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pmeilaen
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| Posted: July 03 2012 at 10:18am | IP Logged
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Does anybody have any experience with the following French textbooks:
French is Fun
French Now!
Breaking the Barrier?
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Eva
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roseberyem
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| Posted: July 06 2012 at 10:18pm | IP Logged
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We are using Breaking the Barrier French with ds14 for 9th grade.
Is there something specific you would like to know?
I'm glad ds had some French exposure before starting with this series. He completed 3 primary french workbooks in two years, so had some knowledge of vocabulary and basic phrases.
It moves at a fairly fast pace imho, but I think it is fairly well set out with a decent amount of practice questions, revision worksheets and tests.
Do you have any experience with the French language? That also might influence which textbooks you would look at using.
I don't know of the other two you mentioned.
 Emily
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pmeilaen
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| Posted: July 07 2012 at 5:20pm | IP Logged
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Thanks, Emily, we have been using The Learnables so far and have tried First Start French, but didn't like First Start French. We are also doing So Your Really Want to Learn French. I know basic French, but was wondering how to schedule Breaking the Barrier. Do you just go through the book one page at a time? How do you pace yourself? Do you ever have questions and contact the people behind Breaking the Barrier? How much time do you spend on it? Do you want to finish one book in one school year? How is the CD that goes with it?
Thanks for any help you can give me.
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Eva
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roseberyem
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| Posted: July 09 2012 at 12:13am | IP Logged
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Hi Eva,
Same here - we tried Memoria's FSF with dd, it was just a bit ho-hum without a great deal of practice.
We also have the Learnables but for Japanese  It is great for pronunciation work, but not much else.
We schedule BTB into approximately 4 lessons each quarter, or 1 lesson every two weeks. I don't have a weekly/daily schedule that is up to ds to figure out for himself. Due to being a bit behind in our general schedule he managed to knock off a whole lesson over a whole afternoon I think it was. (Not ideal, that was just circumstances at the time...)
The CD is done quite well. The beginning part of the book/CD is basic vocabulary/phrase work with a pronunciation guide. Ds really found that section helpful.
For each lesson there are several different exercises to complete and for some of them there are parts that you must listen to the CD first.
Hmmm... not sure how much time ds spends on it each week. Each lesson has mapwork, vocabulary lists, usually about three different grammar topics, exercises with/without CD, revision pages and a test.
The people at BTB have been extremely helpful when I've contacted them. They were tickled pink to receive an order from Australia  The answer key had one page muddled up, so when I contacted them, they emailed me the correct page almost immediately.
Also, I kind of asked rather "straight forwardly" if I was missing out on anything by not being able to buy the teacher edition of the book. They said the answer key in the self learner package is basically the same as the teacher edition but it is loose leaf format instead of a bound book.
At the moment we aim to finish the 1st book in 9th, 2nd book for 10th. Then the 3rd book for 11th, or if needed over 11th/12th depending on how much it contains.
Probably the only *negative* thing that I've found with the series is that they sometimes use celebrity names, athletes or current TV show names for some of the exercises. Ds doesn't often know who or what they are!!
There are also times when they need to respond to questions in French, that involve an opinion or require a personal answer (ie - What time do you start school, do you walk or ride the bus to school, when do you feel sad etc...) so you will sometimes need to figure out if they have answered appropriately. There are always suggested answers and sometimes they will list an answer in the positive and the negative.
Let me know if you have any other questions 
Emily
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pmeilaen
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| Posted: July 12 2012 at 3:30pm | IP Logged
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Emily, thanks so much for your detailed response! Sorry it took me so long to reply. How much time do you spend on one lesson, an hour, more, less? How many tests are there?
I'm trying to compare "Breaking the Barrier" with the French classes Seton offers. You can find their description here.
I would like to do 2-3 years of French at home and then have my son take 1 or 2 years of college French at the college where my husband teaches. So I'm trying to find a program that would prepare him for that.
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Eva
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MarilynW
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| Posted: July 12 2012 at 5:40pm | IP Logged
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Eva,
In retrospect, after using BtB I would have used Seton instead. I searched high and low for a 3 or 4 year high school French program. I was really excited about BtB - and I really like their customer service and support. I was disappointed, but maybe I had too high expectations and it was not a great fit for us. I was looking for a language program with all the following:
1. Strong grammar base
2. Strong on oral skills
3. Good vocabulary acquisition
4. Consistent to give 4 years of high school credit
5. Includes a culture and geography component
6. Transitions to literature readings in the foreign language
Well - I never did find one program which had it all - so my daughter has used a mish mash.
Another one you might want to consider is the French First Year/Two Years/Three Years series by Blume/Stein - you can register with Amsco as a parent teacher and they will send you the answer keys/test keys etc.
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Marilyn
Blessed with 6 gifts from God
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roseberyem
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| Posted: July 12 2012 at 8:14pm | IP Logged
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Eva,
I think you'll be fine with either BtB or Seton's French, which does look very good.
Another difference I just picked up on, Seton's French have pictures in their textbooks and BtB don't (except for the map work).
Ds spends about 30-45mins, maybe 3 times a week. As I said it is up to him to sort out his schedule! At this stage, he is familiar with a lot of the vocabulary, but if we weren't, I'd be taking some extra time to write our own flashcards.
There are 12 lessons, so there are 12 tests.
Fwiw, my father is French and I studied French for 5yrs, so I'm kinda fussy too...
Hope you find something that fits your needs.
Emily
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pmeilaen
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| Posted: July 13 2012 at 6:47pm | IP Logged
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Dear Emily and Marilyn, thanks so much for your input and experiences! That will give me something to think about and take into consideration when choosing a program for my son.
Having a French father in Australia, that's pretty neat, Emily. I "only" have a German father and he is still in Germany (like the rest of my family).
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Eva
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: French Textbooks
