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FSI French Drills: What Am I Missing? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4912 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 17 of 24 02 September 2011 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm surprised you thought of Assimil before Pimsleur when you thought of parroting. Anyway, I'm sure there is some truth to Cainntear's criticism, but that is why it is useful to combine methods. I've noticed very few people on these forums learn using one textbook, course or method. It takes longer to use several, but each makes up for the weaknesses of others. Concerning learning styles, not being a type of learner doesn't mean you shouldn't use that learning style. A learning style preference means you enjoy a particular style. It is true that if you enjoy learning in a style, you will work harder and retain more. But also using other styles as much as you can stand will improve your learning. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5025 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 18 of 24 02 September 2011 at 11:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
An excellent point, and one Im surprised Ive not seen raised before. I dont think FSI is JUST minindless parroting, although it cant be denied that there is a lot of it involved. Usually, if you havent understood a lesson properly, you wont be able to do the drills.I find they really require you to think, and quickly. I am not sure how far the French version differs from that of the Spanish, but maybe you are finding the initial drills easy because your comfortable with that level of French? This was the case for me with Spanish, but I quickly found that the drills became difficult. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5786 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 19 of 24 03 September 2011 at 3:19am | IP Logged | |||||
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Cainntear, that's just my main point about FSI, it is based on flawed psychology
and is supposed to work by repetition...but that's not how the courses actually pan out (at least not the ones I am familiar with). It is a mystery to me that they are as good as they are given the above, one I can only explain by assuming that in actually designing individual courses they got a lot of input from good teachers. They are chock full of devices to warn you when your attention wanders and you start parroting mindlessly (for instances most of the drills are so designed that you will start getting them wrong as soon as you drift off), and there are bridges between structures and the context you will use them in (e.g. the conversation stimulus section, or the fact that most of the transformation drills start with a sentence from one of the dialogues). The one exception that I know of is the Spanish Programatic Course, which is exactly what Cainntear describes, though still worth a quick look because of the clear way it explains some grammar points. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4892 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 20 of 24 03 September 2011 at 6:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have a couple friends in Foreign Service training right now, and the courses (used full time) will bring them to
proficiency in three months in the target language. They won't get posted otherwise. So ... I don't know that we can say that the FSI courses are based on "flawed psychology" when they are demonstrably effective. That doesn't mean that they are the best for home study, or that everyone will enjoy them. My friends in training are suffering, actually. But FSI most definitely does work 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5786 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 21 of 24 03 September 2011 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
1) They use a completely different model now. 2) My whole post was about how the old method could be very effective (which they are) even though they were explicitly based on behaviourist psychology, which I personally think is flawed for language learning. Edited by Random review on 03 September 2011 at 6:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| JasonUK Triglot Newbie United Kingdom learnalanguagein1yea Joined 5259 days ago 29 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, French Studies: Thai, Spanish | Message 22 of 24 04 September 2011 at 12:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've tried FSI in 4 different languages so far and I have to say the French FSI is the worst (or the least best). It
doesn't seem to be as good as the others. I listened to almost all the recordings and I didn't feel my french improved that much. It has gotten a lot better since then through other means. This french course is about 80 hours long. So will take a lot of your time. Another problem is the sound quality. it's not great and I feel that is so important. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| pigsonfire Newbie United States Joined 5078 days ago 26 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Cantonese | Message 23 of 24 05 September 2011 at 4:36am | IP Logged | |||||
I actually thought French was one of the better FSI courses. You hear it in your sleep at night... if that is a good thing ... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| HenryMW Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5177 days ago 125 posts - 179 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, French Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 24 of 24 05 September 2011 at 6:46am | IP Logged | |||||
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I love FSI. It's the first thing I go to for a language. The French course is certainly daunting in size, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Out of French, German, and Spanish, I would say Spanish was their best, though.
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