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What makes the perfect language book? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Temple09 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5319 days ago 12 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 9 20 January 2011 at 6:07pm | IP Logged |
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Of course, this is a very open title, so allow me to be more specific. I am interested in knowing what are the key things you feel an intermediate language book should include. What things are missing from most language books? What do you yearn for when you are searching for the ideal book? What things do you feel are unnecessary, and what things do you feel are vital? What styles help you to learn the most, and which styles do you feel are useless?
Some books focus on vocabulary, some on grammar, some are more for reference, while others employ supposedly "unique" styles to impart the knowledge. I know that there is no single ideal language book, and most serious learners will use a wide range of styles to suit them best, but I am interested in knowing your opinions about how you would style a language book to suit your needs. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7159 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes  20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 2 of 9 20 January 2011 at 6:52pm | IP Logged |
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In my view, such a textbook should have a good balance between dialogues, texts or even short comic strips for reading/listening comprehension, complete lists of vocabulary that are designed for learners (spartan bilingual word lists don't usually cut it), exercises with complete answer key, and notes on grammar or culture (the last one where appropriate).
The best example of what I'm talking about is in "Finnish for Foreigners 2". Even though it's meant for people whom I consider to be a little higher than "intermediate" it comes closest so far to matching the elements above. However it presents culture indirectly using the dialogues or texts rather than directly with explanatory notes/summaries in English. The organization of "Beginning Slovak" and "Intermediate Polish" would also come quite close to that of the ideal book for students at the intermediate level even though these books lack answer keys. I should add that for an auto-didact, the ideal book for learning a foreign language (apart from dead languages) very likely needs to be accompanied by audio(-visual) recordings of the dialogues and texts. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5348 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 3 of 9 20 January 2011 at 9:10pm | IP Logged |
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A perfect textbook?
One that is rich in actual content in the target language. One that keeps instruction-language explanations to a minimum and relies rather on copious examples and illustrations. One with a full answer key to all exercises. One that keeps the guessing of words, pronunciation and meanings to a minimum. One that keeps time-wasting activities like constantly looking things up in pages other than the one you're currently engaged with to a minimum. One that always presents material in context rather than through word lists. One that is part of a series that takes you all the way to the point where you can begin reading books in your new language with the aid of a dictionary. In a word, one that is the opposite of what Latin and Ancient Greek textbooks usually are like. Edited by Juаn on 20 January 2011 at 9:11pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6128 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 4 of 9 20 January 2011 at 9:52pm | IP Logged |
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I'd like to see an index with a list of words, in both English and the target language, including page numbers where each word is used.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5311 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 5 of 9 21 January 2011 at 2:54am | IP Logged |
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I'd love to see long reading material that uses grammar and vocabulary taught earlier in the book, ie. the level being just right for me so that I can actually practise reading and comprehension, rather than being tested on my patience in looking up the dictionary or on my IQ trying to guess what words mean. I can do such tests using outside materials.
I've read maybe 100 language textbooks, and only a handful have such material, but most are still too short (5 lines). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5181 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 6 of 9 22 January 2011 at 9:26pm | IP Logged |
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Intermediate book?
I don't know, rather all the grammar of the language (except some old structures etc). By grammar I mean things like past tense, subjunctive etc, all grammatical constructions would be too much (that would be advanced level) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| walruz Diglot Newbie Sweden Joined 5059 days ago 4 posts - 7 votes Speaks: Swedish*, EnglishC1 Studies: Japanese | Message 7 of 9 23 January 2011 at 12:53am | IP Logged |
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My absolute ideal textbook wouldn't be a textbook. Rather, it'd be an excel spreadsheet
so you can import it to whatever flashcard program you use. It'd be a massive collection of cloze deleted* sentences, phrases, and any part of the target language that you conjugate (verbs, nouns with plurals, etc). It could also include stand-alone words as long as you don't need context to properly use those words (for example, many nouns). The spreadsheet would have the following fields for each expression: Cloze deleted* expression, cloze deleted content, pronunciation, word-by-word translation, "proper" translation and most importantly: A field detailing the cloze deleted grammar point, explaining WHY the right answer is the right answer. Bonus points if there was a field detailing if the expression is masculine or feminine speech (or neutral), if it addressed to a male or female (or either), what level of politeness/formality/colloquialness, etc. Ideally, it'd be sorted in a manner appropriate to the language (so you get the minimum amount of new information per flashcard). Also, audio for each sentence would be nice. *That is, sentences with a part of it removed, and either replaced with blank space, or replaced with a hint regarding what type of stuff you're supposed to fill in, if that's not clear from the context. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| igotthebeetus Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5218 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Mandarin, Italian, Irish | Message 8 of 9 31 January 2011 at 9:48am | IP Logged |
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It needs to have slang. One of the most frustrating experiences I had was spending a
week in France with a French family and not being able to understand any slang or colloquialisms because my 3+ years of French taught me nothing along those lines. Even now I've had eight years of Spanish and I can't understand slang at all, nor do I have any idea how to go about learning it from a textbook. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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