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How much vocabulary per Pimsleur level?

 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
Bindependence
Diglot
Newbie
United Kingdom
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2 posts - 4 votes
Speaks: English*, Italian

 
 Message 1 of 7
19 May 2014 at 11:08am | IP Logged 
Hi there,

I ran some forum searches but failed to acquire an answer for the above.

In addition to the forum search, I used Google to search, too. However, I'm getting
contrasting answers to this question. On the one hand, many websites are saying that
there are 500 words per Pimsleur level, totaling 1500 words after completing all three
levels, and yet other websites suggest that there are only as little as 150 words per
level.

Does anybody have an answer to this?

Cheers.
2 persons have voted this message useful



SomeGuy
Groupie
Germany
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Speaks: German*
Studies: Arabic (Written), Turkish, Mandarin

 
 Message 2 of 7
19 May 2014 at 11:46am | IP Logged 
If i remember right the Chinese volume 1 had ~180 words and i think about ~600 for all 3 volumes.i know that even Wikipedia says that there are 500 words per level, but from my experience this is wrong.

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Elexi
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United Kingdom
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Studies: French, German, Latin

 
 Message 3 of 7
19 May 2014 at 12:04pm | IP Logged 
I agree it with SomeGuy - Pimsleur gives about 600 words for 3 volumes. It also gives
about 11 repetitions of the word (Paul Nation's research estimates that a person needs
5-16 repetitions to learn a word).

Edited by Elexi on 19 May 2014 at 12:07pm

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Speakeasy
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Canada
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Studies: German

 
 Message 4 of 7
19 May 2014 at 9:53pm | IP Logged 
My experience with Pimsleur German was that, in order to attain a word count of 500, they would have to include every variant (case, gender, number) of a newly-introduced verb, noun, adjective, pronoun, or determiner as a “new word”. In contrast, most dictionaries provide only the basic word as a new entry and assume that the reader understands enough about cases, gender, number, and verb conjugations to extrapolate from the basic entry. So, while the publisher, Simon & Schuster, advertises that the Pimsleur courses provide some 500 words per level, my count came to somewhere around 250 to 300 words.
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Bindependence
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United Kingdom
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Speaks: English*, Italian

 
 Message 5 of 7
20 May 2014 at 8:00pm | IP Logged 
Thanks guys.

It seems like a lot of effort for such a
miniscule vocabulary.
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BaronBill
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HowToLanguages.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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335 posts - 594 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, German
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 Message 6 of 7
20 May 2014 at 10:47pm | IP Logged 
Bindependence wrote:

It seems like a lot of effort for such a
miniscule vocabulary.


If you use Pimsleur for vocabulary building, yes, it is a lot of effort for a relatively small vocabulary. On the other hand, for pronunciation, accent, and automaticity of the basics, Pimsleur is tough to beat. I am a big fan of Pimsleur for that reason.
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hrhenry
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Senior Member
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languagehopper.blogs
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Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese
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 Message 7 of 7
20 May 2014 at 10:47pm | IP Logged 
Bindependence wrote:
Thanks guys.

It seems like a lot of effort for such a
miniscule vocabulary.

I don't know that I'd call hitting play and letting it run for 30 minutes is a lot of
work.

In any case, vocabulary isn't Pimsleur's strong point. Never has been. There are other
benefits to using it, though.

R.
==


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