First French Reader for Beginners: Bilingual for Speakers of English (Graded French Readers)

by Eugene Gotye

The book consists of Beginner and Elementary courses with parallel French-English texts. The author maintains learners' motivation with funny stories about real life situations such as meeting people, studying, job searches, working etc. The method utilizes the natural human ability to remember words used in texts repeatedly and systematically. The author composed each sentence using only words explained in previous chapters. The second and the following chapters of the Beginner course have only about thirty new words each. The book is equipped with the audio tracks. The address of the home page of the book on the Internet, where audio files are available for listening and downloading, is listed at the beginning of the book on the bibliographic description page before the copyright notice. With the help of QR codes, you can call up an audio file in no time, without typing a web address manually. This graded reading book has helped many to uncover their potential for learning multiple languages. Whether you are learning a language as a hobby or for a necessary purpose, you will find this book is supportive. Remember - twenty minutes a day does the magic!

Genres: France

188 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2012

Reviews

[Dr Dabbler · Rating 2 out of 5]

The right idea, but the wrong approach. It is possible, albeit challenging, to create interesting text early on with little vocabulary, and then add words, with repetition. The Gnomeville comics do it well and in a principled manner, but only cover about 30 very frequent words so far. Kill the French does it comprehensively to a vocabulary of 500 words, following the principles of spaced repetition for learning, but the text is not overly interesting. Several classic French graded readers do it well from the 100-word vocabulary point.
Nice pictures though.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an excellent book to brush up on my several years of French from long ago. It will serve as a great reference to stay fresh with my French.

[Deneir · Rating 4 out of 5]

In compliance with FTC guidelines, I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. I've studied French on and off for a couple of years now and while I'm far from fluent I do have some familiarity with the language. The best way to learn a language is to begin by learning to speak it and then learning to read and write it. So if you can't even speak a little French a French Reader is not what you need right now. If you're still here because that former sentence does not apply to you then read on. You'll be happy to know that this reader is organized in a well thought out and progressive manner that is quite well suited for acquiring additional vocabulary. I've been going over the chapters and while you can jump in here or there it's best to go through it sequentially. The English text is right alongside the French and the book is large enough to employ a font size that won't punish your eyes for studying for too long a stretch. The vocabulary and sentence structure is kept basic throughout which is appropriate for a first French Reader. If you're looking for something to get you started on the journey towards eventually reading Dumas or Voltaire in the original French then this book will provide a solid first step, but be aware that this will not be an easy journey or a short one. So stay disciplined and good luck!

[Noelle Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. It's a good way to start learning French and, for me, it helped me make my French a little bit better. I'm gonna have to read this book again. If one reading can improve my already abysmal French skills, then reading it again and again ought to help improve them some more. This book is definitely worth getting and really worth reading.


*won on GoodReads First Reads*

[Destiny Unlocked · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must have for anyone wanting to learn French!! This book has a easy to read format that makes it easy to figure out what words you know and don't. I found this very helpful with my studies. Thank you for this wonderful put together workbook!

[Riobhcah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just like the other volume, the readings were incredibly boring. There are other readers out there one can use to learn French that have much more meaningful selections to read and to learn French. This is almost too boring for children in kindergarten. Give me a break.