For the past few weeks, Bignificent has had the pleasure of exploring a new foreign language curriculum from Armfield Academic Press, Getting Started with French by William E. Linney and Brandon Simpson. She was so excited when it arrived in the mail!
This girl LOVES learning languages. Even though she’s chosen to focus on Spanish this year, when the opportunity to review this book came up, she was all for it. She has also spent significant portions of her life studying Indonesian, Malay, and Mandarin through various programs, so we were both interested to take a look at this curriculum and see what sets it apart from the others we’ve tried, many of which are online programs.
Getting Started with French is a beginning French course that is specifically designed for homeschoolers and self-taught students of all ages. It is a simple, relatively low-tech language learning program, consisting of a book and downloadable mp3 files.
The book does an amazing job of giving an introduction to the language in small systematic chunks. It is designed to be self-paced, self-explanatory, and inexpensive. It is also self-contained in that the answers are included in the back, and it can be used without a French teacher. In each lesson, the student learns one new concept, usually a new word, and then has the opportunity to practice it by translating practice sentences. You can preview the introduction and several of the lessons on the Getting Started with French preview page.
The mp3 files are free to download from the Getting Started with French downloads page so you can actually give them a listen before you decide to buy. There are very short pronunciation recordings in which a native French speaker simply pronounces the examples and exercises for each lesson in the book. And there are lectures by the authors along with the native speaker which explain each lesson in case a student needs extra assistance.
Bignificent’s Opinion of Getting Started with French
I asked Bignificent to write out her thoughts on this program after doing it four or five times a week for four weeks now. Here is what she had to say:
I like this style of learning French. I like how first you read, then you listen, then you practice. I like how you can read the same thing or listen to the same track over and over until you get it right. I also like how well it is written and careful to explain everything. I think it was a good idea to have learning lessons as well as explanatory lessons. I appreciate how each sound that is different than the ones in English are carefully explained. I can’t wait to try other products in this series (Spanish and Latin.)
Connect Online with Armfield Academic Press
You can find Armfield Academic Press on Facebook or check out their individual language websites for French, Spanish, and Latin.
I, along with other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, received a free copy of this product in exchange for our honest reviews. You can see what my fellow Review Crew Members thought of it by checking out the Crew Blog Post for this product. I always love checking out everyone’s reviews as they always come up with creative ways I never would have thought of to use these products!
