Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Improve Your French Package (Book + 2 CDs) (TY: Language Guides)

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The best way to view this course is as a continuation of the "Teach Yourself French" course. It follows much of the same outline but provides more in-depth material about vocabulary, grammar, and culture. The course assumes that you've already completed an intermediate course in the language and will understand most of the vocabulary in the dialogues and reading passages; word lists are given for topic-specific vocabulary, but it makes no allowances for words that a student of the language should already have learned. The native speakers on the accompanying audio speak at a normal rate of speech during the dialogues and reading passages, slowing down only in reviews and listening practice. The sound is clear throughout the entire course, and the English narration on the recordings give excellent guidance on how to use the audio to your best advantage. The dialects used are French standard, namely Parisian and that of the southern part of the country.

The text makes use of both colloquial language and the written standard, noting each throughout. Grammar reviews are strictly that : just reviews, added as a refresher and not as a teaching tool. The recordings focus on dialogues, reading passages, and listening practice -- grammar material covered in the units won't be reviewed. The course moves fairly quickly, so making the best of each unit's audio means listening to it repeatedly, mimicking the pronunciation of the native speakers, and getting an ear for the sound and inflection of the language itself.

If you have a strong working knowledge of French, this course will re-enforce what you've learned and build from there. It provides several of the cultural and spoken aspects of the language that most learners only gain through immersion, and for the price of the course, it's high value at low cost.

I bought this product to brush up on my French since I do not have as many opportunities to speak, read and write with/in it since graduating college a few years ago. This product is designed for someone who has attained a fairly advanced ability with the language who is out of practice with it for one reason or another. I would imagine this product might be too advanced for someone who has had only one year of college/university training (or the secondary school equivalent) in the language.
Having said that, I have found this package to be great. The readings and audio exercises have brought me back to an advanced level of understanding. But like with any language program, regular practice is key. So for this program to be as effective as possible, daily (or nearly daily) practice is absolutely necessary - even if only for 20, 30 mins.

This is a review of Teach Yourself Improve Your French Package (Book + 2 CDs) by Jean-Claude Arragon (2004).

Improve Your French is a good choice for the advanced beginner/low intermediate student (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: A2/B1; Interagency Language Roundtable: S-1+/R-2) working on his or her own, or as supplementary material in an intermediate level French program. It is built around written and spoken material especially written or edited for students of French as a foreign language. It includes material on such topics as the geography and economy of France, the French education system, and social and political issues. Using this content material, the course provides an intermediate-level review of the fundamental features of the language and common sticking points for English-speakers, including: simple and compound tenses; the conditional, subjunctive and imperative moods; active and passive voice; prepositions; adjectives and adverbs; gerunds; and pronouns (subject, relative, reflexive and object). The course addresses styles and registers (formal, standard, familiar) and briefly touches on verlan (slang words formed by inverting syllables, similar to "Pig Latin") and other slang/familiar expressions. Several poems by Victor Hugo are included to provide literary relief - or maybe to make up for the verlan!

The two CDs are essential to getting full value from the course. They include recordings of the dialogues, interviews, speeches, and reading passages in the text, short exercises on key phrases and grammar points, and some material not printed in the text. Several of the recordings feature a speaker from the south of France - an interesting break in the seeming Parisian French monopoly in the teaching French as a foreign language! The speed and clarity of the recordings is appropriate for this level of study.

Of course, students at this level should be using unedited, unfiltered French language material as well. The text suggests a number of websites that can be used to follow up on the various topics introduced in the course.

I think Improve Your French is an excellent product at a fair price - but be sure to get it with the recordings! Bon courage!

There is too much English spoken on the CD; most such comments belong instead in the book. Also, I prefer good American English over standard dumb British humor. The content is ok, not great.

The French on the CD is street French, which is also ok AFTER you have studied good French. It's important to know French as it is actually spoken by common people. But in my opinion it is best to learn the best French first. It's like comparing English as spoken at a typical blue collar situation, to English as spoken by a professor of English at an ivy league school.

My advice: Start with Pimsleur, together with Living Language Ultimate French Beginning to Intermediate. Get the set of CDs to master excellent pronunciation. Amazon sells all you need. You canif you wish, learn regional French later. Pimsleur drills French into your head, so that you really learn well, and respond without a thought. Living Language has a lot of vocabulary that Pimsleur lacks. Assimil is the best, with the best accent, other than the specialty CDs on pronunciation. They all have their own strengths. Read and Think French is an excellent way to start reading French after you have progressed a bit, and have already gone thru other courses. Get all the programs I discussed, they all complement one another. I personally prefer to study for a while on one, then swith to another. Don't forget to look for written and spoken material on the internet, much of it free. Please note that you can learn French well, but still not understand movies, which is why you need to get something that includes oral and matching written material covering such French. It seems that French movies are faster and with more slang than American movies or Italian movies (I can understand Italian news programs and movies with a lot less Italian knowledge, than I can with French ones).

If you're looking for a book that you could put into your pocket or read on a bus that would be good choice. The author assumes that you know some basics (maybe a bit more) yet you get lots of explanations and tips on grammar. I think it's better to buy it together with a CD (I regret that I didn't do it), if your daily commuting is long enough.

We have three of the other teach yourself french books (Grammar, French, ...). This book has the most organized and clearest explanations in particular for verbs. We have been living in France for six months and our French class uses all french texts. For precise explanations, this text has been the most helpful.