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| Related Pages Help with Downloading Help with Burning Audio CDs French Language Resources
Note: If you ever go to a site that's not in English, see if there's a British or American flag (usually near the top of the page). If there is such a flag, click on it to change the site's text to English.
Tutorials
French StepsFree. This is one of my two favorite tutorials. While you're listening to the audio for the phrase displayed, you can click to see the words in French or English. You can repeat the phrase as many times as you want by just clicking on the Show French or the Show English button. I have no idea if a tutorial such as this can be used on a hand-held device. If you try it on your iPod, let me know if that works.
Just click on Start Steps;
LoquellaThe online version is free. The two iPod volumes are $49 each. This is the other one of my two favorite tutorials. I recommend going through much of the online version before deciding to pay for the iPod version. What I like about Loquella is that you can see the phrases in both English and French while you hear them pronounced. There are apparently thousands of French sentences in Loquella. With the online version, you can repeat and move forward more easily at your own pace using the arrow. In other words, it doesn't play continuously; you move forward manually, which is good. (Note: with the iPod version you don't have quite as much control, so I suggest you might want to use the online version. This is what they say, "The iPod French lessons will play continuously on your iPod once you begin a lesson, but you can go faster or go backwards using your player's back and forward buttons. This way, you can go through each sentence as quickly or slowly as necessary. A three second pause is automatically provided between each sentence so you have enough time to repeat what you heard out loud. You can also pause the French lesson at any time.") There's so much free stuff out there, I don't encourage you to pay for iPod stuff unless money is no object. Possibly, at some point while going through the free online version, you'll be required to watch some harmless sales pitch before being able to proceed with all the free lessons. I'm not sure, but I think that's why, if you jump ahead to later lessons, you don't always see English along with the French sentences. I hope that, after the sales pitch, English will always accompany the French. In any event, It's a lot for free.
To see what it's like, just click on Next to hear the introductory
remarks and easy instructions.
Before You Know It
Here's a free download of a flashcard program made especially for children.
It might be a fun way for anyone to learn how to pronounce lots of words.
It's an actual program that you could use offline anytime (after you download
and install it).
Lexique FLEFree. This is kind of cute. For each one of the lessons at this page, just click on Course on line.You have to be patient while each lesson downloads. You won't know anything is happening; then suddenly the lesson will open. To be assured that a lesson is downloading, after you click on Course on line,notice the words downloading from site near the bottom of your screen. Try not to move your mouse after you click on Course on line.As long as you don't move your mouse at all, you'll probably keep seeing the words downloading from site.And as long as you see those words, the lesson will probably eventually open. But if you don't see the words, downloading from site,or if you get a white page that stalls for a long time, try a different lesson. Check out the following lessons to see how some of the more useful lessons work:
Body Parts
After you click on Course on Line for Body Parts,click on
vocabulaire.
French Tutorial
This "Standard Edition" is the free version. Here's the Table of Contents
to this little online tutorial. The tutorial might be helpful in learning
some French basics. It's pretty easy to navigate if you use this Table of
Contents as your start page. There's another start button that doesn't go
anywhere. Each time you see the speaker icon, click on it to hear the
corresponding word or sentence.
Kameleo
Free. Here's another page where you can practice speaking numbers 1 through
20 in French.
PodcastsYou don't have to have an iPod or other small device to hear these recorded lessons; that is, you can also listen on a computer. But if you need to download in order to use a hand-held device, these lessons are definitely downloadable. Besides those listed here, there are probably several good podcasts for learning French, even several free ones. Some may offer printed user guides for free, too. But I think that the audio lessons have to be good, regardless of what else you get with a course. There's no reason you can't use resources from a number of different sites. In the absence of other download instructions, to download an audio file that is free, just right-click on an audio lesson's link, and select Save Target As.
