|
 |
I don’t get it. | ||
Tags: Assimil | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Irish_Goon Senior Member United States Joined 6416 days ago 117 posts - 170 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 10 16 April 2011 at 3:28am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I have perused through alot of old posts concerning Assimil programs and there is something that I just do not understand.
That is how some of you on this forum can use a "with ease" program, the subsequent advanced program, several other programs after Assimil (MT,FSI, whatever else), and still not be fluent in a language while quite a few learners here can get through a simple "with ease" program, maybe use the advanced course and then are ready to use native materials are are considered to be reasonably fluent. Now to dispel some of the variables that will indeed play a factor. The languages I looked at were all of your "easier" languages so there is no comparing French to Arabic or Spanish to Russian. Also, the vast majority of the people that were posting these differences were remarkably around the same level of language acqusition at time of posting. Furthermore, all of the above mentioned were/are fans of Assimil so it is not like I am comparing an Assimil person to someone who prefers FSI as their main source. Of course that doesn't count out ALL variables but does the most important ones and there just has to be some generality as nothing could ever be done in life without some kind of generalities and continuities being formed. Now let me be clear that this is not to demean anyone but a very serious inquiry. My own possible explanation, aside from some ridiculous variable not accounted for, is that simply some people spent more time rereading and redoing both waves on lessons while some just did one passive wave and one active wave then just stated "Oh it only got me to A2-B1 after all those programs." Final request is that everyone PLEASE don't get muddled up in the "what do you mean by fluency" kick, it gets old, it's not very funny anymore, and ends up getting us nowhere. Many people discussed in their old threads about what they mean and that is around a B2-C1 level arguably so please, don't do it. Thanks in advance. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6651 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 2 of 10 16 April 2011 at 5:02am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I believe you're on the right track with your explanation. The spectrum of what it means
to "do" Assimil (or any course, IMHO) is wide, indeed. In my own experience, it takes me quite a few passes, over time, with a great deal of practice, to get the language from a passive body of knowledge into an active, usable language. One or two passes is enough for passive knowledge, but the leap to active takes exponentially more effort, in my case, anyway. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| AndrewW Newbie United States Joined 5008 days ago 29 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 10 16 April 2011 at 5:45am | IP Logged | |||||
|
You're also dealing with self assessment here, so there's a lot of room for people to say, "Yeah...I'm B2, maybe C1"
without that really meaning anything. Anytime you're dealing with language levels like B1/C1, with descriptions that are only a couple sentences long, you're going to get some fluidity in where people put themselves. So just because someone says they're at B2, that doesn't make it so. And if you say you're at B2 and I say I'm at B2, those could be very different B2's. :) Edited by AndrewW on 16 April 2011 at 5:46am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| HMS Senior Member England Joined 5108 days ago 143 posts - 256 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 10 16 April 2011 at 5:58am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Maybe modesty plays a large part in many cases also? I would also bet a week's wages that there have been instances where a person has claimed to be at a certain level in a language then shot straight on to google when answering somebody's question about the finer points of a language.
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Irish_Goon Senior Member United States Joined 6416 days ago 117 posts - 170 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 10 16 April 2011 at 2:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Points taken, but quite a few of the people here who make these claims to be at B2-C1 at a certain period I have a huge amount of respect for and have no reason to exaggerate as their linguistic ability is accepted on the forum, plus it makes absolutely no sense at all to exaggerate as noone here would be particularly impressed since we have so many multilingual people.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 6 of 10 16 April 2011 at 3:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
Could a possible explanation be that some are slow learners and some are fast learners? Like kids at school, some learn fast without much effort while others struggle. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Irish_Goon Senior Member United States Joined 6416 days ago 117 posts - 170 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 10 16 April 2011 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
To some extent yes and to some extent no, in a few instances this may be the case but I do not buy this as the SOLE reason for the discrepancy. Generally with people in school the "slow learner, fast learner" phenomenon has a lot to do with teaching and learning styles and since all of these people CHOSE Assimil to be their main source and subsequent learning style of self-study, it leads me to believe that this is not a viable explanation. But I do agree with your looking for the simplest explanation. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| HMS Senior Member England Joined 5108 days ago 143 posts - 256 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 10 16 April 2011 at 5:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Possibly the personal situation of a learner would have great influence on retention ability. Worries, stress, workload, pregnant wife, illness...
The list could be endless. A person can have great proven ability but the time taken to achieve a certain level could be far longer than another person. It's all relative; I think. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
