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French in Action question | ||
Tags: Language Program | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Silvance Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5494 days ago 57 posts - 81 votes  Speaks: English*, Pashto Studies: Dari | Message 1 of 14 06 March 2015 at 7:39pm | IP Logged |
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I couldn't find much regarding this question using the search, so I"m asking here. I
started French in Action a little over a week ago and am now on episode 9. My typical strategy is to watch the video, and then do the audio exercise first with the transcript and do it a second time without the transcript. I don't do the workbook exercises, just the text workup with the textbook. Up until episode 8 I was understanding pretty much everything being said in the videos and audio, and didn't really have much difficulty with the work, now however, I'm struggling to pick up a lot of what is being said on the first go, and then after doing the text workup a couple times there are still parts of the audio that I have trouble recognizing. My question is whether I should spend another day on the particular audio until I get everything perfect or if I should continue moving on to a new episode of the series each day. How did you guys use the program? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 2 of 14 06 March 2015 at 9:01pm | IP Logged |
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In case this might help: when working through a learning programme (Assimil, etc.), I tend to push ahead a bit, while reviewing the previous lesson(s) -- rather than only focussing on one lesson at a time. In your case, you could do lessons 8 and 9, then review 8 and 9 and do 10, review 9 and 10 and do 11, etc.
The general idea is that you can't be expected to understand and remember everything on the first go. My personal assumption is that I learn (and retain) better doing something quick and reviewing it in detail shortly after, rather than spending a lot of time once. However, don't stray too far ahead if the lessons you are abandoning remain unclear, or else your problems will start piling on. Edited by Arekkusu on 06 March 2015 at 9:03pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Goindol Senior Member United States Joined 6074 days ago 165 posts - 203 votes | Message 3 of 14 06 March 2015 at 9:22pm | IP Logged |
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It's been some years since I completed French in Action, so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I don't recall
understanding everything on my first listen. Since the dialogues are spoken at natural speed, and since French has a lot of elisions, I wouldn't get discouraged about that. I think you'll find that with more exposure, parts that are giving you trouble now will become much easier. It's a good course; I would recommend relaxing more and enjoying it instead of trying to nail down every detail. In my experience perfectionism tends to lead to burning out, so these days I try to work just hard enough to have fun and not push myself too hard. And when I feel burnout around the corner, I scale back until I can feel enthusiastic again. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 4 of 14 07 March 2015 at 4:41am | IP Logged |
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Often the early lessons can be done in 1 day or even less, but gradually this becomes harder (especially if you were a false beginner anyway). Seems like your original strategy was based on the easier lessons and it's time to adjust it. Don't let it drag forever; just give yourself 2-3 days for each lesson, and see whether that's enough. If you love a lesson and want to get more out of it, study more. If you're bored, go to the next lesson. Or use supplemental materials if the difficulties are accumulating. I recommend GLOSS. I'm not even learning French and I've done some lessons XD I love(d) using this site for Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Serbian/Croatian... The listening lessons are great for intensive (detailed) listening. You can learn some techniques that you can apply to the FIA lessons.
Consider using the workbook too. And maybe focus less on the tasks for the text. When listening without a transcript, consider jotting down the incomprehensible parts (even simply the timing). When listening with a transcript, find the spots that were giving you trouble. Are there words you don't know? Is something pronounced differently? If you understand much more when reading the transcript, try pausing the recording. L2 speech can be overwhelming. Try not to translate; at most, repeat the words and figure out what was said. Get ready for the next sentence. I also highly recommend lyricstraining and music in general. Use it as a fun way to spend more time with French. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Silvance Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5494 days ago 57 posts - 81 votes Speaks: English*, Pashto Studies: Dari | Message 5 of 14 10 March 2015 at 1:04pm | IP Logged |
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It seems to have just been that particular episode. I'm up to episode 13 now and haven't
had any issue with any of them past that one episode. As for supplemental materials, I'm using Michel Thomas and Assimil, but Assimil is currently driving me nuts because I've gotten so use to the L2 speech of FIA that the super slow introductory speed in the first 20 or so Assimil lessons is almost painful. I'm also using Lingvist and Memrise on the side. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5565 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 6 of 14 10 March 2015 at 11:09pm | IP Logged |
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I find learning the vocabulary while studying the lesson is beneficial - I am slowing
working through FIA just for fun (I like 'doing' courses). If you use Quizlet, there are ready made cards for FIA. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5476 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 7 of 14 11 March 2015 at 1:23am | IP Logged |
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I have used FIA a LOT over the years...
..and I've never progressed beyond leçon 26. Why? Some might say, because I spent too long on them trying to understand EVERY detail. Typically when faced with a new lesson I'd spend a whole week on it (using all components of the course) and not move on until I knew 99% of the words presented in the video episode and could repeat it all back while the video was playing at normal speed with perfect pronunciation- I'd even look up words that couldn't be found in the lesson material that I'd hear trying to work out what they were.... but that was just my nature at that point in time- I didn't actually realise how much of the task of learning a language still lay ahead of me, and thought mastering one course meant mastering the language! Perhaps this is why I was so stop-start. I started FIA in 1998. Would you believe it's 2015 and I'm currently on leçon 13? So you could safely conclude then.... don't whatever you do do what I did (learn every single thing). HOWEVER- My reasons for stopping and starting French over the years may not be related to perfectionism, may not even be realated to my study methods, excessive use of course material and so on. My stopping and starting could simply be a character thing, personality thing, easily distracted, inconsistent, whatever. All in all i no longer have procrastination issues hardly ever, and I even let many words go under the radar as I reassure myselt that I will pick them up later and I should progress! I'm still over-analytical and a perfectionist. I may not have gotten past leçon 13 lately but I have completed a LOT of other courses in the last year or so (I haven't touched FIA that much). In short- do whatever works for you! My recommondation tho, would be to slow down a little, try and master things a little with good pronunciation and repetition, but down get too bogged down. (Everyone's pace is different for different reasons/learning styles etc). And Arekkusu's advice seems sound- skipping ahead to not slow progress, and coming back to material at later stages to reinforce/learn what you miss is sometimes an excellent way to go. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4059 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 8 of 14 15 March 2015 at 9:57am | IP Logged |
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Hello there,
I just use this thread to post my own question about this program as I don't want to make a new thread with the same title or take a very old thread on top again. I just started relearning French again and came across this course. As I didn't found the video on Amazon (and don't really know where else to get it) I tried google and found it on youtube (at least I hope it's the right thing ^^). On Amazon I found the textbooks and there seems to be a new edition of the textbook which will be published in May or so. (just found out that it's only part 2 and part 1 in the third edition is also not available... talking about amazon.de all the time by the way) Question 1: are the accompanying textbooks/workbooks good/worth the money? or is the video itself enough? question 2: as part 1 of the third edition seems to be published already, does anyone owns this? Is there any difference to previous editions? thanks in advance :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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