Ultimate French Review and Practice

Rating: 8/10

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Pros

Comprehensive reviews starting with present tense, working through all tenses and structures.

Great strategies including inverting statements into questions, working with negatives, dictation, extensive vocabulary in everyday situations.

Easy to follow just with audio

Booklet with written questions and answers to refer to if needed.

Cons

Some slightly noisy audio integrated into rest.

Conclusion

A great way to review and refresh your French, from basic to intermediate level. I found the audio very easy to listen to and they recommend you use it without referring to the notes, so the audio is self-sufficient. Great for iPod use. The material is challenging enough to be interesting forcing you to listen to content and form questions, negate positives, write dictation, conjugate verbs but with interesting exercises to do so.

Have you tried Ultimate French Review and Practice? What did you think?

You can purchase Ultimate French Review and Practice at Amazon.

Further comments

Highly recommended for honing your knowledge of verb forms, tenses, structures and even vocabulary. I was still learning new words while listening. Great for iPod use, as the program is self-sufficient, but the booklet is small enough to carry with you if you need to refer to the text to check your answers.

Audio quality is a little patchy, but I didn't find this detrimental or distracting. Highly Recommended.

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HUGO in 3 Months: French

Learn French by Podcast

HUGO in 3 Months: French

Rating: 6/10
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley

Pros
Comprehensive instruction using book and audio CDs.
Covers vocab, grammar, verb conjugation and interactive questions etc.
Uses interesting structures, such as (listen to answer and reply with the appropriate question) and following conversations between native speakers.

Cons
Tries to cover a lot of ground in a short time, so only superficial.
CDs almost useless without the book. Audio content is not intuitively structured.

Conclusion
This series is a comprehensive look at the French language for complete beginners, and moves apace through the content. It certainly covers all of the required structures, verb conjugations and tenses, with vocab lists, but by the end of the course, it would be hard to retain a lot of the material without substantial repetition. Interesting practice exercises and great native speakers.

Have you tried Hugo in 3 Months: French?
What did you think?


You can purchase Hugo in 3 Months: French at Amazon.

Further Comments
Hugo in 3 Months has interesting practice methods, such as responding with a question after listening to an answer. This made me think in ways that other systems didn't. I tried the audio without the book and found it incredibly confusing. I couldn't make out the structure of the lessons.

It is certainly a comprehensive course, offering practice with listening to short conversations, repetitive reading of verb tables, structures of sentences etc. Having to do all this in such a short audio presentation means skipping over material and not being able to delve in depth in any particular area, nor repeat earlier material for consolidation. Revisions provided are useful for this purpose, however.

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Michel Thomas Method French Advanced

Rating: 8/10
Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Pros
Easy to follow and progress through material without effort.
Great system for easily remembering grammar and structures.
Thomas emphasizes correct pronunciation but with colloquial flavour.
Targeted on speech: Focus on listening, thinking out the answer and proper expression.

Cons
Not extensive vocabulary. Would need additional vocabulary practice to advance
English is used fairly extensively.
Intermediate rather than actually advanced.
Need another system for learning how to read and write.

Conclusion
I love the conversational style and system of Michel Thomas. He works with a couple of students who are learning along the way, too, so they make mistakes and have to repeat correctly. This allows the listener to reinforce their own learning.

The system he develops is a great way to learn structures and grammar of the French language. He uses images and memory aids for remembering 'keys to unlock the boxes if they become stuck'. This is a very easy way into a language and seems to work well. You can progress very quickly through the grammar of the language, and feel competent in constructing sentences with a wide range of verbs in each tense.

Vocabulary lists would be a useful addition to this series, in order to broaden the topics and conversations that you could engage in. Overall, a very enjoyable experience.

Have you tried Michel Thomas Method French Advanced?
What did you think?



You can purchase Michel Thomas Method French Advanced at Amazon.

Further Comments

He states that his system is about 'not trying' and concentrates on just responding to the teacher. This is a very attractive method of learning. I'm looking forward to trying out other languages using his method. It is not really an advanced course, even though they claim it is. It is more an intermediate stage, integrating the grammar and structures thoroughly, before the student moves to an advanced level where more extensive vocabulary can create conversational fluency and competent engagement with almost any speaker.

What I really like about Michel Thomas is his style of teaching. He is very relaxed, easy-going and positive, building up knowledge from small chunks, repeating previous information to improve retention. He works his way systematically through the material, providing 'keys' to learning, visual images and phrases to allow instant recall. Very clever indeed. I really enjoyed working through the series. It's very easy to follow and you work through quite a substantial amount of grammar by the end. Highly recommended, but you will need other resources to help with vocabulary, reading etc.

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Intermediate French by Berlitz

Rating: 7/10
Publisher: Berlitz

Pros
Easy to get into.
Range of native French speakers help with listening and pronunciation skills.
Can use without the textbook if necessary.
Good use of repeated phrases to hone practice.

Cons
Very simple grammar, a little too easy for Intermediate level
English is used fairly extensively.

Conclusion
This series is a quick way to progress through the material, listening and repeating phrases, memorising short lists of vocabulary for each section. I found the range of native speakers interesting to listen to, and they pronounce the language very clearly, albeit a little slower than normal conversation.

Like a number of other high profile brands, this series seems to overestimate it's level. The reader progresses rapidly through a simplified program in order to reach the end, thinking they've succeeded to Intermediate stage, when really it's more like an advanced beginner course. As long as this expectation is recognised, this course is a competent one, making the user feel confident in their progress, with very clear progression stages.

Have you tried Intermediate French from Berlitz?
What did you think?



You can purchase Berlitz Intermediate French on Amazon.

Further comments
At this level, I would prefer some more challenge, by using mostly French for the instructions for instance. Intermediate users may wish for more intensive grammar instruction, and will have to look further afield for this.

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