 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com Average Customer Rating:   French in Action Everything went fine. It could have come a little sooner but it was within the time frame noted. I would use this seller again. comprehensible input Superb product. Perhaps the best language program in the world, as another reviewer stated. Please let me explain why I think that.
After learning several languages as an adult (French is my 7th) I came to realize that variety is good for me. I look for the most effective products for each aspect of language learning. For French, I used Pimsleur to get grounded in the language, think on my feet, and nail down my pronunciation. I used Michel Thomas to acquire a lot of grammar quickly. I listen to Learn in Your Car for vocabulary and grammar reinforcement. I use Anki flashcards for visual reinforcement. I have a conversation class, all French, once a week with a wonderful teacher on Skype. French in action videos are my listening practice, and the text is my reading practice.
For listening and reading, ideally what one wants is comprehensible native material (Krashen's i+1) for a beginner that gradually builds into normal native material. Very few language materials have attempted this, and even fewer have succeeded. FIA is the only one I know of that not only accomplished this difficult feat, but did it in a high budget, TV quality production, complete with fun story line, cute characters, excerpts from movies and TV shows, etc. The text is equally comprehensible, which makes it an easy introduction to reading. For these reasons, FIA gets my vote for best language program ever.
But I still wouldn't use it as my only program. Multi-tiered approaches are much more efficient, IMO. So if watching the video alone is too hard for you, soften it up by trying Michel Thomas or Pimsleur or something. But please don't try to convince the world that this is a bad product. We know otherwise.
I think getting the text used on Amazon is the best way to go. As for the video, if you don't want to go through the hassle of downloading them for free, you can try what I did. I bought them on an auction site for $25. You'll see several up for bids at any one time. Many, perhaps most, are by people who have made many copies, and want to sell them for big bucks. Just keep submitting low bids, and you should be able to get one quickly. get the DVD's, but only if you are a woman This French course has a phenomenal reputation, but that's only if you can get the DVD's that go with it. You evidently can't get them from Amazon, however -- just the text itself. To get the DVD's, you apparently have to go directly to Annenberg's page. The ISBN for the first course is 0-89776-394-7, for example.
The reason I say that this course is a waste of time for men is that it features a young blond French girl in nearly every scene. I'm not sure what her name was, but every time I try watching this I find myself standing at such stiff attention that I am unable to attend to the lesson at hand.
Excellent course The capretz method relies on language immersion effectively teach French. This is a refreshing approach compared to other courses in the market. It could be the cause of some early frustration. But, given the proper preparation and of course pereserverence on long run you actually would learn a lot more. Also the language is placed on the proper cultural context and so you actually would avoid awkward situations by learning this way. Short of actually living in France, immersion methods are in my opinion the most effective at teaching conversation skills. French in action is by far the best immersion course out there. It was developed by Yale Professor Pierre Capretz as collaboration between CBP and Annenberg foundation. It's also been around for 20 years, I suspect the effectiveness of the course is the reason for its extended longevity. I highly recommend this for any self learner. The audio course are a required component of this course. The workbooks will also prove extremely useful. least useful piece of a magnificent course You will find many five star reviews for various pieces of the French in Action course. There is a good reason for this, since the course is a magnificent introduction to French, covering roughly the material of four college semesters of French language courses. If you want to learn to speak French and have the time and dedication (at 30 minutes a day, the course should take a year or so to complete), I highly recommend French in Action to you.
The theory behind French in Action is immersion, speaking and listening and writing and reading in only in French from the very beginning. Watching the half hour videos forms the heart of the course (available as DVDs or, in the US, for free on the Annenberg web site; just Google French In Action). The CDs, textbook, and workbook are integral parts of the course, reinforcing the grammar and vocabulary covered in the videos; you really will need them. If you complete all of these activities, you will encounter what you are learning several times, with very clear explanations, always in French.
You do not need the Study Guide to tell you what to do when--simply watch each episode of the video, then follow the instructions in the workbook (I found it useful to watch each video again after completing the associated lesson, normally parroting back every line to build my pronounciation skills). The Study Guide is also tedious, because it tells you the purpose of each of the workbook exercises, but those purposes are perfectly clear when you encounter the exercises in the workbook.
There are a few fine points of French grammar described in the Study Guide that I would have missed, but, far from being a useful educational tool, I found the Study Guide to be a hinderence to getting the most from the course. My main criticism is that the Study Guide discusses everything in English. The genius of French in Action is that you are thinking in French from day one, so why interrupt with a bunch of English explanations? If you prefer having every point explained in English and every new word presented with an English translation, then French in Action is not the right course for you, anyway.
The Study Guide contains some quizzes, so you may need it if you are taking a formal course (check with your instructor first). Otherwise, I suggest that you take the time you would have spent reading the Study Guide to finish the course sooner, then use the time you saved to read French stories or magazines (and, of course, Merde! and Merde Encore!) instead.
One final point, unless you are an instructor, you can skip lesson one entirely. It's all in English, and is very interesting if you want to hear about why the course was developed the way it was, but it will not help you to learn French, with one exception, and I'll tell you that right now: pay attention to the gestures that everyone makes in the videos (e.g., you'll see that the French shake hands at the beginning and the end of every conversation, however brief). Now you know all you need to know to begin at lesson two--and you won't need the Study Guide to do it. |  |
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