Has anyone completed FSI?

General discussion about learning languages

Has anyone completed FSI?

Yes, I have completed the course
14
23%
No. I just couldn't work with this
19
32%
I mght use FSI again
23
38%
This course is inappropriate
4
7%
 
Total votes: 60

User avatar
reineke
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3570
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:34 pm
Languages: Fox (C4)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=6979
x 6554

Has anyone completed FSI?

Postby reineke » Sat Feb 02, 2019 6:59 pm

1 Yes.
2 No. I've tried but I just couldn't bring myself to complete this thing.
3 I've tried the course and may use it for any of my current or prospective languages. I have worked intensively with the course and I believe in the quality of these audio drills.
4 This free course is antiquated/ineffective/inappropriate. You get what you pay for.

FSI - French Basic Course - Student Text

"Volume I contains twenty-five units of a course planned to have about 100 units. The course as a whole is intended to lead the student to a minimum professionally useful level of proficiency. The objective of this first phase is to emphasize structure: word structure and, particularly, phrase structure. Therefore, this volume T - especially through Unit 20 — displays equal concern with phrase relators and connectors and with verb morphology and shows considerably less concern with vocabulary. During this introductory phase, the authors are more interested in the student's ability to perform in multi-phrasal and multi-clausal sentences using the proper connectors and relators than in his stockpiling of vocabulary items. Subsequent units will develop the remaining verb morphology and expand the vocabulary.

The average student requires approximately 100 hours to go through Volume I. Since there are 417 'words* in this volume, he assimilates
at the rate of 4.2 'words' per hour. (A 'word' is defined as a preposition, a verb form, an infinitive, a number, an adjective, etc.)

FSI - Spanish Basic Course - Student Text

"The course is designed to be taught by a native speaker of Spanish who has received training specifically in the use of such materials and who teaches under the supervision of a scientific linguist.

Spanish classes at the Foreign Service Institute normally contain six students who receive six hours of class drill daily and are expected to do at least two hours a day of preparation, mostly practice with tapes. With this schedule average students at the Institute require approximately two to two and a half days to assimilate one Unit thoroughly.

Method of Teaching

The method is known as GUIDED IMITATION. It may appear to be new, but actually it has been used by a considerable number of teachers for many years, though its greatest popularity has come since the second World War. Its goal is to teach one to speak easily, fluently, with very little accent, and to do this without conscious effort, just as one speaks his own language without conscious effort.

There are two very important aspects of this method. First, learning a relatively small body of material so well that it requires very little effort to produce it. This is OVERLEARNING. If a student overlerans every dialog and drill as he goes through this book, he will almost certainly experience rapid progress in learning the language.

The second aspect is learning to authentically manipulate the sounds, sequences, and patterns of the language. The important implication here is the reality of both the model and the imitation. The model (teacher, recording, etc.) must provide Spanish as people really speak it in actual conversations, and the student must be helped to an accurate imitation. Above all, the normal tempo of pronunciation must be the classroom standard; slowing down is, in this context, distortion.

The complete course consists of sixty units, each requiring some ten class and laboratory hours plus outside study to master. The course is a six-hundred-hours course which may be studied intensively over a period of about six months, or may be spread at the rate of a unit a week over a period of sixty weeks (four college semesters). Either a native speaker or a teacher with very little accent in his Spanish is necessary as the model for imitation.

Pronunciation

The first two units are focused primarily on pronunciation problems. Drills on other aspects of the language are deliberately postponed because of the importance of developing good pronunciation habits from the very beginning of the course. Pronunciation is extremely important. It is the basis of all real fluency. A person is readily able to understand anything he can meaningfully say himself, if the correlation between the way he hears it and the way he says it is reasonably similar. Probably the more similar, the greater the ease of comprehension.

