I've tried to avoid using this site in any way to promote products. Still, there is one language learning resource that I feel compelled to comment on: Pimsleur's audio recordings.
I haven't tried Rosetta Stone or Rocket French or any of the other online French instruction programs out there (with the exception of Duolingo, which is free and not bad at all), mostly because I can't afford their steep prices. Luckily, my local library carries the Pimsleur series of CDs for learning French, so I check those out multiple times.
What I like most about Pimsleur's instruction method is that it introduces very small chunks of material at a time. Then the user is allowed to echo and drill on a word, phrase or sentence several times. And even better, the same material is re-introduced frequently as the lessons proceed. I find this system very efficacious and I've been pleased with my progress. For me newly learned material just does not stick in my brain until I've heard it and mimicked it several times. I also like the content of the programs. Most of the phrases and sentences are items that one would normally use on a day-to-day basis. So many French materials are geared toward young high school or college kids and use the familiar 'tu' too much. Pimsleur seems a little more geared to adults and autodidacts.
I find myself at one point feeling much more comfortable reproducing the sentences and dialogues with confident pronunciation and intonation. I also really like the fact that the narrator forces the listener to interact and become involved in the material. He/She will ask questions and leave a pause for the listener to respond to questions that might come up in a typical French conversation on the street.
And finally, another big plus for me is that it's all audio. This means that I can put the CD into my portable CD player and listen while I'm doing my daily exercise--walking--thus killing two birds with one stone, though I don't recommend ever killing birds, even one :)
No comments:
Post a Comment