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Off the shelf French language study packages for babies, children and adults

Baby's First Steps French (book & CD) babies to 2 years
Living Language ISBN 0-609-60741-3 £11.99 from Waterstones

Hard to comment on whether this “works” in teaching a baby 0-2 years perfect French but it certainly is a lovely, gentle and enjoyable introduction to French. The author Erika Levy has an MA in Speech -Language Pathology, she sounds like she should know were stuff. This CD basically works in three ways a) it has lots of songs and rhymes in it that your baby can listen to and enjoy/learn as they do with any songs b) the general sound of the CD is soothing in itself and very baby and tired-parent friendly and c) there is a fairly interesting short book you can read about child language acquisition at the same time as your baby gurgles happily in their French world.

I would happily buy this for parent friends of babies. It is especially useful for those parents who already speak some French as a second language and would like to help their children experience language learning but do not have a wealth of French songs, poems and rhymes to sing or say to their baby. I can also say that children aged 6, 7 or 8 may well listen to it and enjoy it too!

A happy and contented 8/10

Living Language: Learn French Together cassette & activity book

An activity kit for kids & grown ups: Ages 4 - 8, Living Language. From Waterstones £9.99 ISBN 0-609-60650-6

First thought - is on a cassette and says for cars…well that cuts out a quite a lot of people to start with. I listen - aghhh Americans. Smiley and floaty in a Prozac kind of way. The games combine English & French and all the games focus on cars - which after a while can feel as if you are on a child self study driving course. I enjoyed some aspects of this cassette; the pace is quick but will my child retain any of this info? I try to forget this way of thinking right now. Adult's methods of learning and expectations of self-study language learning materials cannot be employed here. A child focus' is on the essential question 'Do I like / enjoy this activity?' if yes, I will do it again, if not I will move on to do something else. Children do not expect to 'learn' something from their experience, but if they like it they will listen to it again and again. As most parents know who have watched the same DVD/video a trillion times. I think this could do a second listening but not sure how much more. The book & activities are a bit complicated, they have a small selection of stickers, but not much. At least the activity book has step-by-step instructions on how to do an activity. It can give the parent/ teachers some ideas of more activities to do using the same vocab on the cassette.

Generally -fairly inexpensive experience of a new language but beware your child will also have to learn American English as well as Spanish - especially in car terminology there are many differences. Be warned there is a part of it that introduces Disney World “Do you know Disney world, amigos? Disney world is in Orlando Florida..”…Hmmm, thanks but no thanks.

A yucky 4/10

Berlitz Kids French Language pack

£15.95. Contains storybook & audio CD, picture dictionary, parent's guide, kids club certificate. Various ISBN numbers from Borders

OK child marketing, here we go. It comes in a pack, it 'includes everything you need to learn French' (great - job done!). It is in a box with a handle and the word 'kids' is multi coloured-it must work then! As I go to open the box, I have that special feeling of what will be inside? It feels exciting - am I such a sucker at 34! It's not as exciting as anticipated. Inside has a slight feeling of emptiness. Two thin books - one story book, one picture dictionary and a third book for the parents 'Help Your child with foreign language.'

CD works with the storybook. “You are about to start a wonderful adventure”…it is a female Prozac American Stepford Wife again…eek.. However, as I open the book it picks up, attractive full page illustrations with simple repetitive sentences which tell the story. The CD reads the story in French, the text is in both Italian and English. It is obvious from the pictures what the characters are going to say / do - which is just what you want! I would advise reading the book In English firstly so your child is completely familiar with the story. Maybe introduce some of the French individual words already at this stage too, before listening to the CD.

I am unconvinced by picture dictionaries usually but I quite like this one because a) there is a manageable amount of information in here b) the range of vocabulary corresponds to the story book c) it not only has the words in English & French but also the words are shown in an example sentence in both languages. For a parent or teacher using these materials this variety is useful. It gives the words contextual meanings and remember - you don't have to use all of this info straightaway.

