French In Action, as a learning device?

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Carmody
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Re: French In Action, as a learning device?

Postby Carmody » Wed Aug 17, 2016 9:56 pm

Peter

Thanks for your time and especially your thoughts when you said
I just wanted to progress through courses thoroughly........I think forget about time limits so much, but keep to goals so you keep progressing.
I think that both comments imply the same thing that I have come to appreciate and that is the joy and pleasure of learning a language.

I am not in a horse race and I don't get more pleasure from going faster, faster. Some joys, I find, are best savored at a slower pace.

Thank you.
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Re: French In Action, as a learning device?

Postby Carmody » Thu Aug 18, 2016 10:19 pm

So everyone has been so helpful to me on this FIA course, I am going ahead and getting the workbooks, Part I and Part II. I hope these are the right ones, but if not do let me know.....

https://www.amazon.com/French-Action-Be ... n+workbook

https://www.amazon.com/French-Action-Be ... n+workbook
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Re: French In Action, as a learning device?

Postby tomgosse » Thu Aug 18, 2016 11:10 pm

Carmody wrote:So everyone has been so helpful to me on this FIA course, I am going ahead and getting the workbooks, Part I and Part II. I hope these are the right ones, but if not do let me know.....

https://www.amazon.com/French-Action-Be ... n+workbook

https://www.amazon.com/French-Action-Be ... n+workbook

The part 2 workbook is not the latest one. The part 1 is the latest workbook, the part 2 workbook is not the latest, but an earlier edition. With two textbooks, two workbooks, two study guides, audio discs and video discs sorting out which one of three editions is correct is a chore. Even the Yale page is not up to date. Here is a link to my Amazon wish list that lists all the latest editions.
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Re: French In Action, as a learning device?

Postby Carmody » Thu Aug 18, 2016 11:40 pm

Tom,

Grateful to you as always.

Since I am working with the first edition of the text book, maybe the older the work book the better for me; just a thought.

FWIW
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Re: French In Action, as a learning device?

Postby tomgosse » Tue Aug 23, 2016 7:37 pm

Gathering together all my French In Action books, workbooks, and study guides. :D
fia books (2) (1024x576).jpg
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Re: French In Action, as a learning device?

Postby tomgosse » Wed Aug 24, 2016 2:53 pm

For those of you who are interested a instructor's guide is available for free from Yale University Press. This book was written for teachers who are teaching a class. The separate Study Guides are written for students who are taking the course for distance learning or self study.

Please note, additional video and audio to accompany the third edition can found at the Yale site.
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Re: French In Action, as a learning device?

Postby Seneca » Fri Aug 26, 2016 9:09 am

I have always found it interesting how the Spanish and German equivalents of French in Action never seemed to be even close to as popular. Any ideas why? Worse quality audio-visual? Weaker or less thorough accompanying materials?
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Re: French In Action, as a learning device?

Postby PeterMollenburg » Fri Aug 26, 2016 9:20 am

Seneca wrote:I have always found it interesting how the Spanish and German equivalents of French in Action never seemed to be even close to as popular. Any ideas why? Worse quality audio-visual? Weaker or less thorough accompanying materials?


If you're talking about Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish I'd say this course is equally good in quality and somewhat better in effectiveness.
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Re: French In Action, as a learning device?

Postby Seneca » Fri Aug 26, 2016 9:42 am

PeterMollenburg wrote:
Seneca wrote:I have always found it interesting how the Spanish and German equivalents of French in Action never seemed to be even close to as popular. Any ideas why? Worse quality audio-visual? Weaker or less thorough accompanying materials?


If you're talking about Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish I'd say this course is equally good in quality and somewhat better in effectiveness.

Wow, really? What makes it more effective? That is pretty cool since FIA gets such great praise.
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Re: French In Action, as a learning device?

Postby Stefan » Fri Aug 26, 2016 10:48 am

Seneca wrote:I have always found it interesting how the Spanish and German equivalents of French in Action never seemed to be even close to as popular. Any ideas why? Worse quality audio-visual? Weaker or less thorough accompanying materials?

What's the German equivalent? The most similar thing I can think of is Deutsch Plus and that's one of the most recommended programs for anyone learning the language. I just recently found out that there's a coursebook, workbook, study guide and audio tape that's supposed to be used along the Deutsch Plus show. They seem to share a common thread in how a lot of people only watch the videos and then get their "regular" language learning from another source.

In lack of better words, I also believe there's a Assimil effect. Alexander Arguelles is a well-known person within the language learning community so when he praised Assimil, it spread and now everyone recommends it. As we established in another thread, the method isn't new - they used it 2000 years ago, but it works and became popular. I might be wrong to credit Arguelles for it though but that's the impression I got when I discovered the international language learning community.

To summarise, FIA has four things going for it.

1) It works.
2) The videos makes it somewhat unique.
3) Popularity breeds popularity.
4) It's available for free online.

I've studied German on and off for years and own most courses you can get but still don't know about a FIA equivalent so a major part is probably knowledge about it. If no one knows abut it or recommends it, then new learners won't use it. In line with my point above about popularity breeding popularity.
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