Method: target reading for beginners (Language Programs, Books & Tapes) Language Learning Forum

Method: target reading for beginners
Tags: Reading \| Beginner \| Learning Technique/Method
Share with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon
Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes

49 messages over 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next >>

Alkeides
Senior Member
Bhutan
Joined 6151 days ago
636 posts - 644 votes

Message 41 of 49

04 February 2008 at 9:19am | IP Logged

TreoPaul wrote:

This reminds me a little of an idea I had, and others on this forum (pardon me for forgetting whom) have independently developed as well.

I think the most pain-free way to learn a language would be a book, or series of books that were progressive in nature. Page one would be little more than "Dick and Jane", and as the book progresses additional vocabulary and language constructs would be introduced. So by the end of the book one is reading and understanding at a significantly higher level than at the beginning.

Of course the text would need to be at least mildly interesting, and it would be a massive undertaking to write.

Lingua Latina, as I have mentioned in some previous posts, does exactly that.
1 person has voted this message useful

TreoPaul
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6333 days ago
121 posts - 118 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: German

Message 42 of 49

04 February 2008 at 9:25am | IP Logged

amphises wrote:

Lingua Latina, as I have mentioned in some previous posts, does exactly that.

I had missed that. Thank you. Though I have little interest in learning Latin, I might give these a try to see how well the system works.
1 person has voted this message useful

BLT
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 5765 days ago
5 posts - 12 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: German, Japanese

Message 43 of 49

27 May 2010 at 2:16am | IP Logged

I collect old language texts, and this method used to be common, as someone else said. The trouble is getting
the appropriate amount of repetition in, and not just introducing words and then dropping them.

Fortunately, many of these old works are out of copyright and are available free online. I'm replying to this old
thread to point out some works that use this method. Naturally, they have both the strengths and the
weaknesses of their era.

Studien und Plaudereien This is an old German text, 1880
or so. My 12yo daughter and I worked through much of it, and she made a lot of progress using it. This one is
done in dialog form, a private teacher working with several young people.

Worman's Spanish text, 1906

Hall's All Spanish Method

Hall's Poco a Poco (Spanish)

Edited by BLT on 27 May 2010 at 2:18am
6 persons have voted this message useful

shmjay
Newbie
United States
Joined 5365 days ago
12 posts - 19 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, German, Spanish

Message 44 of 49

31 May 2010 at 4:03am | IP Logged

There were quite a few of these books written in the 1950s by I.A. Richards (1893-1979). For some reason they are no longer widely available in print. Harvard University owns the copyright.

The three English books are available here from a company in Canada: English through pictures, books 1-3

There are two Spanish books, two French books, two Italian books, two German books, and one Russian book, which are available from Amazon.jp . The ISBN of the first Spanish book is 978-4-89684-432-0 and that may help you find the others.

There is also a Hebrew book which I haven’t seen.

To my surprise, there is actually a Wikipedia article about him, but it doesn’t mention these books.
1 person has voted this message useful

Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5337 days ago
4143 posts - 8864 votes

Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

Message 45 of 49

31 May 2010 at 10:35am | IP Logged

fanatic wrote:

I scored well on all counts but I have been learning Esperanto.

This is very similar to my first lessons in Russian. I thought the method was so good I inflicted it on all my family and they were all able to read and speak the Russian of the first few lessons. I think the Russians have done a lot with this kind of language teaching.

Could you provide me with a link or an ISBN number so I could get hold of some of this?
1 person has voted this message useful

magictom123
Senior Member
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5596 days ago
272 posts - 365 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French

Message 46 of 49

31 May 2010 at 4:21pm | IP Logged

Forgive me if I am wrong but there was a thread on here a while ago where a series of
youtube videos covered a book for learning esperanto. It seems to be solely in esperanto
and has the uploader reading the books aloud.

Here is the link to one of the parts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjmmkC4K-Sw&feature=channel
1 person has voted this message useful

RedBeard
Senior Member
United States
atariage.com
Joined 6105 days ago
126 posts - 182 votes

Speaks: Ancient Greek*
Studies: French, German

Message 47 of 49

31 May 2010 at 10:22pm | IP Logged

Hey, thanks to magictom123 for posting that Esperanto video. I had forgotten about those videos. I watched many of them before I let my Esperanto studies lapse. Nice to see them again.

Thanks to BLT for the Studien Und Plauderein link. That book is fantastic.

Regarding, Aldeides' and TreoPaul's posts, I too was thinking what a great tool such a new, step by step method would be. (It reminds me when folks around here started creating their own Assimil-ish program.) Some quick thoughts: could be visual like one of those Spanish books above, but I was thinking All Audio (I like to listen and walk) with a written text for at-home rereading. Just enough narration by L1 speaker to set the scene, give notice of a word or phrase upcoming - could also describe the picture if a more visual method was used in the written guide. About 15 minute lessons - easy to use for your commute or lunch break study habits. An entertaining storyline following set characters. Use a limited vocabulary with spaced repetition (hat tip: Michel Thomas & Pimsleur) to get the listener into the meat of the language rather than trying to remember 12 fruits and vegetables in one chapter that also mentions knife, fork and spoon.

OK. Now I'm off to transmogrify into a work-a-holic genius to invent said program. :-)
1 person has voted this message useful

QiuJP
Triglot
Senior Member
Singapore
Joined 5858 days ago
428 posts - 597 votes

Speaks: Mandarin*, English^C2, French
Studies: Czech, German^B1, Russian, Japanese

Message 48 of 49

01 June 2010 at 11:26am | IP Logged

fanatic wrote:

I have only just realized that this was the method I used with Russki Yazik dlya Vsyeh to learn Russian. The textbook is entirely in Russian and makes much use of what it calls international words and pictures. (International words like university and taxi)

It had seperate books for dictionary, reader, grammar and speaking practice. It came with ten long-play records which I immediately recorded to cassettes and then to mp3.

It is my favourite language course (or one of my favourites) and revolves around central characters whom you get to know with their quirks and foibles.

I couldn't work out every word from the context and had to look them up. Then I pencilled in the English equivalent so I wouldn't have to repeat the procedure the next time.

They taught grammar by inference the same way they did vocabulary. The problem there is that you might come to the wrong conclusion with grammar, but a native speaker might make the same mistake. I have supplemented the course with a whole lot of other material and it hasn't been a problem.

The course has undergone a lot of changes since I bought my copy in an East Berlin bookshop. I like my original copy the best.

Do you know where can I get this material?

1 person has voted this message useful

This discussion contains 49 messages over 7 pages: << Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next >>

Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum

This page was generated in 0.3906 seconds.