The "basis of the student's imitation is of course the teacher, whose pronunciation, if he is a native speaker of an acceptable dialect of his own country, is the ultimate source of authority. The fundamental classroom procedure for learning new material throughout this book (except the reading materials) is repetition by the student in direct immediate imitation after the teacher. The imitative repetition may at first be done in chorus after the teacher, and subsequently by each individual, or it may be individualized from the start. In either case the student should wait for the teacher's model. Imitating after another student too frequently results in compounding the errors of both. If a person is fortunate enough to begin studying a second language before the age of eight or ten, the powers of imitation are normally sufficient to insure excellent results in pronunciation without resorting to technical explanations of what happens to various parts of the vocal apparatus. If occasionally an individual has managed to retain this gift that all of us had in childhood, so much the better, but most adults need more specific guidance based on an awareness of the particular problems of producing particular sounds. The drills and explanations in the first two units are devoted to the specific problems an English speaker with his English habits of pronunciation will have in accurately imitating the sounds and sequences of sounds of Spanish.

Aids to Listening

The acquisition of a good pronunciation is first of all the result of careful listening and imitation plus whatever help can be obtained from initial pronunciation drills and description, and from the cues provided for continuing reference by the aids to listening. It is well to remember that a sizeable investment in pronunciation practice early in the course will pay handsome dividends later; correct pronunciation safely relegated to habit leaves one's full attention available for other problems of learning the language.

The student should very carefully learn both the literal meanings of each individual word or phrase that is given on an indented line and the meaning that appears in the full sentences. It should not he cause for concern if the meaning in context is strikingly different from the literal meaning.

The student should learn the basic dialogs by heart. If they are committed perfectly to rote memory, the drills will go easily and rapidly. Roughly half of the estimated ten hours that are spent in class on each unit should normally be devoted to the basic dialogs.

Drills and Grammar

Each unit can in some ways be likened to a musical theme with variations* The basic dialogs are the theme, and the drills provide the variations. Patterns of the structure Of the language which have been learned in the basic sentences are expanded and manipulated in the drills.

There are four kinds of drills in each unit (three before Unit 6). Of these, two are designed to systematically vary selected basic sentences within the structure and vocabulary the student has already learned. And two are oriented toward the structure of the language to provide a systematic coverage of all important patterns.

The drills are not problems to be worked out like mathematics, and the ability to do them, not to figure them, is indicated by the nature of the course. There are no tricks in them, and they are not intended as tests.

Pattern drills are presented in a format which provides both practice and explanation. First appears a presentation of the pattern to be drilled, then various kinds of drills, and finally a more detailed discussion of the pattern.

The presentation consists of a listing of basic sentences (and a few new sentences when necessary) which illustrate the grammar point to be drilled. Then there is an extrapolation which shows the relationships involved in the pattern in a two-dimensional chart, which is further explained by a short note or two. This presentation should provide sufficient clues to enable the student to understand and use the pattern correctly in the drills that follow.

These drills are mainly exercises making substitutions, responses, and translations, highlighting the grammar points covered. They are devised for oral answers to oral stimuli."
Last edited by reineke on Sun Feb 03, 2019 5:41 pm, edited 5 times in total.
0 x

Speakeasy
x 7658

Re: Has anyone completed FSI?

Postby Speakeasy » Sat Feb 02, 2019 7:23 pm

I have completed the FSI Basic audio-lingual or Programmatic courses, or their civilian equivalents, for all of the languages that I have studied. I understand and accept the idea that rote memorization of some basic information is of great assistance in the learning process as it frees the mind to contemplate higher-level concepts. I have never been afraid of hard work, in fact, I thoroughly enjoy being pushed to the very limits of my endurance. No pain, no gain!

Furthermore, yes, I believe that I am capable of distinguishing that which continues to be relevant in the FSI materials from that which should be viewed from an historical perspective. And, no, I would not rely on the FSI materials as my sole course of language instruction, nor more than I believe that anyone else would or should.

