
Levels
When texts are authentic (for instance covering a particular topic or series of events), they are typically at least at the B2 level.
Although the sites on this page have speech + text, speech is harder to understand as the information is fleeting. With the addition of text, you can always check back for the meaning of a key word or phrase.
There are also some podcasts which are specifically designed for earlier levels, and the speech + text can generally give more context and make it a bit easier.
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There are a number of sites where you pay for regular access to updated podcasts. These include:
Some podcast sites are completely free, and have some great content:
Podclub
Two of the best of these (in my opinion) are from Podclub prepared by:
The site says A2/B1, but seems more at B1/B2 level to me (people typically underestimate the difficulty of their own language). The text Reading Ages are about 12 yrs, which is definitely B2. The speech is clear and at a reasonable speed and read out from a script. The text is therefore grammatically correct, with not too many partial or very idiomatic phrases. The most recent podcasts highlight the text as it’s being read, so you don’t lose your place. Some of the less common key topic words have an instant ‘mouse-over’ translation.
Comes out every month (in the past) or couple of weeks (more recently). There are a lot of passages to delve into.
Français Facile
A complete site by an expert in this field:
This has lots of passages, matched with clear spoken French by the author.
It's a structured site for studying French, but the ‘Dialogues’ and ‘Textes’ can be read and listened to separately. It's useful as there are a range of levels: ‘Début; ‘Intermédiare’, and ‘Avancé’ and the gradings seem about right to me. They are more in the form of exercises, so are somewhat limited in terms of authenticity and intrinsic interest.The passages are also somewhat short, so probably best used at the earlier stages of development.
France Bienvenue
A number of recordings by some students and their teacher in Marseille.
Anne, prof d'anglais à l’IUT de Marseilles
The text is written by the students and it is generally quite accurate. It’s quite spontaneous (natural/authentic), and the level is therefore C1 and above. Reading Age 16 years, so C1 (C2 with less regular speech/phrasing).
It’s been going since 2009, so there are quite a lot of texts. You access them by first of all choosing a category under ‘Rubriques’ on the lower right of the page. Then choose the one you want to read & listen to, then select ‘Lire la suite’ to get all of the text up. Then start the audio by selecting the Youtube video – some have a number of pictures to go along with it.
You get quite a bit of cultural diversity, different accents, and a range of topics. The lives of the students come through and hold your interest.
Radio France Internationale
This radio station generates a regular ‘easy’ radio news coverage, along with transcriptions.
According to them, it’s ‘a real news bulletin that uses simple vocabulary to explain the latest news.’ The speech is also certainly slower and clearer than the normal bulletins, but I would generally rate it at about B2/C1 (text Reading Age 18yrs, so certainly not that easy). Click on the date of a programme (on the left), which leads you to the page which has the transcription, then trigger the audio just under the main picture.
Once you read down a bit, it is impossible to pause the speech, but you can get round this by copying the text into a separate word document, or by downloading the sound file and playing it separately.
They also use this to generate a large number of texts + speech for comprehension exercises.
These are really too short to be of much use as general reading, but they are sorted by level, so you can use them to check how you are doing.
Inner French
64 podcasts covering a range of topics, by Hugo (Youtube and Website), who speaks quite slowly and clearly.
Although he is promoting a language course (incidentally based on Krashen's ideas), you can register and access the podcasts for free.
I would say that this is all at about B1 to B2 level, as the French is structured and complete.
BTW, his videos are also very good, with clear, measured speech, and with accurate subtitles.