Customer Reviews

Easy French Reader w/CD-ROM: A Three-Part Text for Beginning Students (Easy Reader Series)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
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The non-CD version of this book is quite popular in the non-CD version and similar in cost. The stories are interesting and it moves along quickly. However, the CD is a HUGE value add with native speakers. Be warned, however, that only two sections of the book are included on the CD. I wrote to the publisher about this and apparently they went to market without feeling a need to have ALL the sections recorded. I wasn't impressed with their answer, however, I'm still quite impressed with the book as an excellent, inexpensive French resource. The stories are memorable, they help you remember the vocabulary and there is just enough annotation, repetition, etc. If they get the third section recorded someday... I would give it a 5.0+ rating. (One caveat... you may not want to tackle this one without some help because it does move quickly. If you are up for a challenge, you will learn a lot and with a road map such as French Verbs & Essentials of Grammar, 2E (Verbs and Essentials of Grammar Series) the trip will be much easier and enjoyable. Another must have that I recommend highly is Pronounce It Perfectly in French with Audio CDs (Pronounce It Perfectly CD Packages).

This self-study text is for beginners who have already studied French and wish to go forward. That is, it is not for absolute beginners, unless they are guided by a teacher. Otherwise, the book is excellent and one's studies go smoothly. A student using it should have access to a dictionary and, preferably, some extra exercises. The exercises are rather limited (which is one reason why the studies go smoothly :), but one could easily compensate by memorizing parts of (or whole) texts. The texts are fun, though, and it is not difficult to memorize chunks of them. The audio files are a huge help, as long as pronunciation is concerned! Repeat them as many times as you can, but I am repeating myself (see comment above on memorizing chunks of text).

Service was excellent. The CD-ROM had a crack in it when it arrived (and was unusable), but the seller send me a new text+CD_ROM combo, without any delays.

I was prepared based on other reviews, that the CD didn't cover all of the lessons. It has given me a great start because it has been such a long time since I heard French spoken. I love the lesson format.

I am a foreign language teacher (self-employed) of homeschooled children as well as adults. I use the Easy French Reader and Easy Spanish Reader(both with audio cd) for students of all ages. The book is divided into three sections - first section is a series of stories about French (or Spanish)students - easy-to-read passages that gradually get harder. Second section presents reading passages about well-known political/religious people of the respective countries. The third section introduces students to passages from well-known literary works. Best news - if you purchase the version with audio cd(which I STRONGLY recommend), when you download the cd to your laptop or other electronic device, you will be able to see the pages on your screen while listening to the audio. So, the book is not necessary to tote along away from home. When teaching, I have my students follow along on my laptop screen while I look at the passages in the book.

While these books are not effective as stand-alone teaching tools for learning French or Spanish, they are wonderful listening and reading comprehension tools to round out one's foreign language learning experience. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!