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Prof de francais

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  1. I've used Muzzy myself for teaching EFL to young children, and, to be honest, I'm not taken with it either. One of the problems you will find is that there are so few resources out there for teaching yougsters languages, that you have to go with what is available, or do it yourself - the teaching, I mean. The materials are often expensive. There's an awful lot of BS out there where language learning is concerned so you do have to watch out what you are buying. Definitely, if a resource is pricey, make sure you have the option of a satisfaction guarantee. I don't think that listening to nursery rhymes or songs alone will induce significant language learning. For young children, they will probably have an impact on pronunciation, however, but don't expect any miracles. If you think about it, nursery rhymes are just a tiny part of a child's native language acquisition. He or she would learn the native language whether songs and phymes were available or not, simply through the constant, meaningful interaction with, primarily, the parents.     I think the idea of hiring a teacher trained and experienced in teaching youngsters is a good way to go, because your children will get some native interaction. If you back that up yourself with reminders throughout the week until the next lesson you should see some very pleasing progress. I recommend you work with the teacher in this respect. If you do this, your nursery rhymes will now be more effective because the children are being bombarded by a proper French accent.  Have you though about using computer based learning maetrials? That way the whole experience is more interactive. You could try Euro Talk. www.eurotalk.co.uk and no, I'm not affiliated with them in any way, before anyone starts up. I haven't used their children's stuff, so I can't endorse it. I just happen to know they produce certain materials for children, and I think their prices are reasonable. You get a guarantee too. By the way, as far as I know, you are better off not purchasing software through Amazon, because you can't return it.   Good luck with whatever you choose to do!
  2. So I did! Well, only one typo in all that could be considered an improvement. I never claimed to be any good at typing. And anyway, it's a missing 't' not a 'T'. [:P] Found the emoticons too, now, so there's no stopping me...  
  3. Free trial? Where? Did I miss something? I'm not that generous! ;-) Anyway, it does work. You should see what I use to remember tones in Chinese and Thai and vocabulary in languages with virtually no cognates!
  4. Salut! I've just finished the second part of rather wordy description of how I get students to remember genders more easily - far more easily actually! It's unorthodox, whacky even, but if you French genders are frustrating you, check outthe last 2 or 3 posts on my weblog (button below!). Sorry, can't post them here as they are rather long, and what's more, I am unwilling to surrender copyright to them as I might use parts of them for my up-and-coming book on learning languages.
  5. [quote user="Croixblanches"] There's now a Michel Thomas advanced course, which may be of more use to you, but I haven't had the oppportunity to listen to it so I can't vouch for it. Good Luck! [/quote] The Michel Thomas advanced courses are advanced, but only in relation to the courses for beginners, which don't teach an awful lot. 
  6. The Michel Thomas courses are for a certain type of learner - people who have not learned languages before, and wh may regard themselves as poor at learning languages. The approach would suit Ron, on 'Excuse My French', for example.This is not to put down Ron or Mchel Thomas - it's just that they progress in a certain way, for a certain type of learner. (By the way, they do provide some grammatical instruction, although not as explicitly as your A level will have provided). With your A level in French you'll probably find Michel and his actor-students really annoying, especially the 'slower' one! You don't need to 'relearn' your French as such; you already possess your learnings from before, it's just that your brain has put them in moth-balls, so to speak, because you are not using those skills at the moment, and your brain likes to work as efficiently as possible for you. All you need to do is dust them off, and put n a bit of mental elbow-grease to bring them to their original shine. You could think of it as a railway track through a forest. When you laid the tracks, it was hard work, but once the tracks were finsihed, they were there to stay. As you used your French, your little trains of memory belted up and down those tracks, keeping them in use, and shiny. But when you stopped using your French, the trains stopped too, and the tracks became overgrown and obscured by the mental undergrowth. So now the trains can't run down the tracks again. Your relearning is just review - a way of clearing the tracks so your memory trains can run a they did before. You don't need to build new tracks, for you already have them - you just need to clear away that mental undergrowth. Sounds twee, I know, but that's what's happening. A focussed session for 1 to 3 months will easily clear the way for your French to become as fluent as it was, and if you use the course I am about to suggest you use, maybe even more fluent as such. I recommend 'Living Language Ultimate French' - it's a beginner to intermediate course that focuses on conversational dialogues, but that doesn't neglect the grammar. It has 2 sets of audios, one to be used with the text book, and a further, all audio set to reinforce what you have learned but out-of-class when you can't use your text-book, i.e. while driving. You also get he option to progress on to the advanced course which follows a similar dialogue-based format.
