PowerGlide?

[bettyandbob]

I'm in a bind with French. dd has been taking French since K, first in a private school and then with a tutor who lives next to my mom. The tutor is moving out of state. I'm having trouble finding someone to work with an elementary aged student. dd will be in 5th grade next year. There are few coop classes in this language and they don't start until 7th grade. There are numerous reasons I would not ask for an exception.

 

Would the PowerGlide middle school program be worthwhile to keep my dd studying French. I need something she can do with no help. I have no facility with language.

 

Other suggestions are welcome

[Jenny in Atl]

:ack2: We have used both their Spanish and German, and found both to be... well, not so great. It sounds like your daughter will be beyond PG in her knowledge already. Ideas might be Galore Park's French Prep http://www.galorepark.co.uk/subjects-textbooks-french.html, Rosetta Stone, and Breaking the Barrier http://www.tobreak.com/. Hopefully, others will chime in and offer more ideas.

[Susie in CA]

I totally agree with Jenny. Powerglides approach is not very efficient in learning a language, imo. I second Galore Park.

 

Susie

[sabrina]

Personally I have really enjoyed the Powerglide Program. My children have only done the elementary levels but they have picked up quite a bit. I hear mostly about Rosetta Stone. It seems to be what everyone else is using - the price is too steep for me.

[nmoira]

DD completed Elementary Spanish 1 and 2 Online in about 3 months. It was a joke. Granted she's language adept, we are using it as a supplement, but the advertised "30-60 minute lessons" were closer to 8-10. There was no built in review, elements of lessons were incorrectly sequenced (i.e. the "learn the words" activities were below the "practice the words" activities), and pacing was beyond slooooowwwww. If this weren't enough, lesson elements were missing or mixed up, some audio components were of poor quality, scripts didn't match dialog, the promised "mouse over" features were completely nonexistent after the first few days' lessons... I could go on.

 

DD just started the Middle School Spanish 1 and, fortunately, it is not in the same league of badness. Technically it's been OK so far, but it uses (albeit in a more compact form) many of the same stories covered in the Elementary Spanish! Lessons so far are running 15-20 minutes. Even though the Middle School product is better, I still don't think it's a very good program. However, I'm OK using it as a supplement because our main program, The Learnables (which we both love), is geared towards teens and adults in terms of vocabulary. It's nice to mix it up a bit.

[TracyR]

Powerglide uses the immersion method . Which works for some and not for others . We used for a short time the Powerglide Jr and it was NOT for us . My daughter's learned NOTHING from it .

You could try the Powerglide language courses . But I do think whenever teaching a foreign language that its best that the parent tries to learn right along with the child . Would you throw a math book to your child and tell them to learn it on their own ? No , you would not . Would you tell your child to teach themselves to read ? No , you would not .

My daughters are learning Latin this year and I have no background in languages at all . So I am learning right beside them so that their language lessons are being reinforced .

[nmoira]

Powerglide uses the immersion method

I haven't seen the High School course, but the Elementary and Middle school courses (at least in Spanish) do not. Rosetta Stone, The Learnables, and Puertas Abiertas are immersion programs -- every word is spoken in the language to be learned. I'd say that 90% of the words spoken in the elementary program are English (aside from the Story Times... which words from an all English version to an all Spanish version over 5 lessons, adding more Spanish words each time), and so far about 80% of the Middle school program. I'm not sure what to call Power Glide's approach.