As I just commented in another FSI thread, language learning is akin to serving oneself at a Smorgasbord, you can’t take it all in and there’s no accounting for tastes. I have dined at the FSI Buffet and I thoroughly enjoyed the “meatiness” of the programs (the only exception being the FSI Programmatic Italian course which is, perhaps, the worse course that I have ever encountered).

EDITED:
Typos, of course!
Again! When am I going to learn to slow down, you know, breathe through the nose?
Last edited by Speakeasy on Sat Feb 02, 2019 9:00 pm, edited 2 times in total.
7 x

User avatar
reineke
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3570
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:34 pm
Languages: Fox (C4)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=6979
x 6554

Re: Has anyone completed FSI?

Postby reineke » Sat Feb 02, 2019 7:28 pm

You can cast two votes. It sounds like you would use it again.

Some past discussions:

The use of FSI, a question of efficiency.
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =14&t=5442

Has anyone finished the whole thing?
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =19&t=1628

Creative Ways to Use FSI
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =14&t=2449

The Joy of FSI French Phonology
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =19&t=5103
Last edited by reineke on Sun Feb 03, 2019 6:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
0 x

Speakeasy
x 7658

Re: Has anyone completed FSI?

Postby Speakeasy » Sat Feb 02, 2019 7:39 pm

Reineke, thank you, as I have already completed all of the FSI courses, or ones that adopt a similar approach, for the languages that I have studied, I did not perceive the opportunity of voting for “using again”; nevertheless, in light of your encouragement, I have just submitted a second ballot.
0 x

User avatar
zenmonkey
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2528
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:21 pm
Location: California, Germany and France
Languages: Spanish, English, French trilingual - German (B2/C1) on/off study: Persian, Hebrew, Tibetan, Setswana.
Some knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, Ladino, Yiddish ...
Want to tackle Tzotzil, Nahuatl
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=859
x 7030
Contact:

Re: Has anyone completed FSI?

Postby zenmonkey » Sat Feb 02, 2019 8:21 pm

None of the above.

"Not yet, and I'm currently using it. I most certainly intend to finish it."
0 x
I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar

User avatar
reineke
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3570
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:34 pm
Languages: Fox (C4)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=6979
x 6554

Re: Has anyone completed FSI?

Postby reineke » Sat Feb 02, 2019 8:48 pm

zenmonkey wrote:None of the above.

"Not yet, and I'm currently using it. I most certainly intend to finish it."


That would be no 3. You have a very linear mind.
0 x

User avatar
Brun Ugle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2273
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:48 pm
Location: Steinkjer, Norway
Languages: English (N), Norwegian (~C1/C2), Spanish (B1/B2), German (A2/B1?), Japanese (very rusty)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11484
x 5821
Contact:

Re: Has anyone completed FSI?

Postby Brun Ugle » Sat Feb 02, 2019 8:54 pm

FSI is great!
FSI is the most fun you can have on a Saturday night.
I’m considering choosing my future target languages based on which ones have the best, most complete FSI courses available.

For some reason, none of the above were included as poll options.
6 x

User avatar
reineke
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3570
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:34 pm
Languages: Fox (C4)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=6979
x 6554

Re: Has anyone completed FSI?

Postby reineke » Sat Feb 02, 2019 8:57 pm

No 3. Chipmunk
0 x

User avatar
SGP
Blue Belt
Posts: 927
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2018 9:33 pm
Languages: DE (native), EN (C2), ES (B2), FR (B2); some more at various levels
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 30#p120230
x 293

Re: Has anyone completed FSI?

Postby SGP » Sat Feb 02, 2019 9:00 pm

reineke wrote:No 3. Chipmunk
Could you decipher that one?
0 x
Previously known as SGP. But my mental username now is langmon.

Log


Speakeasy
x 7658

Re: Has anyone completed FSI?

Postby Speakeasy » Sat Feb 02, 2019 9:01 pm

An endearing term such as "little one" and the like.
0 x


Return to “General Language Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: themethod and 2 guests