  7. Just wondered if anyone knew of this title in the Teach Yourself range - 'Buying A Home In France'. It doesn't seem well publicised, but it look sreally useful for folks just moving out to Fance who need some really useful language.
  8. I agree - it is complicated. But you can say, 'Je le connais par coeur'. It's one of those features of language where you have the rule, then you have the little nuances that seem to defy the rule. It can also mean, of a person, 'I know him completely/I know him like I know myself'.
  9. [quote user="Linda P"]And who else still wants to shoot Esther and Ron at dawn....[/quote] Aw..I feel quite sorry for Ron. His teacher has an appaling attitude and shouldn't be teaching, in my opinion. She may be OK for figh-flying linguistically aware students, but she has no idea how to relate to a student advanced in years, who is a total beginner at something as complex as learning a foreign language. Having said that, the expectations are totally unrealistic, and immersion learning doesn't work unless you are an infant, and then it is going to take far, far longer than a month until you are proficient.
  10. I definitely agree about a range of learning media at your disposal, especially if the language itself is not your passion, but you have to learn it. This is a very useful gadget you have described - I'll have to remember that for my up and coming book on learning languages. Ipods are also useful. I think the main thing to keep the momentum going and to help avoid the boredom some people face when learning languages is to change your approach as soon as you feel youa re getting bogged down and stale. For example, you don't have to stick to the text book all the time, although I do recommend that you keep coming back to it in between your deviations, revise the sections previously covered, do some more, and when you feel bored again, switch to, a DVD for example, or a computer program, a children's book, or even a popular song.
  11. Just a quick teacher's tip for mastery-learning pairs of words such as these. First of all, read about and absorb how the words are used, as in the second post, so you have an intellectual knowledge of what distinguishes one usage from the other. Then, make (or find in a grammar book or dictionary - Collins Robert or Oxford are good for this - i.e. dictionaries that offer an extensive range of examples, not just the one word transaltions of pocket dictionaries) several sentences that illustrate EACH major point of usage. Learn them until they stick - flash cards are good for this. Then, finally, seek opportunities to use them in conversation, so by then they should be yours, and you should be able to produce them instinctively and correctly whenever you need to.  Some language teachers will disagree with this approach, saying you just need to learn each word in context without having to have that intellectual (grammatical - there! I said it! The 'G' word that causes so much contention in language education!) awareness, as it gets in the way, according to them. I feel this is a BIG mistake, because it is the theorietical awareness that helps you to understand the nuances of the languages, that will, in the long run, influence how well you are able to communicate on more than just everyday issues.  Hope that helped. Languages are my passion. 
  12. I think it's a great idea to get children involved in language learning as soon as possible. They will definitely feel the benefit of it when they get to France, and can use the base you have helped them attain as a springboard for the more natural acquisition they are linkely to experience when they get to France and find themselves in an immersive environment. I have taught children languages for years now, and one of the key factors seems to be the ability to maintain an interest through a range of materials and approaches. For example, you are using/have used Muzzy, which focuses mainly of receptive skills, rather than productive ones. That's fine - it is creating a good base to use for further exploration, but have you also considered using computer programs too, such as the ones by Eurotalk, specifically designed for children? I believe they are inexpensive. Also, why not make learning French a family affair, as some of you are already doing? For example, you could all learn French together as a family, by adapting certain popular games, such as card games or charades, to French. How about 20 questions, both ways? This is great for practising question forms. Or use the ever popular language-class game of concentration to practise vocabulary.   I believe that the shift from an ability to acquire language, as opposed to the necessity to learn language as such, takes place far earlier than theorists would have us believe. So formal learning can support acquisition very effectively. One final thing - don't just go for vocabulary alone. Make sure you are teaching/learning/using a lot of structures as well.  
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