Assimil French Workbook
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Farley
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Message 2 of 625 January 2006 at 3:30pm IP Logged Thanks for asking the question, I was thinking about posting a topic on ways to use French in Action. Im using it currently. In my opinion French in Action is better than Barrons Mastering French and Assimil French with Ease. The pronunciation support in the audio CDs or cassettes is on par if not better than Pimsleur. I have tried all four methods. You probably already know most of the following but Ill list it for the benefit of those unfamiliar with French in Action.
Using the full French in Action program requires buying the textbox, workbooks, and audio CDs (if you are web savvy enough you can find the audio on the net). Each of the 51 lessons has 5 steps:
1 The video (See the review section for French in Action for a good description)
2 Assimilation of the text, a 20-40 minute all audio lesson based on the video script. This is the most important piece of the course. You start by listening to the dialog twice and then doing a listen and repeat build up for each important phrase and then followed by some questions (in French).
3 The workbook (the homework for those taking this a college credit) 50% audio 50% written. The workbook has about 30-50 activities per lesson some are oral some are written others are a combination. About half of the activities are observation exercises with charts and corresponding audio. I actually find these to be the most helpful. If you work this part it will take you 2 or more hours sitting at a desk, this is the only drawback to the course.
4 Reinvention of the story, No audio, but this section as some good sentence replacement exercises that can be spoken
5 The documents, the reading and writing portion of each lesson. You can complete this separately from each audio lesson. By itself the documents comprise the best graded French reader I have seen.
The heart of French in Action is by looking, listening, imitating, and then reinventing the story. I think the best way to use French in Action is watch the video lesson 1-2 times, then do the all-audio assimilation of the text 2-3 times, and the skip over to the reinvention of the story. Use the workbook observation and activation activities as learning aides and use those 2 hours on Assimil or Barrons for oral practice. If you are using Barrons, you wont have to memorize the dialogs because FIA does it for you. I think you could get by on going thought Barrons only once and get extra practice. If you are using Assimil, I think you will find that FIA is an Assimil like course with better pronunciation support. You can assimilate French with FIA and then practice with Assimil.
One bit caution, French in Action, is a language immersion technique and you cant master every lesson 100% sequentially the way you would a FSI course. You have to master as much as you can and then move on to the next lesson. The rest comes with time.
Ill list some details later.
Edited by Farley on 25 January 2006 at 3:41pm
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patuco
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Message 3 of 625 January 2006 at 4:04pm IP Logged Does French in Action (FIA) assume no prior knowledge of the language? If so, is there a "second level" for those whose French is of an intermediate standard? Is it better not to skip any of the lessons and, regardless of fluency, always start at the beginning?
P.S. I have checked the FIA threads and the answers to my questions are either not mentioned or I can't find them.
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Farley
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Message 4 of 625 January 2006 at 4:20pm IP Logged FIA assumes no prior knowledge, but I think for an absolute beginner it would be a bit mind boggling. I completed Pimsleur French I and the Michel Thomas French courses before starting and it helped. I think just doing one of the Berlitz beginners course first would help.
FIA is based on a story of American boy meets French girl. If you skip the beginning you will miss the plot. If you already have a good handle on French pronunciation you could always just buy the textbook and workbooks and watch the video. The video has plenty places where you can interact, and the books have the complete scripts to the audio portion of the course. There are 10,000+ words in the glossary covered in the video and the readings so I think you would have to be very advanced in French not to get anything out of the course. Plus the video scripts, after lesson 8, are at normal conversational speed.
Edited by Farley on 25 January 2006 at 8:09pm
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axe02
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Message 5 of 625 January 2006 at 4:30pm IP Logged Farley, thank you for your very thorough breakdown of French in Action and the comparison with other programs. It was especially helpful to know about the difference in pronunciation support between Assimil and French in Action. I think French in Action is thus better suited for my needs because speaking and listening skills are the most important for me right now. You're right about French in Action being hard to master the first time around. I can't believe that after all of the other work I've done with other more advanced materials and having already gone through the videos before, I've gone back to the beginning of French in Action and still found a lot of new things to learn. Maybe the more you learn, the more you can absorb from the program each time you go through it.
Patuco, I think French in Action assumes no prior knowledge, but I think I would have been lost if I had zero knowledge of French. It's kind of funny that in the orientation/introduction video, the creators talk about how angry their students were when they first got thrown head first into their French immersion method, but eventually came to like the approach. I don't think there is a 2nd level per se. I think Lessons 2 - 26 are the beginner level and Lessons 27 - 52 are for the intermediate level. I am frequently assessed at the advanced level in French (though my confidence in French seems to go up and down all the time) and I am still finding ways to improve my French through the beginning lessons of French in Action. I thought I would wimp out from boredom with beginner's lessons but they have actually reinforced my knowledge, refreshed vocabulary I had completely forgotten and they have provided me with a deeper understanding of grammar and distinctions in pronunciation. I hope this answers your question a bit.
Edited by axe02 on 25 January 2006 at 4:35pm
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Farley
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Message 6 of 605 March 2006 at 10:54pm IP Logged Farley wrote:
Ill list some details later.
While I remember it, here are a few more of those details:
French in Action has all the benefits of Assimil and FSI combined. Anyone wanting to learn French should seriously consider French in Action as their first choice of methods. However, there is one serious drawback after the videos the method is workbook driven making the CDs difficult to execute on the go. If you are not careful you will find yourself drawn into those fill-in-the-blank type exercises most of us try to avoid.
Here are some things to consider: If you are looking for a part-time program minus the drills, Assimil is still the way to go. If you are looking for the drills you can use in the car, FSI is the way to go. Either way you can still watch the videos and read the book.
This is not to say that executing the full course of French in Action is impossible, it takes some imagination. One way to skip the homework like drills in the workbooks is to supplement with Pentons Learn French in Your Car. It is inexpensive, has a script, and can be used in the car. Another way is to make a play list of all the audio-lingual drills and dialog exercises, to use on the go, and drill them. Still another way is to treat it as another Assimil aethod and skip all the drills in favor of the video and the book.
Another thing to keep in mind is that French in Action is two courses in one:
1 the video-audio course based on the textbook designed to teach you how to understand and speak French.
2 the workbook-audio course designed to train you in diploma skills B1 or higher.
Its a two for one deal.
Edited by Farley on 05 March 2006 at 10:55pm
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The older Assimil version seemed to better prepare me to interact with Moroccan speakers, whereas the more recent version seemed to help more with Parisians (although, interestingly, I have struggled with northern accents).
I wanted to use Assimil to build a quick backbone in French and I believe I have achieved this. I can now utilize some more advanced learning materials outside of Assimil. A core pillar of my study will continue to focus on french/english accompanying text and audio shadowing, although with materials I choose and am interested in.
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