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Unusual Pimsleur claim | ||
Tags: Pimsleur | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7220 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 9 of 14 01 June 2011 at 10:25am | IP Logged | |||||
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I am reviving this old thread, due to the release of Pimsleur Spanish IV. I wrote to Simon and Schuster recently regarding Pimsleur. The three comprehensive courses being 33% each and all together adding up to 99%. Here is what I wrote to customer support. "One time customer service and the company stated using all three Pimsleur comprehensive courses reaches 99% fluency. 33% each comprehensive. I would like to know due to the addition of a fourth comprehensive for Spanish, then surely a person can reach 100% fluency? The fourth comprehensive can cover the last 1%. Please let me know if this is the case, as I want to take a C.E.F.R. oral/ aural exam in the future to see if this proves Pimsleur reaches at least C1 level. Not beginner, not intermediate, but at least advance to superior." This is the reply I received from customer support. I am quoting the response only without the formalities. "Pimsleur and Simon & Schuster Audio have not made such claim. It is, however, possible that an Internet reseller might have taken this liberty without our knowledge. Our courses have been tested at ACTFL Intermediate High after completing 3 levels (45-hours of study). We have not yet tested Spanish level IV against the ACTFL scale." This response indicates that there is no standard in what answer customer support will respond with. If customer support did respond with the 99% accuracy, then the latest response contradicts the initial one and gets Pimsleur off the hook for misleading claims, as the Pimsleur company can deny all of it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5564 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 10 of 14 01 June 2011 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have some doubts about Pimsleur even meeting ACTFL Intermediate High, which, according to the Wikipedia page on CEFR (if it can be trusted) is generally rated at A2.2/B1 on the CEFR scale.
Having completed Pimsleur French I-III and checked it against the Latitudes series of textbooks by Editions Didier, it looks to me that the whole Pimsleur series corresponds pretty much to CEFR A1, perhals at a push, to A2.1. In the ACTFL scale this would be Novice High or Intermediate Low. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6232 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 11 of 14 04 June 2011 at 9:46am | IP Logged | |||||
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ACTFL Intermediate High is possible with Pimsleur for spoken language. However, you are at zero for written. You are also using a smaller vocabulary compared to the same level using other methods. In Russian you will also suffer from the work arounds used to avoid teaching more of the Russian grammer. So I think it is a bit misleading to say you are at ACTFL Intermediate High after three levels. I do not think the course is bad, but the claim is pushing limits.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| GREGORG4000 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5522 days ago 307 posts - 479 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish Studies: Japanese, Korean, Amharic, French | Message 12 of 14 04 June 2011 at 5:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
If I hadn't heard this type of thing before I would really think this was a joke email 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5552 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish | Message 13 of 14 05 June 2011 at 2:02am | IP Logged | |||||
The exclamation point at the end is the icing on the cupcake. Oh, and if anyone's actually planning on complaining about these claims (someone posted a link to the US organization that deals with false advertisement on the first page), then I'm in too. I bet if we round up a whole herd of angry language nerds for the attack we could actually make a difference. :D 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7220 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 14 of 14 11 June 2011 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Pimsleur customer service in my post above deny to have ever made this 99% fluency claim, but presumed it was a reseller without their knowledge. I contacted leosmith, and leosmith does not remember the reseller who did this, as it was a long time ago.
How true the statement is with or without the company permission we do not know, as I am sure Pimsleur will avoid any connection with such potential problems. Edited by alang on 11 June 2011 at 7:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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