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Need advice on my next steps in french | ||
Tags: French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| kgoedert Diglot Newbie Brazil Joined 4571 days ago 20 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, French | Message 1 of 7 20 January 2016 at 11:25am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi,
I have been dedicating 6h/week to study french for 11 months now. It is my first time trying to learn a language on my own. So far, I am using flash cards to help learning, and I make reviews every day. I went through a grammar book and made some exercises. I am following the course Learn french with Vincent on youtube, right now, I am on unit 12 of 20. I tried to read articles from newspapers in french, and some page of the first Harry Potter book, and I can at least have an understanding of what it is about. I can say I am happy with my progress so far. I would like some suggestions on improving my listening and reading. I tried listening to the Harry Potter audiobook, but it is too hard to understand yet. Same thing with movies. Does anyone have a suggestion of some text/audio that is not so complex, but also not too simple? Does transcribing help? Thank you Kelly 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5384 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 2 of 7 20 January 2016 at 10:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Have you done an Assimil course? They are cheap and should give you what you are looking for. Edited by James29 on 20 January 2016 at 10:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kgoedert Diglot Newbie Brazil Joined 4571 days ago 20 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, French | Message 3 of 7 21 January 2016 at 10:29am | IP Logged | ||
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I tried the assimil course, before I started watching the youtube course I mentioned, but I
just didn't like it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4061 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 4 of 7 21 January 2016 at 12:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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From the description you provided in your introductory statement, I get the impression that the focus of your studies has been mostly on "native materials" which, while quite commendable, might be depriving you from the benefits of a well-conceived programme that is designed to take the student, step-by-step, to progressively higher levels of ability in the target language. There is also the possibility that you have simply reached a "plateau", as we all do in our learning, and that your mind is merely going through a "digestive phase" which, once it is completed, you will begin to advance once again.
I have something of an unusual suggestion. I recommend that you download the DLI French Basic course and that you work with these materials from Lesson 1 and progress fairly quickly up to the level where you begin feel that you are experiencing some difficulty. Doing so will serve as an excellent review of your current studies and it will reinforce what you have already learned. My experiences with the DLI Basic materials suggests to me that there are "gaps" in your learning and that, even in the introductory lessons, you will discover things that you missed. By continuing with these materials from the level where you find some difficulty, your progress will be benefit from being supported by a more structured approach. As to the materials themselves, while they are "somewhat dated", they are truly EXCELLENT. They provide an unusual balance between the spoken and written aspects of the language and they're FREE! From your description of your study habits, you seem to be a very serious student, which is something of a prerequisite for working with the DLI and FSI materials. Give it shot, you've got nothing to lose! Here is the LINK: DLI Basic courses As an aside, I would note that most of the "more active" members of the HTLAL seem to have moved over to the new/replacement forum A Language Learners' Forum. I suggest that you register there, as well, and enjoy the benefits of BOTH forums. Edited by Speakeasy on 21 January 2016 at 12:50pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kgoedert Diglot Newbie Brazil Joined 4571 days ago 20 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, French | Message 5 of 7 21 January 2016 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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You are correct in your impressions about my studies. I will the course you suggested.
Thank you 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5018 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 7 21 January 2016 at 8:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Or you might get Grammaire Progressive series instead. You are a Portuguese native speaker, you don't need a classical course that much, in my opinion. A good grammar, like the series I've just mentioned, could bring the desired central structure into your studies.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chaotic_thought Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 3551 days ago 129 posts - 274 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, French | Message 7 of 7 23 January 2016 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | ||
The most important component to listening and reading is time spent practicing these activities. Take your referenced video for example. Although the video seems high quality, the instructor spends about 90% of the time explaining things (in English), and only about 10% of the time actually delivering French language sentences to you. This means after 3 weeks, you will have the following time committed: 18 hours = English instruction + French listening = (0.9) * 18 + (0.1) * 18 This comes out to just under 2 hours of actual French listening. Not that the other 16 hours are wasted, but during these 16 hours you clearly will not have been improving your French listening or reading. Seek out materials that have a higher ratio of native material, like 80-90%, so that when you spend 18h studying, your listening time actually gets close to 18h. Assimil-style listening materials have only native dialogs, so there is no time wasted in listening to explanations (explanations can be read in the book as necessary). 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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