Coffee Break FrenchFree audio. The optional printed learning guides cost. I like this audio course because it's relatively easy. You can listen online or apparently get the downloads for free by subscribing to iTunes, but you can also download the lessons for free by just right-clicking on each lesson's Download mp3 link and selecting Save Target As. I suggest starting with Lesson 01 so you can see how easy it is:
To start playing Lesson 01, scroll down to Listen Now,and click the
right arrow (darker blue button) there.
The easiest way to get to Lesson 01 is to just click on this link:
Below is the Lesson Library of all the lessons, and here's how to find Lesson
01 from it:
Learn French By Podcast
Free audio. The optional printed learning guides cost. The first lesson of
this course is a little more advanced than that of Coffee Break French.
French Pod
27 free lessons.
IE LanguagesFree. All the audio files are downloadable. This site isn't as hard as I first thought it was, as long as you use the two index pages below -- one for the audio files and one for all the texts you read along with. Earlier, I thought that this resource might be worth using only if you first printed the lesson texts from the web pages. But now I don't think that. However, if you do print the lessons from the web pages, I suggest printing the different lessons on different sheets. That way, after you print them, you can mark each one according to which audio file it corresponds to, and it won't be so hard to find where one lesson ends and another starts. Therefore, when you print, use the option to print only the selection you've highlighted. I think these could be very helpful lessons for people who'd enjoy having so much text to read along with the audio. I also like that, in French I (One), many words are spelled out phonetically. The man who speaks has a clear voice, but he moves along at a pretty fast pace. I'm sure that the more you repeat after him or read aloud along with him, the easier it gets to do so; it's a matter of practice, practice, practice. So, just click on the matching links from each of the two indexes below.
Here's the index to all the written texts you read along to.
And here's the index to all the audio files. You can download the audio files
by right-clicking on them, or you can listen to them online by left-clicking
on them. (I test downloaded the first group as one zip file.)
Earworms Musical Brain TrainerThis costs, but not much. I just thought you might want to experience a sample of learning with the aid of music. It's £14.99 per CD, but it's only £8.99 per download. There are two French language downloads, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.
Click here and hear a demo for Rapid French Vol. 1:
Here's a different, perhaps basic, sample.
Click here and hear a demo for Rapid French Vol. 2:
At the below page, double click on Courses / Shop to see both volumes
and the Buy as download button for each: I checked to see whether it would be a bargain to first sign up with the other company promoted there, Audible. But it would be more expensive to try to get Rapid French Vol. 1 and Rapid French Vol. 2 for free by joining Audible. The cost of joining Audible is more than the EarwormsLearning cost of the two downloads. I checked, and it also doesn't seem to be cheaper at Amazon for both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.
Here's an article about the theory behind Earworms and how to use it, but
don't buy into everything you read:
Here's Earworm's smooth door page. Double-click to enter:
Rocket Languages (Rocket French)Free six-day course. Their full course costs. My quick impression is that their resources are probably roughly on a par with other companies' free ones, so I recommend not necessarily buying into Rocket French's advertising. Table of Contents for the Rocket French 6-Day Course:
Day 1 - Understanding Spoken French and Taking Part in Conversations (audio
lesson)
Day 2 - Understanding Spoken French and Basic Grammar (text lesson)
Day 3 - Introducing Yourself (audio lesson)
Day 4 - Introductions Explained (text lesson)
Day 5 - Vital Phrases for Conversation (audio lesson)
Day 6 - Vital Phrases for Conversation (text lesson)
DictionaryFree Translation
Free. An English-French/French-English dictionary that seems to work quite
well but not perfectly.
Misc.About.com: French Language
Many users seem to think that this About.com site has a lot to offer. Personally,
I find sites laid out as this one is a little confusing (so many pages, links,
and advertisements). But some of the links may lead to things you'd like.
You could save this for some day when you don't mind just browsing around.
(Some links go to free things, and some links go to things that cost. This
is where I found the link to the free flashcard program "Before You Know
It."
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