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Critique my schedule *French*

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 4:38 pm
by stwhite1988
Hi all, I have been a long time lurker on this forum without ever participating. I have restarted my French studies after a few years break for work reasons. I imagine that I'm around the lower intermediate level. Here is my current schedule at the moment:

- RFI: Radio en francaise facile. I listen to this everyday.
- Buffy contre les vampire - currently watching the series in French with French sub's.
- italki - I have two lessons per week with a professional teacher with the focus on working towards the B1 exam.
- Reading - currently working through numerous shorts stores in parallel text. (French/English)
- Anki - Building a vocabulary list from the Mastering French Vocabulary book and reviewing approx. 200 words per day.
- Other - I listen passively to French radio whenever I'm in the car or cooking etc.

Is there anything obvious missing from my current plan or does it seem OK? Any advice would be appreciated. :D

Re: Critique my schedule *French*

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 5:41 pm
by DaveBee
stwhite1988 wrote:Hi all, I have been a long time lurker on this forum without ever participating. I have restarted my French studies after a few years break for work reasons. I imagine that I'm around the lower intermediate level. Here is my current schedule at the moment:

- RFI: Radio en francaise facile. I listen to this everyday.
- Buffy contre les vampire - currently watching the series in French with French sub's.
- italki - I have two lessons per week with a professional teacher with the focus on working towards the B1 exam.
- Reading - currently working through numerous shorts stores in parallel text. (French/English)
- Anki - Building a vocabulary list from the Mastering French Vocabulary book and reviewing approx. 200 words per day.
- Other - I listen passively to French radio whenever I'm in the car or cooking etc.

Is there anything obvious missing from my current plan or does it seem OK? Any advice would be appreciated. :D
There have been a few posts recently about chorusing/shadowing: repeating a limited number of L2 sentences until you feel your pronunciation is close the original. The seed of this is an article by Olle Kjelln: Quality Practise Pronunciation With Audacity

I don't do this myself, but I keep meaning to start! I thought of using TV5's selection of Fables de La Fontaine.

Re: Critique my schedule *French*

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 8:15 pm
by AK47
Your schedule looks great to me. You've got reading, speaking, listening and even vocabulary work in there. If you're "living" this way through French every single day, I'm sure you'll be in the upper intermediate level in no time at all. Enjoy the journey and good luck.

Re: Critique my schedule *French*

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 9:19 pm
by stwhite1988
Thanks for feedback. :)

This forum has helped me loads. Previously I would get bogged down in a grammar book and neglect everything else, effectively studying a language like a maths book.

Re: Critique my schedule *French*

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 9:30 pm
by iguanamon
I would add in some specific study of grammar. It looks like the only area you haven't got covered.

Re: Critique my schedule *French*

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 10:51 pm
by Cavesa
I totally agree with iguanamon, grammar is the only thing missing on the list.

If you want to avoid usual coursebooks (which I understand), you can certainly do so. Try Grammaire Progressive by CLE or another such book, I think you might start right at intermediate and save yourself some euros without any knowledge loss. I know grammar books don't have a good name among various groups of learners. But there is no reason to avoid the good quality ones, as they can help you progress much faster.

Other than that, it looks great!

Are you gonna start a log?

P.S. I know you may say that grammar is part of your italki lessons. But truth be told, books like the one I recommended above are better than most teachers, or at least can help you save time during the lesson, and use it on the stuff that is harder to do alone. Don't waste paid lesson time on grammar explanations, use it on more speaking practice, on writing feedback, on asking questions about the bits of grammar or other stuff that you don't fully understand.

Re: Critique my schedule *French*

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 9:38 am
by stwhite1988
We do cover some grammar in the lessons but I agree it wouldn't be the best use of time. I have just purchased Grammaire Progressive as recommended above from Amazon.

I'm going to start a log as I think it would be ideal for tracking my progress, and providing motivation.

Re: Critique my schedule *French*

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:25 pm
by tomgosse
stwhite1988 wrote:We do cover some grammar in the lessons but I agree it wouldn't be the best use of time. I have just purchased Grammaire Progressive as recommended above from Amazon.

I'm going to start a log as I think it would be ideal for tracking my progress, and providing motivation.

If you wish, I can add your log to our Voyageurs group. :D

Bon courage,
Tom

Re: Critique my schedule *French*

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 8:40 pm
by PeterMollenburg
stwhite1988 wrote:We do cover some grammar in the lessons but I agree it wouldn't be the best use of time. I have just purchased Grammaire Progressive as recommended above from Amazon.

I'm going to start a log as I think it would be ideal for tracking my progress, and providing motivation.


Iguanamon said exactly what I was thinking- a grammar course. Cavesa has often recommended the Grammaire Progressive series by CLE, and I agree, it would be a sound component to use as a part of your French routine.Glad to see you've taken the plunge stwhite1988 and will have it in your hands soon. Good luck!