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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| JasonE Groupie Canada Joined 5071 days ago 54 posts - 78 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 1 of 7 28 February 2011 at 9:01am | IP Logged | ||
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While in my language learning material gathering phase I bought a few older used textbooks for a couple of
bucks a piece. Several months have passed and I haven't really looked at them, mainly due to the fact that I also found material with accompanying audio (Learn French by Podcast, Living Languages, etc...). I have also bought a new reference grammar for my main language (french). With this in mind, should I donate these texts to free up shelf space? If anyone wanted to know, here are the titles: Langue et Langage, Pucciani, 3rd ed, 1979 Scènes et Séjours, Foresman, 3rd ed, 1984 First Year German, Helbling, 3rd ed, 1983 Keep? Toss? At a cost of less than $10 for the lot I'm not losing much by getting rid of them, and my own thinking is that I should be focusing on native content once I finish the courses I can find that come with audio (which is not in short supply thanks to my well stocked local library.) Thanks for the recommendations. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5694 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 2 of 7 28 February 2011 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would recommend that you glance through them yourself. Look particularly at the table of contents and the end of each book, to see what sort of things the book would have taught you if you'd gone all the way through it. That might help you evaluate their usefulness for you at your current level.
I've heard that "Langue et langage" was very influential in language teaching and uses quite a unique style. Maybe it's worth holding onto for that alone, if a quick glance through it doesn't discourage you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5353 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 3 of 7 28 February 2011 at 8:18pm | IP Logged | ||
I agree with you. I am also downsizing my book collection (though I really don't have many language books that I feel a need to get rid of), but I would take Jinx's advice as well. Different books explain things in different ways, so if there was something you did not understand the first time, it may be presented better in one of other books. In addition, teaching styles are flavour of the day, so maybe one of those books might have a lot of useful information not included in the programmes you are currently using. That said, look through them, and you might be surprised at what is there. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5346 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 4 of 7 01 March 2011 at 12:55am | IP Logged | ||
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I love old language-learning textbooks (though yours are relatively recent). I concur you should glance at the last chapters of the books and see if there is much you don't understand. If that is the case, work your way up from the beginning.
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| BLT Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5763 days ago 5 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Japanese | Message 5 of 7 01 March 2011 at 4:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Depending on the textbooks, it can be very useful to go through them at least once. You probably won't want to
work all the grammar exercises and things (although there may be something that interests you), but at a certain stage in my study of Spanish I studied all the beginning texts I could get my hands on. I didn't learn a lot of grammar concepts that way, but I really did increase my vocabulary (the first chapters of some texts have some really interesting vocabulary choices, probably to catch students' interest), and I also learned some cultural things that I had missed. I have a very hard time getting rid of language books. I haven't counted in a while, but I think I have something like 250 Spanish textbooks and readers (some from 1900). And I never know which one is going to come in handy at which time! Just when I think that one will never be useful, I find someone who needs JUST that approach. But I have begun culling, nonetheless. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| aabram Pentaglot Senior Member Estonia Joined 5534 days ago 138 posts - 263 votes Speaks: Estonian*, English, Spanish, Russian, Finnish Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 6 of 7 02 March 2011 at 11:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd like to make a case for older textbooks. They may offer different look at something
that you may have trouble understanding from newer textbooks. Some new ways of presenting material and advances in teaching methods are purely products of fashion and may hinder, not facilitate learning. I recently blogged about the very same thing here. Do thumb through old textbooks, you might find some valuable insights there. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7147 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 7 of 7 03 March 2011 at 12:43am | IP Logged | ||
I read your article and I loved it. Not all old textbooks are good and not all new ones are bad. There have been different fads at different times with teaching languages and most are not good. The current fad seems to be nice colour photos and not much in the way of actual language. I have seen this with a number of commercial courses and with Australian school textbooks. I wonder if a directive has gone out from the Australian education department calling for this kind of book to make the content look more appealing. I regularly visit secondhand bookshops to look for older textbooks. I recently bought a copy of Enfants de Paris by Claire A Roe secondhand. I used it as a textbook in high school and enjoyed it. I enjoyed it even more reading it again without the strain and hard work of the first time around. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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