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Pimsleur Comprehensive 2013 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| rhh1 Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6700 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English*, Greek, Modern Hebrew Studies: Welsh, French, Latin, Spanish | Message 17 of 21 27 October 2013 at 12:45am | IP Logged |
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According to a study carried out in 2008, the following equivalence table is proposed
between the CEFR and ACTFL. CEFR ACTFL Martínez Baztán, A. (2008). Oral Evaluation: Equivalence between the ACTFL guidelines and some of the CEFR scales. Granada. Universidad de Granada. C2 Advanced High, Superior C1 Advanced Mid, Advanced High B2 Intermediate High, Advanced Low B1 Intermediate Mid, Intermediate High A2 Lower Intermediate, Intermediate Mid A1 Novice High <A1 Novice Low, Novice Mid Edited by rhh1 on 27 October 2013 at 12:48am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3848 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes  Studies: German | Message 18 of 21 16 November 2013 at 3:36am | IP Logged |
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PIMSLEUR German IV
I have just finished the module IV of the Pimsleur German series. I purchased it as an mp3 download in October directly from Simon & Schuster. At the time of this review, German IV was not available in the "Unlimited" format; however, if one has already covered the German I, II, III modules, and has learned to work with a dictionary and grammar, then the "Unlimited" format is not at all necessary. My experience was as follows: New Material The first 10 Units are -- thankfully -- NOT a repetition of the previous German III Plus module. This is good news, as the dialogues and vocabulary of German III+ seemed to stray more-than-a-little from the central themes of the previous, and now follow-up, modules. As announced by the publisher, the new material covers the vocabulary of business meetings, sight-seeing, hotels & restaurants, etcetera. Review of Previous Material Much of the vocabulary, phrases, and sentence structures from German I, II, III modules have been rather cleverly incorporated into the German IV dialogues, thereby yielding a more-or-less complete review of the entire Pimsleur German programme. This is really something of a "plus" since, as anyone who has used the Pimsleur Method can attest, reviewing the material represents something of a challenge. Grammatical Emphasis Pimsleur German IV places a particular emphasis on the use of 2nd person singular and plural "informal you" verb conjugations and pronouns. The declension of attributive adjectives and the use of relative pronouns are introduced as are more complex sentence structure and additional verb tenses and moods. However, as always with Pimsleur, one must refer to a grammar to understand what is going on -- this is the major weakness of Pimsleur, meiner Meinung nach. Vocabulary: 500 words, really? Pimsleur's count of 500 new words "might" be valid. However, to achieve this number, they must have included as a "new" word, every occurrence of a noun, pronoun, adjective, or article, even in cases where the only difference is one of gender, number, case, or noun-compounding. The same is true for verb conjugations; that is, every person, number, or tense of a given infinitive verb is counted as a "new" word. My count, which resembles that of most dictionary "entries", comes out to about 250 words ... and I'm being generous. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back Having already covered Pimsleur German I, II, III and having moved on to FSI Basic German, I was NOT surprised to find that German IV offers very little in the way of new vocabulary or grammar that I did not already know. Ah-h-h, but the experience...! Was It "Worth It"? Given that other courses (Assimil, FSI Basic, and Linguaphone) offer so much more material, I would be hard pressed to say that the additional cost was truly justified. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the Pimsleur Method and, having adopted the "in for a Penny, in for a Pound" investment rule in Pimsleur, I decided to "spoil myself" and I forked over the additional dollars for this final module. The experience was, indeed, pleasant but it wasn't as edifying as, say, FSI Basic German. Nonetheless, as a hardcore Pimsleur user, I found the deft inclusion, and hence review of, the material from the previous modules, to be a very nice touch. What the heck, if you've already done German I, II, III, then splurge on German IV and have a little fun! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4050 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 19 of 21 06 July 2014 at 5:12pm | IP Logged |
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Pimsleur is listing these new courses as upcoming on their FAQ page.
• Modern Standard Arabic 2 • Japanese 4 • French 5 • Spanish 5 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7017 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 20 of 21 06 July 2014 at 7:21pm | IP Logged |
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@YnEOS,
I think you posted on the wrong thread, as this one refers to 2013. There is already a thread titled Pimsleur comprehensive 2014 and discusses the programs you mentioned. The exception is the Spanish V. It is the demand which will probably have the courses be released sooner, than later. I gave it a shot and requested Icelandic, but who knows if it will ever be released as a comprehensive. French V was listed for release August 26/ 2014, but was taken out of the Amazon.com website. Odd thing is the product is listed on other Amazon websites, as upcoming release on December 30/ 2030. Time will tell, when the product actually is released. YnEOS, I just noticed you contributed to the Pimsleur upcoming release 2014 thread, December of 2013. Thanks for pointing out the page on the Pimsleur site, as in the other thread another member Jeffers was sceptical of Amazon listing anything, when nothing was listed on the Pimsleur site. I just don't understand why it takes longer for the homepage to list something. Edited by alang on 06 July 2014 at 7:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4050 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 21 of 21 06 July 2014 at 8:27pm | IP Logged |
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Ah whoops, I had thought there was another thread, but for some reason it wasn't coming up when I ran a search for it. And yes, my main point was to highlight that these were now on Pimsleur's own website, as in my past experience this usually signals that their actual release date is not too far off.
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