The listening material of the picture dictionary…well…listen and repeat exercises…bit academic for 6 year olds really…

Then there is the parent's book. 'Help Your Child with Foreign language' by Opan Dunn. I found this quite informative, practical and encouraging. It has bullet points, gives ideas of different ways that you can expose your child to language and acknowledges that there is not one answer or method to bilingual success.

And the certificate? On the plus side, it can help your child be proud of being a language learner on the negative side, you are branding your child's learning. Not for me.

All in all, this language learning resource isn't bad. It has been thought about carefully and it is designed pretty well. I think it could do with some instructions for the parents / teachers on how to use these specific materials effectively and with some further exercise ideas connected to the story book & picture dictionary. Good effort.

A surprised 7/10

Berlitz Kids Adventures with Nicholas

The Five Crayons £7.99 Book & plush toy set with a bonus audio CD from Borders

“You are about to start a wonderful adventure” ..again… it's the American lady with her saccharine hard sweetness…Story very similar to the style of the story in the language pack. This particular story seems a little weaker but you get a toy to compensate… (as I am sure you don't have enough in your house). I can't get over excited about this book & CD really but it is relatively cheap and if as a parent, you are prepared to work hard at bringing these stories to life and get the most language learning you can out of them, there is a good chunk of info in there - colours, numbers etc. However, if you have taught your child to read using graded readers from their school you will be aware that some of the stories for children to learn to read at low levels are not exactly action packed. The enjoyment and stimulation comes from the achievement of understanding the story itself.

A bland 6/10

Berlitz DJ French £8.99 Borders 1 audio CD & listener's guide

ISBN 981-246-686-X from Borders

A rockin' radio show that'll help you get down with French. OK - so you have immediate concerns at the graffiti stylee brick wall on the box and the poor attempt at a picture of a hip hop dude BUT lets listen. Well, DJ French is from Brooklyn (apparently) and DJ Lise is French. It is a 'radio show' where there is quite a lot of DJ French saying something in English and DJ Lise repeating what he says in French. On top of that there are songs - hip-hop songs created to teach 'cool French phrases'. It would be too easy to really slag this off so I won't. It is ambitious, almost foolishly so, in trying to create a hip hop cool learn French CD - it is a long long way from achieving it's aim. This CD would never cut it with any child over the age of 10 or 11 but for a younger age group they could find this funny and copy the characters therefore speaking the French!

An optimistic 6/10

Usborne Internet-linked French for beginners pack

ISBN 0 7460 5840 3 Contains book, cassette, workbook, sticker dictionary with 120 stickers! Flashcards & Internet links and is £12.99 from Borders

The packaging is beautiful, big, colourful, loads of different books & materials. Cassette goes straight in. English bloke - he isn't taking me on an adventure and instead he tells me that going abroad is a lot easier if you speak more of the language. Nice intro with tips on language learning. A start with hello & goodbye soon moves on to saying our age and talking about your brothers and sisters. This is a more traditional presentation of language. It feels safer for the adult, more logical, very familiar to how I was taught French 20 years ago. I am not sure if this is a particularly successful method for children. It is very gentle and the materials look lovely but I have been here before…and I was in uniform.

There are other materials in this pack. This feels comprehensive and there is learning by rote, grammar rules etc. So, all in all, it looks pretty and fresh and new but the methodology is quite traditional. I think this self study method may keep the grown ups hooked for a while but I'm not so sure about the children…
A disappointing 5/10

Germaine Broadbent works for Cactus Language Training which prides itself on providing personal and professional language learning services. For information on all of the courses mentioned here please call 0845 130 4775 or email on contact@cactuslanguagetraining.comor visit www.cactuslanguagetraining.com

Their services include:
After school language clubs in primary or nursery school taught by qualified native speaker teachers, children's group language learning trips overseas for 10-18yrs, travel and work experiences to people of all ages and backgrounds. Family tailor made language course, where the teacher comes to your home and language holidays for individuals, juniors and families.