French In Action, as a learning device?

[munyag]

When I was home for the holidays, I was fortunate to get the needed FIA materials (workbooks, textbook, and audio) from a family friend who is a retired French teacher. I began using the course yesterday.

A question for Carmody, Xenops or others that are working/have worked through the course: Do you watch the video again after completing the workbook and audio tasks? Or, do you just move on to the next video after satisfactorily completing the workbook and audio tasks? In working with courses, I don't try to 'master' each lesson before moving on to the next one. Instead, I tend to prefer to keep moving on, but often go back to previous lessons for review. So, my tendency would be to just move on. But, I was thinking that it may be worth another 30 minutes to re-watch the video for review and consolidation. Thoughts?

Also, in watching Lesson 2, I was taken back to some forgotten moments. I realized my sister and I would occasionally watch FIA on PBS when we came home from school. (We didn't have cable, so our TV options were limited). Not knowing its purpose nor being able to speak French, the entertainment value was strictly in making fun of the exaggerated acting and characters. Now, I see how beneficial this can be for language learning. For the moment, I also have the added benefit of the nostalgia.

Tuckamore-did you manage to finish the course?How was your experience? What was your level before the course and what's your level now that you have finished?

[munyag]

Congratulations - that is a major achievement - and in so short a time.

As to reviewing I totally agree - it is essential to getting to the core of FIA. It is heavy lifting though - I am still building my Memrise course of the vocabulary and workbook sentences - the data entry and extraction of the audio is tiring in itself.

Hi Elexi. Did you manage to build a course on Melrose out of French In Action?

[Xenops]

Is anyone out there using the French In Action course?

I am currently one half way through it and am curious if anyone out there is using it and how far you have gotten.

Holiday Greetings!

I'll let you know when I finish (which, realistically, would be a long time after you, considering your pace).

Did you manage to finish FIA?What do you think you were able to do after the course that you couldn't before the course?If you were to do it differently, How would you go about it?

I have not yet finished it (but I plan to). You might ask Carmody, because as predicted, he finished the course already.

[Carmody]

Ok folks I will be honest. I completed that course a very long time ago and at this point in my life all I can say is that it was one very long and grueling course, with for me questionable results. It was a course "of its time." If you want to just watch the videos of it then do that. And forget the exercises.

In this day and age many years later, we have so very much more available like Assimil New French with Ease, CLE French grammar books, and lots of excellent podcasts for the choosing.