Best French materials for older children/teens?

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Best French materials for older children/teens?

Postby alcarazesco » Tue May 30, 2023 2:46 pm

Hi everyone,

I have a 13 year-old sibling I would like to teach French to outside of school. He wants to learn, but the French taught in school (U.S.) is painfully slow. His first year has passed and he still doesn't know that nouns have genders, all the personal pronouns (i.e. difference between tu and vous), the conjugations of avoir/etre/aller, etc. At this pace he'll never learn.

So now the summer months are here. Of course I won't force him if he doesn't want to, but I figured he needs a good course that quickly gives him A1-A2 knowledge. I've heard Assimil and Pimsleur are good, as is French In Action. But I can't buy all the programs, so we must choose one and stick to it. Are there others you would recommend? Thank you all in advance!
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Re: Best French materials for older children/teens?

Postby luke » Tue May 30, 2023 4:38 pm

Could you help your sibling understand Le Petit Nicolas? There are a lot of short books with short stories as well as audiobooks. There's even a cartoon with a bunch of episodes on youtube. One of the channels has subtitles in English and French.
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Re: Best French materials for older children/teens?

Postby Sonjaconjota » Tue May 30, 2023 5:00 pm

alcarazesco wrote:I've heard Assimil and Pimsleur are good, as is French In Action.

Sorry, not a recommendation, but two clear non-recommendations: Pimsleur will not teach him understand grammar either and is rather aimed at businessmen who want to do smalltalk at the hotel bar.
Assimil ... well, it has lots of hardcore-fans, but it's about intuitive, input-based learning, which personally I don't really believe in for beginners. Again, the texts won't be especially interesting for a teenager, and it's an expensive program.
I'd recommend you look for something aimed at younger learners. If I have time later, I'll see if I can find something.
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Re: Best French materials for older children/teens?

Postby Le Baron » Tue May 30, 2023 5:45 pm

Sonjaconjota wrote:Sorry, not a recommendation, but two clear non-recommendations: Pimsleur will not teach him understand grammar either and is rather aimed at businessmen who want to do smalltalk at the hotel bar.
Assimil ... well, it has lots of hardcore-fans, but it's about intuitive, input-based learning, which personally I don't really believe in for beginners. Again, the texts won't be especially interesting for a teenager, and it's an expensive program.
I'd recommend you look for something aimed at younger learners. If I have time later, I'll see if I can find something.

Yet Pimsleur will correct some of those problems noted by the OP and deliver more than the average high school French I imagine. Pimsleur does teach the grammar you need for normal basic usage. Not entirely explicitly, but also through use. By having grammar points explained as and when required (which I assume is what the op will be doing? And using a text like perhaps those 'grammaire progressive' the first instalment) this would probably work out.
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Re: Best French materials for older children/teens?

Postby fromaalborg1 » Tue May 30, 2023 6:23 pm

If he is allowed access to a computer with internet, a potential free setup could be, that you help him create a Duolingo French profile, and get him started using this app 10-30 minutes per day. This might work, if he likes to play games.

You can then watch episodes of French in Action together (https://www.learner.org/series/french-i ... ipating-i/ for US). I don't think the audio+textbook-part is necessary (?).

You might want an adblocker for Duolingo, if he does not have one already.
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Re: Best French materials for older children/teens?

Postby Sonjaconjota » Tue May 30, 2023 6:57 pm

Le Baron wrote: And using a text like perhaps those 'grammaire progressive' the first instalment) this would probably work out.

Yes, I think "Grammaire progressive" and maybe "Communication progressive" for A1 could be nice.

fromaalborg1 wrote:If he is allowed access to a computer with internet, a potential free setup could be, that you help him create a Duolingo French profile, and get him started using this app 10-30 minutes per day.
You can then watch episodes of French in Action together (https://www.learner.org/series/french-i ... ipating-i/ for US).

Some good points here, too. Maybe "Extra" for French could also be an option for watching.
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Re: Best French materials for older children/teens?

Postby Pikaia » Tue May 30, 2023 7:58 pm

Middle school language learning classes in the US are glacially slow. In high school the pace will approximately double, so there's that to look forward to.

You could try French in Action, but it'll likely be too challenging for a middle schooler, especially if you don't have access to the accompanying textbook, workbook, and audios. (Nor would I suggest getting them for a 13 year old.)

Extra is more than a little cringey for contemporary teens. Telefrançais is benign. It amused me when I was in high school, and can still be found on YouTube.

For now, I wouldn't buy anything at all. I'd suggest two freebies:

1. Coffee Break French podcasts, trying to get through at least seasons 1 & 2. They cover similar material, but the first season is more organic/practical. The second season goes over similar ground but also introduces grammatical concepts that'll be helpful for high school coursework. The podcasts are free. Personally I wouldn't pay for the transcripts/worksheets. You may want to write stuff down if your sibling likes to see written forms. (My kids have always hated audio-only methods. For them, Pimsleur = torture.)

2. Duolingo - maybe paying for premium would be worthwhile to avoid wasting time on ads

If he gets really interested, it'll be obvious by the end of the summer, and he can decide to make the leap to French in Action or other materials. There might be live online classes that'll fit his schedule on Outschool. Definitely look at teacher reviews; Outschool is a market much like Etsy, so quality of instruction will vary.

My younger kid took up French on her own in 9th grade, but she was already an advanced learner of Spanish. She chose to go through a textbook (with online compenent) published by the same company that published the Spanish textbook series she had been using, so she was already familiar with the book format and online components. After a few months of self-study we added 30 minute sessions once or twice a week with an iTalki tutor. At the end of the year she placed into Pre-AP/French 4/5, but she'd be the first to admit that Spanish gave her a running start with French.
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Re: Best French materials for older children/teens?

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Tue May 30, 2023 8:56 pm

I like Paul Noble and I’ve used the grownup program with much younger kids. (All I needed to do was do one lesson over like three days to account for a shorter attention span.) He does a good job of really drilling the basics but in a way that encourages conversational skills.
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Re: Best French materials for older children/teens?

Postby Monty » Wed May 31, 2023 7:44 am

The entire sets of Tintin and Asterix in original French.
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