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The Joy of FSI French Phonology | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7210 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 1 of 8 21 January 2014 at 11:33am | IP Logged | ||
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FSI French Phonology is a programmed introduction to French phonology designed as a predecessor to FSI Basic French (Revised).
French pronunciation is challenging to do well. Mapping the written language to the spoken is difficult because French, although somewhat phonetic has a lot of rules and exceptions (somewhat like English in that regard). I've been doing the French Phonology course over the last few weeks. It's well suited to 30 minute sessions. There are 10 units. Each unit is divided in 3 parts. Each part is approximately a half hour of work. Part one of each unit is a brief dialogue and buildup of the some phonological points taken bit by bit. The "bit by bit" is the nature of "programmed instruction". Part two is a formalization and expansion of the phonology introduced it part 1. It includes a series of written and spoken challenges. Being able to do part two means you've grasped the grammar, spelling, and vocabulary of the unit. Part three is a series of "tests". Some of these are recorded. Many are written. These give you an idea an idea how well you've "mastered" the material. I'm also doing FSI Basic French and see how the Phonology course complements the Basic course. A lot of the material in Phonology is covered in more depth in the first 4 units of (of 24) in Basic French. In addition to phonology, there is treatment of the 3 most popular verbs, etre, avoir, and aller; as well as regular "er" verbs. The phonology course also introduces the passé composé which Basic covers in unit 9, although it is introduced earlier. For review or mastery of the dialogues, I pulled the dialogues themselves out of the recording with Audacity so they can be listened to or shadowed independent of the 30 minute lesson. The biggest revelation here was that one can "play the parts" while shadowing the dialogues. This is a technique (other than the shadowing) that FSI courses routinely use. The shadowing part though is good because it helps one identify pronunciation variation or hesitation and to really plug into what the dialogues are communicating. Best of all, the 5 hours of instruction is consolidated into a 5 minute review. (That is, playing both parts for all 10 dialogues). Pros: Reveals phonology and spelling conventions used in French in a systematic way. Hits the very core of the language. Although I've never heard him mention it, it seems like it would go along with s_allard's 500 words, good pronunciation and the common verbs approach. (it's not everything s_allard would have in a course, but it does remind me of him now). Great preparation for FSI Basic French. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are all covered. Created by the U.S. Foreign Service Institute by experts in language learning from the 1960s/70s during what Professor Arguelles calls the "heyday" (height - zenith) of language learning courses. Cons: It's not a communicative approach per se. It moves slowly. The recordings are old and not very crisp. Bottom line: I've found it helpful. I'm glad I did it. 30-50 hours of the 600 hours of the time to learn French. Edited by luke on 21 January 2014 at 11:58am 12 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4363 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 8 21 January 2014 at 11:45am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, I use it as well and I am happy to read this great review.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7243 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog | Message 3 of 8 21 January 2014 at 12:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow, I worked through FSI French a while back. I didn't even know this existed. Cool!
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| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 4012 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 4 of 8 21 January 2014 at 12:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you so very much for your review! I have been strongly considering adding in FSI Phonology once I
complete the passive wave of FWT (in the next 30 days). Your review could not have been better timing for me! Thank you! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5380 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 5 of 8 21 January 2014 at 2:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for your review, Luke.
Could you comment on how appropriate it would be as an initial starting point for the beginning self-study French student? Also, you say you spent 30-50 hours on it. I believe you have significant French experience. How many hours would/should the beginner spend on it? I note that the preface to the program says the FSI students would spend 3-6 weeks on it full-time. That seems excessive to me, but I'd appreciate your thoughts. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5570 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 6 of 8 21 January 2014 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would really recommend it to and as early as possible - it makes explicit aspects of
French pronunciation (particularly nasal sounds) that other courses seem to take for granted. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7210 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 7 of 8 22 January 2014 at 1:24am | IP Logged | ||
I do think the course would be useful for a beginning French student. It does require time with the books. The Instructor's manual has answers to the tests and exercises. I start with the Student book, then use the Instructor's manual to review the dialogue and do the exercises a second time. 30 hours would be for someone who has most of the material down. 50 for someone who wants to review more or to repeat certain parts. Once one has dialogs mostly down, one can perfect them away from the book. I'm considering doing the Part 2 sections again, since they are the most focused on covering how to pronounce what you read. There are several useful tests where you read new words before the "instructor" so you can check if you understand the rules of written French. From reading the Instructor's manual, they do create some conversations and do the dialogs in class. That would add some time in a classroom scenario. Myself, I imagined they would cover the whole course in about 1 week, then move in FSI Basic. You know they have a demanding pace at the FSI. I then imagined they would do units 1 and 2 in Basic during week 2, then perhaps one unit per week for the rest of a 24 week course. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7210 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 8 of 8 22 January 2014 at 11:30am | IP Logged | ||
You're right though. That's what the preface says. When I was thinking about it later, I thought of the DLI Basic French Course (U.S. Defense Language Institute). That course devotes the first 15 lessons (15 days) to phonology. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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