The methods and resources I have used so far*:
Lingq: Lingq was probably the first online resource I used, and also the thing which led me to HTLAL and therefore all my other (successful) efforts. Thanks, jeff_lindqvist. I used Lingq for Swedish. The pros were: access to a substantial amount of dense texts with recordings done by real people, the ability to look up words and see there definition. I'm sure the vocabulary learning tools, such as the flashcard system, would have also been useful, had I ever used them. Looking back on it, I probably got a substantial amount of Swedish from using Lingq. The cons: the extortionate price. Okay, so the price probably isn't that extortionate, but for a poor student with next to no money, it is terrible. The free version of Lingq is barely worth mentioning: while it is still nice to access texts with recordings, you might as well stick to normal LR as you only get twenty word look ups. I also found that the app wasn't very good, even for subscribers. It was basic, annoying to use and quite ugly. It certainly didn't make paying a more attractive prospect.
FSI: FSI has been of mixed use. Quality varies, according to language. I have heard excellent things about the Spanish and French FSI Courses. For my part, I love and adore Swedish FSI. I may have learnt a substantial amount from Lingq, but I learnt more from FSI. It is worth noting, however, that I didn't get much out of FSI German. Using it was far too much of a chore and the content felt even more outdated, so I gave up on the second unit. The Pros: FSI is thorough! Studying it dilligently, going through each lesson a couple of times with the text and then listening at intervals, allowed me to pick up vocabulary quickly and easily. The drills help grammar structures stick into your brain, and give you a feel for them. At a meetup with Swedish learners, I noticed that I was using certain grammatical structures with more accuracy then them, which is certainly thanks to FSI. There was a mixture of learners at this meetup, but I don't think any of them had tried or even heard of FSI. I think this is a pro that would apply to all of their courses, as they are government designed courses aimed at getting diplomats up to a high level in the language they are learning. Another, very important point is that most (if not all) FSI courses are completely FREE. The Cons: FSI is boring. FSI is very boring. If you can take pleasure in that fat that you are learning something, it does make it more bearable, but it's still boring. I have been using FSI for over a year now, and I still haven't worked my way through the entire course, although I have listened to all of the dialogues. It is useful even in small, infrequent spurts, but I think the best results would obviously be seen from working through it to a schedule, perhaps hoping to get a new lesson learnt every other week to give your brain some breathing space. Another downside to the FSI courses is that they are all old and, in places outdated. The audio quality of the free courses is patchy, and a some of the vocabulary is useless or out of use. For example, I don't really know how often I'll need to talk about typewriters in my daily life. It's not a completely obsolete word, but I rarely talk about them. Some of the verbs have also fallen out of use - for example, 'att beställa' has apparently been replaced by 'att boka', which is very sad but true. (I think 'att boka' is much uglier than 'att beställa', but perhaps that is just me). Finally, the content itself is often outdated. All the men are army officers, diplomats etc. who discuss whether they prefer smoking pipes or cigarettes. All the women - if they have jobs - are nurses and secretaries, and talk about buying dresses and new clothes and lunching with each other. It's not overwhelming in small doses, but it can be a bit cringey at times.
Duolingo: So, I have used Duolingo for different languages in the past, and am using it for a few currently. I have used it for French, German, Swedish, and Esperanto, and I am currently using it for Italian and Portuguese, too. My favourite Duolingo course so far is the Swedish one. I disliked the French one very much, although I last used it about a year ago. I think my main problem with Duolingo French was that it was too fixed, and didn't allow much room for interpretation. I think this is a problem which has probably been worked on, and I know that some people do use and like Duolingo French. Duolingo German is my second favourite Duo course of the ones I've tried. The Pros: I sometimes view Duolingo as a more fun and up to date version of FSI. The repetition of sentences and structures work like the drills, but the fact that the way these sentences are presented changes means that it doesn't get boring as quickly, and probably helps learners to remember and produce these structures. It is quite good for giving learners the building blocks for output training. It is very grammar-lite, but I feel that I have learnt some fairly important grammar from Duolingo, and especially that it has helped with production. It is also nice to have a large and active community on hand, with lots of native speakers to help resolve any issues you might have. If you come across a problem in the course, it can be reported, and the moderators will fix it or explain the issue you might have had. I have always gotten responses to questions very quickly. The Cons: The early units are riddled with very strange sentences, such as 'you eat my dogs food' and 'I do not know that bird' which one is very unlikely to need in real life. Some of these strange sentences can be found in later modules, too. The reason for this is that Duolingo uses a sentence based method to teach languages, and so earlier in the course they are constrained by the small vocabulary of the learner. I also find it quite difficult to learn with Duolingo. I think that it is great for review, and for turning passive vocabulary into active vocabulary, but learning new things from scratch with Duolingo can be quite hard, sometimes. In fact, I had to give up the Duolingo Esperanto course for that reason: even the things I once knew and only needed to refresh were very difficult to retrieve using Duolingo. Another problem is that many of the courses use TTS systems rather than native speakers, which means that somethings are pronounced incorrectly.
LR: Listen-Reading is probably one of the best methods I have tried. It is efficient and fun. The methodology can be found on the
HTLAL wiki, so I'll just say what I do and what I have found useful. I don't listen for periods as long as the ones recommended on the site - not even close! I tend to listen to just a chapter at a time, which means the benefits I see are different and slower to manifest than if I were to do it to the letter. I tend to mix up whether I listen first in English/French or in the TL (Swedish or German). What works best changes with different books. So, for a harder book such as
Der kleine Hobbit, I prefer to have read through the chapter first in English with or without audio. Listening along with audio means that when reading the German it is easier to remember the meaning of the words. For something slightly easier, like
Tintenherz I like to read through in German first without audio, then read in English with German audio, then in German again with German audio. I should probably note here that I only use TL audio. I find it more beneficial to listen to the easier things more, because it doesn't get as tedious. I understand more, so I am more engaged and less like to blank out and get lost in the text. For Swedish, where I am more advanced, and where I know the book I am LRing much better (
Låt den rätta komma in), I can just listen and read along in Swedish both times without needing English at all. I can also listen to the audio without the text. The Pros: I love LR. I love it so much. It helps with my global comprehension and I can see that if I were to consecrate more time per session, it would also teach me a lot of words. The Cons: it hasn't done much for my production. I imagine that, again, with longer sessions, it would really help with the internalising of grammatical structures and native-like phrasing. But this leads me on to the second and biggest con. LR is best done in long sessions. My sessions are usually around 40 minutes to an hour long, which limits the benefits I see, as I have mentioned. Very few people, I imagine, can sacrifice more than that in a single sitting, but I believe that this is when the biggest gains will be seen.
Coming (hopefully!) soon:
TY Complete Dutch/Catalan
*I will only include those resources which I have gotten more than a couple of chapters through, and the methods which I have used over a period of time. As my sticking power is generally nil, this probably won't be a very long list.