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Assimil versus US language programs | ||
Tags: Learner type | Platiquemos | Pimsleur | Reading | Language Program | FSI | Assimil | Accent | Book | Grammar | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| varjakpaul Newbie United States Joined 4930 days ago 22 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish, Mandarin, Persian | Message 177 of 184 31 May 2011 at 3:03am | IP Logged | |||||
I looked at the video on the Assimil site that does its best to explain its method. But I am confused, and/or have some questions after watching the video. And pardon me if I don't want to read this whole thread hoping to come across the answer. So: I am confused about the first wave, second wave thing. What do you actually DO during the first wave. I take it that that includes listening to the dialogs, but what else?? I.e., how much of the exercises and/or "rote grammar stuff" like conjugating so-and-so verb do you do during the first wave? Can someone briefly distinguish the first wave/second wave for me, and what each basically consists of, because the Assimil video didn't do that for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6381 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 178 of 184 31 May 2011 at 5:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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The first wave involves listening, reading, and speaking the dialogs out loud. At the half way point of the book you start the second wave from the first lesson while continuing with the first wave for the new lessons. The second wave consists of translating the dialogs from L2 to English or whatever is the base language.
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| varjakpaul Newbie United States Joined 4930 days ago 22 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish, Mandarin, Persian | Message 179 of 184 31 May 2011 at 7:08am | IP Logged | |||||
Okay but on the inline demo video I have seen screens that have stuff (exercises?) such as conjugate such-and-such verb and something like a list of numbers in French. And what about things like the fill-in-the-blank exercises? So my question remains, esp concerning these exercises. During which phase are they supposed to be done? And besides the exercises that I mention, because I saw them on the demo video screen, what other types of exercises are there? I am trying to get a feel for how much "classroom type" exercises that there might be, such as conjugating verbs or anything else that could be considered something like rote grammar exercise. And what phase these are done in. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6381 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 180 of 184 31 May 2011 at 7:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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You do the exercises in the passive stage. The type of exercises depends on the course. In the Chinese course it's fill in the blank exercises and listening exercises. For the old Italian course it was just listening exercises. I don't remember what the exercises are for the French course. I can check later today.
Assimil isn't really about the exercises. If you like that kind of thing, you would probably better off getting a grammar book or using FSI. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| zorglub Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 7002 days ago 441 posts - 504 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (Written), Turkish, Mandarin | Message 181 of 184 01 June 2011 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
I never met any such exercise in Assimil Spanish/ Italian/ Portiguese/ German English. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| zorglub Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 7002 days ago 441 posts - 504 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (Written), Turkish, Mandarin | Message 182 of 184 01 June 2011 at 12:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
Many here would add: do a lot of shadowing in your spare times. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kmart Senior Member Australia Joined 6126 days ago 194 posts - 400 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 183 of 184 01 June 2011 at 1:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The more I use Assimil (I can only comment on the Italian course), the more impressed I become with the cleverness of the course. The authors make interesting and often amusing little dialogues, that contain lots of useful turns of phrase, and include practice of specific grammar points quite subtly - for example, in Italian With Ease there are several dialogues devoted to double pronouns. They manage to make a reasonable sounding dialogue that includes heaps of double pronouns, and there are several of them in a row, so you get continual reinforcement. Other times there will be a whole swag of variants on the usage of a verb like "dare" (to give) or a turn of phrase that crops up a few lessons down the track, and then a bit further along, a la Pimsleur techniques.
Of all the audio programs I've dabbled with, I think it's the most carefully crafted, and it can be used again and again until one wrings the last drops of information out of it, without too much boredom from being forced to review "baby talk", or listen to what becomes unbearably slow dialogue. 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5567 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 184 of 184 01 June 2011 at 2:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Assimil lessons end with about 5 exercises where you are supposed to translate from the target language into your language in the passive wave and about 5 fill in the blanks exercises. Very occaisionally you are asked to do something like put the gender of a word, write a list of numbers or conjugate verbs - there are probably about 5 such exercises in modern Assimil books. In the Active Wave you go the other way and translate from your language to the target language.
The older Without Toils had more stringent series of 'supplemental' exercises that asked you to conjugate whole lists of verbs or put them into different tenses or moods. Personally in the passive wave I do the translation exercises actively as I need to feel that I am actively producing the language to progress. I guess intuitive assimilation doesn't work for me. Edited by Elexi on 02 June 2011 at 1:21pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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