French In Action, as a learning device?

[PeterMollenburg]

In regards to the OP, a friend of mine reported to me that his college course used French in Action and that it successfully taught him French (to the level it advertises it will take the student). The version of the course that he took did include the audio and workbook portions. So for those of you pursuing the whole enchilada, there is some prospect of success.

Verified success stories are so rare for any of these language products that it is good to know that at least one person met success with one of them.

(Disclaimer: I have no connection whatsoever with French in Action or with Yale.)

I really do think FIA is one of the few to do what it says if you follow the whole program. On my homeschooling forum, there is a mother whose daughter taught herself French from FIA and was able to get her writing paper evaluated by a native French teacher who taught native French students. The teacher said the girl was writing at grade level for a native French kid. Insanely huge accomplishment.

That is pretty cool.

[AnthonyLauder]

I managed to complete French In Action. It took me about a year I suppose, working on one lesson a week, with lots of repetition. Importantly, I did all the audio, and workbooks. Not just watching the TV show.

To be fair, it was great as an immersion class, but I became increasingly frustrated towards the end with how silly the story became, and how they didn't ramp up the grammar explanations.

I would say that it is a great course for getting to a "can get by in french" level, but you would still be very confused by a great deal in real life.

I can contrast this with the FSI French course, which took about the same amount of time, and was rather dull at times, but was much better at getting across a deeper awareness of grammar patterns.

If you have the time, energy, and patience, I found that the courses went well together (overcoming each other's flaws).

[Carmody]

Thanks folks for your feed back re FIA.

So I guess I will do my best to keep on keeping on............

[Xenops]

Here's a question: how do you use FIA? Do you watch the videos first, does the audio match the textbook rather than the workbook, etc? Even though I have the study guide, but I can't make sense of all of the stuff (text, workbook, video, audio, study guide).

I can contrast this with the FSI French course, which took about the same amount of time, and was rather dull at times, but was much better at getting across a deeper awareness of grammar patterns.

If you have the time, energy, and patience, I found that the courses went well together (overcoming each other's flaws).

Interesting that you say this, because I'm currently doing Assimil and Pimsleur, and am looking at another resource to combine my efforts.

[tomgosse]

Here's a question: how do you use FIA? Do you watch the videos first, does the audio match the textbook rather than the workbook, etc? Even though I have the study guide, but I can't make sense of all of the stuff (text, workbook, video, audio, study guide).

This is one of the problems that I had with it. There are textbooks (600 pages), two workbooks (800 pages), two study guides (500 pages) and 52 audio cassettes or CD's (60-70 hours of playtime) accompanying the video. It is a monumental course.

[Elexi]

My technique is this (sorry for the longish list):

1. I enter the key words (grey text in the textbook) into Memrise (formerly in Quizlet, where many are helpfully already entered) to learn the words. I try to get MP3s of the words from sites like Forvo or the online Larousse dictionary that do not use computer voices, but will use the Google to MP3 voice if necessary. For entering text into Memrise I use Scanbot, an Iphone pdf scanner with OCR in the main European languages - this makes processing the words speedier as it a matter of cut and paste. I also use Scanbot to make a pdf of the lecon, so I can read it on my tablet without lugging books around.
2. I read the text of the lesson from the textbook a few times, noting any phrases I don't really get or those I find useful - and interrogate the text using the questions in the 'mise en oeuvre' section.
3. I do the 'text workup' from the audio tapes to fix the lesson while taking my dog for a walk. After this I listen to the lecon every day.
4. I watch the video lesson with a note pad to note down anything I either don't get, haven't picked up or find interesting.
5. I read the Workbook and the Instructors' Manual to get an idea of what I should be learning from the Workbook - on grammar topics I have a read of a basic grammar book (Collins Easy Learning) and watch a Learn French With Pascal type video on Youtube if there is one.
6. I scan and enter the 'Observations' and the examples into Memrise, including chopping up the audio in a DAW (I use Reaper) and learn them this way. I find that unless I have continual revision, I may as well just glance over the
7. I do audio the exercises while out walking.
8. If I have any energy left, I do the written exercises - but I must confess I have started skipping the written exercises as they have got longer and find equivalent ones in in books like the Practice Makes Perfect series - mainly because they have more better answer keys.
9. I do the readings at the back of the lesson - entering in any unknown words in Memrise again.
10. I watch the video one more time.

I move on to the next lesson and repeat... while continuing to get the Memrise revisions for the last lessons.

I am just finishing lesson 48 now - I probably work on the above for about 1 hour a day and it takes me about 2-4 weeks per lesson to do.

[Carmody]

Elexi
just finishing lesson 48 now

Congratulations! How long has it taken you to get to Chp. 48?

[Elexi]

It would be coming on to about two years now. I have dragged in places, doing other things - and I use it as a springboard for looking at other material.

With hindsight I think it can and probably should be done in a year in order to keep the elements of the course together in the mind.

[Carmody]

Elexi, thank you very much for your very honest reply; greatly appreciated and most helpful to me going forward.

Hopefully, I will with luck be able to:

be done in a year in order to keep the elements of the course together in the mind.

My own opinion is that it would have been a great help if the instructors of this course had indicated at the outset to students just how very lengthy the process would be in order to finish it. Expectations at the outset are critical in any situation.

[AnthonyLauder]

My own opinion is that it would have been a great help if the instructors of this course had indicated at the outset to students just how very lengthy the process would be in order to finish it. Expectations at the outset are critical in any situation.

Before starting FIA, I found a video of former students who had taken the original course a Yale university. I can't find a link to the video now, unfortunately, but I remember one of those students saying they spent about 18 months on the course.