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Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Pros:
Great native accents.
Works systematically through all the major areas of language for living in France and returns to earlier topics to extend knowledge.
Sophisticated dialogues (although it is still a basic course).
Good everyday phrases
Cons:
Need to use the book consistently with the audio (not really suited to an iPod alone...)
Some of the acted voices are a little annoying.
Conclusion
A systematic and reasonably comprehensive introduction to the French language in everyday use. There are a range of exercises and dialogues, with question and response tasks. The response times are very short, so you will need to use the pause button here. Although dialogues can sometimes limit learning, the ones used here are relatively complex and contain useful phrases. They also place the phrases learnt by rote within a context. Most of the major areas of everyday life in France are covered to a simple level.
Have you tried Teach Yourself French 1? What did you think?
Further comments
Topics covered include: introductions, at the hotel, meeting people, asking directions, weather, cuisine, shopping, using the telephone, at the hospital, buying or renting a house, and travel on public transport. The course is covered fairly rapidly, but with enough repetition to encourage learning. The exercises are varied and entertaining, although some are a little superfluous, like pronunciation exercises, as listening to native speakers is great pronunciation anyway. Mostly using the present tense, there is a little work on a few other aspects of grammar and tenses, like commands, and the future.
I was really impressed with this course. It's been put together really well and I'd highly recommend it.
