French Online

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by Curt McPherson

Had I not had a classic language background to begin with, I never would have decided to try to learn French language online. You see, if you are studying modern languages, you generally take a different approach than with ancient tongues. With the classics, the most important thing is to be able to read the language fluently. You have to develop your grammar and, to a lesser extent, your vocabulary. With modern languages, however, the emphasis is different. You might want to learn French online in order to read some of the great works of French literature, of course, but you will probably also wants to be able to converse. More time is spent on conversational French, and traditional grammar often takes a back seat. The most important thing is to be able to understand other speakers and make yourself understood.

When I signed up for my French online course, I thought that I would be able to benefit from the classical approach to the language. Conversation requires a partner, but studying grammar and vocabulary can be done on your own. What I didn't realize about online French was that it strives to emulate the classroom environment. I thought I was just taking French online as a way to begin to learn this fascinating language without devoting too much time to it. Little did I realize that it was actually part of an online degree program. Getting an online degree in a foreign language is a joke! In order to make up for the lack of person-to-person communication, they would give us recorded sentences to practice, spoken vocabulary tests, and the like. Grammar was so completely neglected that I was never quite sure if I was saying things correctly. They seemed to be more concerned with my pronunciation than with my ability to correctly construct sentences.

Historical Quote

A certain degree of fear produces the same effects as rashness.

—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)

I am not saying that there is no point in learning French online, but you have to put it into perspective. There are certain things that you can learn through solo study and certain things that you can't. If you want to improve your spoken comprehension, listen to French radio online in addition to studying grammar. I still believe that a firm understanding of grammar is the most basic and essential ingredient to learning a new language. If your French online program does not have this, go out and find one that does!

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Please note: All personal opinions expressed in the "French Online" article belong to the contributing author and are not necessarily shared by SloanSemester.org.

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