Ab Initio Material for French Ab Initio (Updated)

[Guest some guy]

Do you guys know of any material I could use to study some French on my own?

I know that French needs interaction but I just want to learn/teach myself some grammar and vocabulary.

Thanks.

Edit:

Okay guys. So maybe I didn't make myself sound too clear...

I missed a lot of school and I want to teach myself French.

As much as I have tried to consult my French teacher for advice she never returns emails/messages and the only way I would be able to contact her would be in person (which is not possible in my current situation).

My teacher used to teach the class using material from all over. She supposedly used random excerpts from Pearson Expo books levels 1 through GCSE and made class quizzes based on past IB exam questions.

Right now I no longer go to that school and I haven't gone there for a long time.

I don't want the useless material that teachers use to take up class time. I just want to learn. By myself. Let it be podcasts, ebooks, websites, books, apps, whatever. Please tell me what you think would be useful such that I could use it (ASAP) and be prepared come my second year of IB.

I have only attended class for the first 5/8 months or so into French ab initio before leaving so I don't care if I have to teach myself from the start. I have only taken like two oral exams this year and they were on simple stuff like greetings, what's in my schoolbag, the colors of objects, my family, my birthday, telling the time/date, descriptions of peoples' looks and personalities, where I lived and with whom, describing homes, etc.

I get that language is something you learn progressively over time and that's why I want to learn/practice over the summer.

I plan on getting the book Mot a Mot (thanks AWB) but what's the use if I don't know how to manipulate the words/phrases in my sentences?

Edited July 1, 2012 by some guy

[Award Winning Boss]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mot-New-Advanced-French-Vocabulary/dp/034077164X

You'll pick up a lot of vocab by reading articles on the internet too.

[Rio]

Hey,

I also had to learn French on my own, thanks to my teacher's incompetence and my own laziness during IB1. I'll list some methods I used for studying and I ended up getting a 7 so I guess they did work somehow.

First of all, get a good grammar book and do your own notes about the grammar in a folder that you can use later when needed. French ab initio is not that complicated but it is still important to know the basic grammar so that essay writing and orals go smoothly.

Also, check the syllabus. If I remember right there are 7 core topics in French ab initio (the individual, education & work, town & services et cetera..). They're listed more clearly in the syllabus. Anyways, gather words about the core topics and make sure you know phrases about them. The core topics are always present in the exam papers somehow (not necessarily all of them).

What I found rather useful was watching French-speaking television (TV5 Monde) or just having it in the background while doing something else. I got more and more used to hearing the language and eventually was able to even understand some speech and phrases. But this works with pretty much everything, you could try watching shows with French subs or dubs, listening to French-speaking radio, play (text-heavy) video games, reading Metro online etc...

If you want to succeed in the exams then the best way to prepare IMO is to do lots of the previous exam papers and check the markschemes. That way you know how the drill goes and quickly you'll notice a pattern on what kind of questions and essays they include in the exams. Doing this combined with your knowledge of the core topics will pretty much guarantee a good grade.