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Why is there so little research?

 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room Post Reply
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luke
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 7190 days ago

3133 posts - 4351 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Esperanto, French

 
 Message 81 of 81
09 February 2014 at 9:22pm | IP Logged 
patrickwilken wrote:
Evidence
Which product is best?

So a better question might be "How effective is MT vs Pimsleur vs Assimil at getting students to a level of B1
French?".


This is a good way to frame a question, but note the specificity required. E.G. "in French". This is a
necessary component because although there are great similarties between Pimsleur or MT or Assimil for
various languages, they aren't identical. E.G. Assimil French isn't the same as Assimil Spanish. Even there,
we have different generations of products to deal with.

Then there is the question about how is effectiveness measured? By taking a particular test? Which test?
Although there are human evaluators for tests in speaking and writing, even the most impartial test examiner
could be swayed by charisma or beauty in the candidate. Depending on who is doing the research, there
may be an axe to grind.

This leads me back to the point that although research may be interesting and helpful, so much depends on
motivation and ability in the student that a little more effectiveness here and there could end up being noise in
the final result.




2 persons have voted this message useful



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