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French, for the 12yo


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Are anyone's dc studying French? My dd has been studying it with Livemocha and is unhappy. I was unhappy with Rosetta Stone Spanish and don't want to do Rosetta Stone French. Do you all have any suggestions?

 

I am not familiar with Livemocha, so I don't know if this will be helpful or not.

 

We have recently started using Galore Park's So You Really Want to Learn French and supplementing with Mango French.

 

I would say that SYRWTLF is pretty traditional in its approach. (It reminds me of my foreign language textbooks from school, but we like it.) Laura Corin has posted about it and has much more experience with it, so I wold read her posts about it.

 

Have you looked at Mango? I checked it out after several people recommended it over Rosetta Stone. Many libraries subscribe to it and members can use it for free, so that might be worth checking out.

Edited by Shannon
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We're using Galore Park's program So You Really Want to Learn French. It has a cd to accompany it and has been quite easy to use so far. We've just finished the first chapter of Level 1.

 

I do think that it's better to add in a bit more speaking, either by pairing it with an immersion programme or by conversation with someone fluent. Apart from that, it's really solid and Calvin went into school with a very good basis in French.

 

Laura

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We've used Breaking the Barrier French I over two years in Jr High. I tried supplementing with Mango but dd hated it. She really loved this for supplementation last year. We added Rosetta Stone for more speaking/listening practice this year.

 

BTB is a very thorough French I. I think it is a great program to slow down and really "get" in Jr. High.

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I do think that it's better to add in a bit more speaking, either by pairing it with an immersion programme or by conversation with someone fluent. Apart from that, it's really solid and Calvin went into school with a very good basis in French.

 

Laura

 

That's good to hear from somebody with experience. And what you outlined is exactly what we plan to do. Once my ds has finished Level 1 or at least gotten a substantial way through it, I plan to add in weekly meetings with a tutor. My French is far from fluent!

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We've used Breaking the Barrier French I over two years in Jr High. I tried supplementing with Mango but dd hated it. She really loved this for supplementation last year. We added Rosetta Stone for more speaking/listening practice this year.

 

BTB is a very thorough French I. I think it is a great program to slow down and really "get" in Jr. High.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. I would like to try the OLI.

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We're using Galore Park's program So You Really Want to Learn French. It has a cd to accompany it and has been quite easy to use so far. We've just finished the first chapter of Level 1.

 

DS11 and I worked through Galore Park's So You Really Want to Learn French over a period of two years. He got to Chapter 6 of Book 2 before finishing homeschooling and moving on to a b&m school. I do speak French to an acceptable standard, so was able to give him extra practice in conversational French. He's now at a level far beyond DS13, who's been studying French at school for the past two years. Already the other kids in his class have decided that he's the class 'French Dictionary' :D.

 

DS11, DS13 and I have decided to continue to afterschool with Book 2 - we do half an hour or so at bedtime, all snuggled up in my bed, with some 10 minute written exercises for them to do during the day. It's good fun, and gets results.

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DS11 and I worked through Galore Park's So You Really Want to Learn French over a period of two years. He got to Chapter 6 of Book 2 before finishing homeschooling and moving on to a b&m school. I do speak French to an acceptable standard, so was able to give him extra practice in conversational French. He's now at a level far beyond DS13, who's been studying French at school for the past two years. Already the other kids in his class have decided that he's the class 'French Dictionary' :D.

 

Cool!

 

DS11, DS13 and I have decided to continue to afterschool with Book 2 - we do half an hour or so at bedtime, all snuggled up in my bed, with some 10 minute written exercises for them to do during the day. It's good fun, and gets results.

 

It is good fun, isn't it? That's what we're finding. My ds does Latin with a "heavier" program, so a lighter, fun French program is a nice change of pace. After just a couple of weeks of consistent daily work, he really has made excellent progress.

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DS11 and I worked through Galore Park's So You Really Want to Learn French over a period of two years. He got to Chapter 6 of Book 2 before finishing homeschooling and moving on to a b&m school. I do speak French to an acceptable standard, so was able to give him extra practice in conversational French. He's now at a level far beyond DS13, who's been studying French at school for the past two years. Already the other kids in his class have decided that he's the class 'French Dictionary' :D.

 

DS11, DS13 and I have decided to continue to afterschool with Book 2 - we do half an hour or so at bedtime, all snuggled up in my bed, with some 10 minute written exercises for them to do during the day. It's good fun, and gets results.

I wonder how Galore Park French and Breaking the Barrier compare to each other.

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I had no idea Galore Park was so popular! My 13 year old is using Level 1 this year, along with a college textbook called Vis-a-vis. He has cousins who are multilingual (French/English/German), so we're going to set up a weekly skype call once he gets a little more vocabulary under his belt.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This link has all of the French in Action videos! I was surprised to find them all here. I remember these from my school days back in the late 80s.

 

http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html?pop=yes&pid=684#

 

Also, I am looking for So You Really Want to learn French and can only find it available to purchase on the UK site. On Amazon they all say sold out and temporarily out of stock.

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This link has all of the French in Action videos! I was surprised to find them all here. I remember these from my school days back in the late 80s.

 

http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html?pop=yes&pid=684#

 

Also, I am looking for So You Really Want to learn French and can only find it available to purchase on the UK site. On Amazon they all say sold out and temporarily out of stock.

 

I buy SYRWTLF from the Book Depository or Ray at Horrible Books.

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We are using Breaking the Barrier + OLI + Francais Interactif + various games and quizard flash cards. I've made a break down of the resources from OLI and FI that go with BTB if anyone would like it.

 

I would love to see that. Thank you so much!

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