re4lover Groupie Egypt Joined 5436 days ago 63 posts - 66 votes Speaks: Arabic (Egyptian)* Studies: English, Russian, Modern Hebrew, Aramaic
| Message 1 of 7 18 February 2010 at 12:24am | IP Logged |
i already have the new Assimil french with ease
but I've heard here.. that any course alone won't work any language out
so i'm wondering about which courses should i have to reach a good fluency at french
i'm thinking about many courses >> but i need advice
and about french grammer ... i really need book or course that explain it (at English of course!!)
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magictom123 Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5592 days ago 272 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French
| Message 2 of 7 18 February 2010 at 12:40am | IP Logged |
I have also heard people say this and I think what I have come to realise is that at
the end of the day, you do have to follow a course. That is, I get the impression that
you may be looking for that elusive course that can make you fluent if you read it
front to back. I have to say I can be guilty of that mentality too sometimes. Now, in
my opinion, it is good to mix up courses and input to a degree, do not fool yourself by
hopping from one to the other without really completing any.
For Italian, I have used mainly only 2-3 courses - michel thomas, assimil and
linguaphone. I would recommend the same courses for french (despite me not having
studied french) as a way of quite easily reaching a point where you can read and get
the gist of things or understand simple conversations.
French, of course, has the added extra of French in Action, the immersion course
developed in the 80's that I am investigating now. You can get some of the parts
online for free so it may be worth you looking into it.
I hope this helps in some way
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re4lover Groupie Egypt Joined 5436 days ago 63 posts - 66 votes Speaks: Arabic (Egyptian)* Studies: English, Russian, Modern Hebrew, Aramaic
| Message 3 of 7 18 February 2010 at 12:37pm | IP Logged |
magictom123
thanks for your response ... really very useful
thanks for your tips but in relate to linguaphone .. I'm wondering if that course effective enough ??
and French In Action .... Is that course explain grammar ?? or It just focus on Vocabulary ??
thanks again:)
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tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5452 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 4 of 7 19 February 2010 at 10:02pm | IP Logged |
There are several Linguaphone courses, and I don't know if all are of the same quality. The "complete" courses are very good, at least the older ones.
Edited by tractor on 19 February 2010 at 10:43pm
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Faraday Senior Member United States Joined 6117 days ago 129 posts - 256 votes Speaks: German*
| Message 5 of 7 19 February 2010 at 10:34pm | IP Logged |
The purpose of a course, in my opinion, isn't to build you up to fluency, but to take you
to a level where you can start using native material.
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magictom123 Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5592 days ago 272 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French
| Message 6 of 7 19 February 2010 at 11:09pm | IP Logged |
The linguaphone course I obtained from my library is very good. It is very
comprehensive.
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reltuk Groupie United States Joined 6815 days ago 75 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French
| Message 7 of 7 19 February 2010 at 11:39pm | IP Logged |
Faraday wrote:
The purpose of a course, in my opinion, isn't to build you up to fluency, but to take you to a level where you can start using native material. |
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This! This should be the purpose of any beginner course. After you can consume native materials, you should do so voraciously. If you identify persistent weaknesses, and you will, you can seek out specific remedies such as targeted grammar & syntax drills, topical vocabulary building, etc.
To consume native materials is only one part of what you should be doing after you finish a beginners course, of course. Another is production in the form of writing and speaking. Conversation practice is very important if you want to be able to converse in the language. But it is a lot less painful after you can actually say meaningful things and talk about subjects that are interesting to you, instead of just going through the rote dialogs that lots of beginning classroom learning has you do.
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