Foreign Language Rec's need help!

[mamato4girls]

My dd wants to study French and is required to take 2 years to graduate (of any language). I am thinking of something with immersion, Rosetta Stone, The Learnables. But I am willing to try anything that is easy for me to teach :001_smile:Give me your recommendations please.

[Susan C.]

We used Rosetta Stone for Spanish. Not sure how well he learned the language, but did two years worth for credits required. It pretty much ran itself and was easy for me to manage. It definitely is enough for exposure. My son is taking Spanish in college this fall, I am anxiously awaiting how well it prepared him (He is starting over from the beginning, RS is conversational so it didn't cover all of the grammar that conventional courses do). I also saw threads on here about SOS Spanish, and am hoping those using that will weigh in here for you (and me also!).

[Liza Q]

We used Le Francais Facile 1 and 2 for 2 years of French. Like Susan said, I would not say that my daughter learned to speak French, but she certainly did the two years worth for credits required. My daughter did get very good at translating! She had done a few years of Latin before she moved to French, so that may be why she found it very manageable.

It was very easy for her to use and I did not teach any of it. I did take French in school so I could help her out but she did it independently.

If your goal is fluency I would not recommend LFF but it did work well for what I was looking for - lots of grammar/vocabulary, independent study, 2 years credit.

HTH!

[nmoira]

We recently went through the Michel Thomas Spanish program after a couple years with other resources. It helped incredibly with pronunciation and confidence in speaking. MT is often recommended as a first step in language learning (some would say THE first step), but it's meant to be covered quickly; all three levels (French for Beginners (http://www.amazon.com/Michel-Thomas-Method-Beginners-Program/dp/0071600825/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243429080&sr=8-1), French Advanced (http://www.amazon.com/Michel-Thomas-Method-Advanced-Program/dp/0071601007/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243429313&sr=1-1), and French Vocabulary (http://www.amazon.com/Michel-Thomas-French-Vocabulary-Builder/dp/0071488057/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243429080&sr=8-5)) should only take a few months. The program is entirely CD based, and is essentially a listening session as MT teaches two students to speak the target language. Because they are beginning students and make common mistakes, the ear is trained to hear subtle differences in stress and pronunciation. The only thing I would suggest is either stopping the CD to think or replaying a bit when not sure of the material. It's easy to get carried away by the flow of Mr. Thomas' voice.