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Michel Thomas | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| TheElvenLord Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6081 days ago 915 posts - 927 votes  1 sounds Speaks: Cornish, English* Studies: Spanish, French, German Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 113 of 185 27 July 2008 at 6:43am | IP Logged | ||
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Sorry Kugel - I said I dont know any German, but I was trying to relate it to something you would know.
A better example would probably be Le,La,Les in French. TEL 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6539 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 114 of 185 03 August 2008 at 5:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Would it be possible to create a MT styled course by using a well made textbook as the outline?
An outline for Latin course with MT overtones: 1. Cover the 1st conjugation verbs amo, do, creo, equito, festino, interrogo, ministro, nuntio, porto, pugno 2. Cover et, nunc, semper, sed, hic(here) One would then interweave these concepts into a 10-20 min course...probably much shorter considering how little is being taught. One would then procede with the other 3(some would say 4) conjugations. It's basically turning a writing intensive course into an audio based course. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| thecatat Newbie Thailand Joined 5952 days ago 26 posts - 40 votes Speaks: English* | Message 115 of 185 09 August 2008 at 2:00am | IP Logged | ||
I was wondering the same thing... But, MT is patented -->> http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=H ITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l =50&s1=6,565,358.PN.&OS=PN/6,565,358&RS=PN/6,565,358 1) Does anyone know what this means in real speak? 2) What method comes close? (reason I'm asking is that MT does not have plans for creating one for the language I'd like to learn. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6234 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 116 of 185 09 August 2008 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you are interested in make a course using the MT method. I suggest reading Jonathan Solity's The Learning Revolution, 2008 Hodder Education isbn 978-0-340-92833-2
It is a new book on the MT method and using it in a school class room. The method is layout in detail. Youtube has the bbc show on Michel Thomas. The older cd courses are transcribe and can be found on UTerrent. good luck 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6539 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 117 of 185 10 August 2008 at 10:05am | IP Logged | ||
Solity's book is pretty good, but I think it needed to expand on the commentary for the Spanish, French, and German courses. And to prove his knowledge, Solity should've came up with a brief outline on a language not covered by Michel Thomas; this is because the book leaves many suspicions on whether or not Michel Thomas actually was doing something revolutionary. For instance, the explanations on the basic Spanish grammar points in Solity's book were not overtly different than a typical Spanish grammar text, yet Solity goes ga ga for its so called brilliance. The main thing that I found different from the traditional textbooks was with Solity noting the harm of doing multiple question/answer testing, as this leaves the student with the possibility of drilling in the wrong language structure patterns. So, if a textbook were to eliminate multiple test like questions, provide immediate responses for questions, explained grammar using minimal differences(basically, just teaching grammar without skimming on anything), and used the audio medium so one can pause and think about the answer, then there would be very little differences between the said textbook and a MT course. The other 2 students, by the way, are totally unnecessary, as it assumes the learner will do the same mistakes, which doesn't make any sense. What good does it do for the learner to hear about problems other people have in language learning, unless you want to become a language teacher? Whenever I got something wrong, I would simply rewind 15-20 seconds and hear the question again; and usually this was because of vocabulary, not grammar. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TheElvenLord Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6081 days ago 915 posts - 927 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Cornish, English* Studies: Spanish, French, German Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 118 of 185 10 August 2008 at 10:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Currently, there are 3 Audio Homebrew MT courses out there:
Norwegian Disc 1 Madass88 Japanese Disc 1 - 2 Carl Kenner Cornish Draft TheElvenLord All 3 are made with a single presenter, without students. The Cornish course, which is a draft, is one presenter, but it will be proffessionally recorded in a proper studio once: a) My course is evaluated and refined to the finest point b) I am comfortable teaching without a script. I have several students lined up, and teaching some members of the general public for the first time at a festival in September. So, hopefully, a full, professional course will be available next year. So, there are already 3. I strongly urge those who are interested in the method to research the method, and if you want to start developing an MT style course, contact me via PM, and then we will go to email. I have some documents from Hodder and I am very willing to help you through every stage (although I am by no means an expert!). Thanks TEL 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sakaya Pentaglot Newbie Japan Joined 6646 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Japanese, Italian Studies: Mandarin | Message 119 of 185 24 September 2008 at 10:10am | IP Logged | ||
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I have just had a very quick listen to Carl Kenner's Japanese course. The content seems fairly solid and probably gives a better grounding than the Michel Thomas course. On the other hand, while I don't want to be cruel, his Japanese accent and intonation is simply atrocious and is certainly not to be imitated.
Michel Thomas himself was no great example himself of correct pronunciation in most of the languages he taught, so maybe my criticism is misplaced but I still think the course could be made better with a native speaker. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 120 of 185 25 September 2008 at 7:23am | IP Logged | ||
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The thing with Michel Thomas's accent was that while it wasn't perfect, it was good enough in that he made the most important distinctions for the English-speaking learner. This is best seen by comparing his Spanish accent with Rose Lee Hayden's Spanish accent on the Vocabulary course.
Thomas never dropped an R. The same can't be said for RLH. Thomas always used pure vowels (required in Spanish). RLH used English diphthongs (so the "se" "dormirse" would be pronounced like the English "say" -- or the Spanish "sei"). Thomas's vowel quality was invariant and independent of stress, so had only 5 vowels. RLH's vowels change under stress, most notably the East-USA stressed "A" sound. Her pronunciation of "Hablar" sounds like "ablaur" to UK ears. While having a perfect accent isn't vital (and possibly isn't possible), these three things are among the most difficult for the English speaker and certainly can become a huge barrier to communication. I don't speak Japanese so it's hard for me to judge Carl's accent objectively, but I don't trust it, because he still sounds like an Ozzie when he speaks it, making me worry he's more RLH than MT 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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