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Graduated interval recall junk science? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6019 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 9 of 12 10 December 2008 at 7:23am | IP Logged | ||
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I've heard criticism that Thomas didn't properly address the noun system in the German course, but I don't know as I've only gone as far as Foundation CD5. (I never was that interested in German. There was a Swiss girl once, but I crashed and burned....) I did his Spanish, and while there were some strange explanations, some incomplete explanations and some explanations that were wrong, it still got me producing correct language. MT isn't a reference book, after all....
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| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6546 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 10 of 12 10 December 2008 at 11:19am | IP Logged | ||
A red light went off as soon as I heard Thomas say that it's okay to guess vocab even though the case system is dependent on the vocab. MT may not be a reference book, but it doesn't mean the programs have free range on making huge mistakes. How easy would it be to simply hire a few consultants to review and edit the course for errors? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BGreco Senior Member Joined 6401 days ago 211 posts - 222 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Spanish | Message 11 of 12 10 December 2008 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | ||
You obviously have no idea what the hell you're talking about. There are obvious patterns in related languages, so if you need to guess the word for "information" in Spanish, you have a pretty damn good shot at getting it right. You get a "feel" for what words are similar in both languages. It also seems you have no idea what calculus is. I never argued that math isn't useful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6019 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 12 of 12 11 December 2008 at 5:12am | IP Logged | ||
If you are in the middle of a conversation and you don't know a word, what else can you do? With French and Italian, I was warned off guessing. Never guess, they told me, as you might be using a 'false friend'. It's crippling -- it stops conversations dead. In a real conversation, guessing is a better strategy than not saying anything. It usually becomes obvious quickly if there has been a misunderstanding, and actually there are more real friends than false friends so I'll now happily blether away in Spanish and guess words (normally correctly) on the spot. But "guessing" isn't just about guessing. There are words that you know but aren't confident with. I always found myself reluctant to say any such words in Italian or French, but after being told I was allowed to guess, well I started to use them without giving it a second thought. I'd say Thomas works because rather than being designed logically, it was designed psychologically. You can't listen to it to many times or you'll learn the bad logic, but it programs the brain to operate efficiently, and part of that means not overloading it with unnecessarily precise descriptions. Edited by Cainntear on 11 December 2008 at 9:48am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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