Foreign language in school is a hot topic in most circles. Most feel that teaching a foreign language is important and most don’t know the best way to do it. We put a lot of emphasis on learning languages in our school and therefore we love the opportunity to try foreign language curriculum options.
We recently had the opportunity to review Middlebury Interactive Languages French Courses for 3rd to 5th grade. We were definitely impressed.
What is Middlebury Interactive Languages?
Middlebury Interactive Languages is an interactive, online language program available for kindergarten through high school in French, Spanish, German and Chinese.
We were given one semester (6 months) of 3rd to 5th grade French for one student to review.
How we used Middlebury Interactive Languages?
My 10 year old daughter loved in 3 times per week to do the interactive French lessons through Middlebury Interactive Languages.
The lessons are competition, interactive and fun. Each lesson is immersive, meaning they are in French. There are 42 lessons in the French 1 3rd to 5th grade curriculum. It is designed to be done 2 to 3 days a week. However, they are self-paced lessons so your student can go slower or faster depending upon their progress.
Each lesson has a story in French follows by interactive activities to practice their understanding of the language. The stories are well known stories so though they are entirely in French; my daughter knew the stories. She really loved Little Red Riding Hood in French.
Each lesson also gives the student the opportunity to hear native voices pronouncing words and phrases and then for the student to practice them. The student can then record his or her voice practicing and listen back to it. This was my daughter’s favorite part. She loved recording herself and hearing herself speak in french.
What we thought
We both really loved Middlebury Interactive Languages. It truly is difficult to figure out how to best teach languages to our children. Especially when we don’t speak those languages ourselves. Middlebury Interactive Languages is a great way to introduce a language or continue with current language studies regardless of the grade of the child. The interactive, self paced nature of this immersion program makes it an excellent choice in language curriculum.
There is a section available for parents to view the lessons completed and progress of their students which I thought was great. It was ready to navigate and I liked being able to see how she was progressing without hanging over her shoulder the entire lesson.
My daughter asked if she could do another lesson quite frequently. I love hearing her excited for studying something. Since French is her choice to study, that may have something to do with it but either way her progress was good, she was excited to learn, and enjoys the lessons. Overall I think Middlebury Interactive Languages is a hit for her and for me. We will definitely continue with the lessons and consider renewing for another semester.
You can purchase a semester/6 month membership to Middlebury Interactive Languages at any of their levels for $119 without a teacher per student per semester. This is what we used. You can also purchase the same semester with teacher assistance for $175 per student per semester. This is not what we reviewed. However, it’s nice that it is an option.
You can check out what the rest of the TOS Review Crew has to say about Middlebury Interactive Languages. You can also check out Middlebury Interactive Languages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google + and Pinterest. Our purchase your own subscription to Middlebury Interactive Languages for 6 months in French, Spanish, German or Chinese through their website.
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