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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Paco Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 4088 days ago 145 posts - 251 votes  Speaks: Cantonese* | Message 1 of 36 26 April 2013 at 9:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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[Edited on May 3]
Do you have any advanced courses to recommend? What are they like? Do they form a structured and progressive programme leading to advanced level? Below is a brief summary of courses discussed. A) Language-specific German Aspekte (B1-C1) em neu (B1-C1) Das Oberstufenbuch (C2) French Alter ego (A1-C2) Tout va bien (A1-??) Grammaire progressive du français : niveau perfectionnement Spanish Italian Russian Learning Russian by N. Potapova from the 1950's or early 60's in four volumes Дорога в Россию in four volumes Modern Greek Catalan Romanian Hindi-Urdu B) Manuals from product lines of general publishing houses Assimil structure similar to their basic courses; continuation of the basic courses; 2 generations: Perfectionnement and La pratique Linguaphone
Passport like radio drama; good solid audio accompanied by books of the script and notes Below is a detailed account of the series published by Passport: Prof. Arguelles' review Teach Yourself Please refer to Gala's detailed description in the 7th message on page 1 Living Language Please refer to Gala's detailed description in the 7th message on page 1 Edited by Paco on 04 May 2013 at 8:36am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4447 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 2 of 36 26 April 2013 at 10:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I believe Michel Thomas has an advanced course for all, or at least most, languages that they support.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gala Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4361 days ago 229 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 3 of 36 27 April 2013 at 10:42am | IP Logged | ||
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I've used the advanced TY (I used the "Extra," which they renamed first as "Improve
Your[insert language]" and are now calling "Perfect Your....," but they have barely changed the content) and Living Language's Ultimate Advanced for Spanish. Both are worthwhile. I'd rate the latter higher, but it's out of print (in all its languages)and used copies with CD's are going for very high prices now. The book alone can be had cheap, though. Edited by Gala on 27 April 2013 at 10:42am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4720 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 4 of 36 27 April 2013 at 11:46am | IP Logged | ||
The Michel Thomas course is advanced in the sense that it is the next step from the basic course. In fact, they've remarketed it as "Perfect". It has its good points, but completing the advanced course isn't going to make you an advanced user of the language. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Paco Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 4088 days ago 145 posts - 251 votes Speaks: Cantonese* | Message 5 of 36 27 April 2013 at 2:37pm | IP Logged | ||
Could you describe their features? Which approach do they use? Drills or grammar explanations or dialogues or having lots of texts to read? What contents do they introduce? Are they practical or cultural or literary? For example, I have heard that Living Language teaches practical (sometimes bussiness) stuff which allows you to apply, while Assimil spans from education and culture to politics and the likes as if a journey into the language. Thank you. Edited by Paco on 27 April 2013 at 2:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5156 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 6 of 36 27 April 2013 at 7:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Materials from general language learning series such as Assimil or Teach Yourself are a good way to begin and get a foothold in a language, but for advanced study progressive textbooks, often monolingual, produced by publishers specialized in specific languages are the best way to proceed.
For German there is Aspekte and em neu, for French Tout va bien ! and Alter ego. These are much, much better than anything you might find from general publishing houses, and will take you as far as C1-C2 where you'll be able to make the transition to native materials with ease. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gala Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4361 days ago 229 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 7 of 36 27 April 2013 at 8:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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LL's Ultimate Advanced is like Assimil in that each lesson begins with a dialogue with
an L1 translation, but in Ultimate the English translation is not on the facing page, but rather on the following page(s.)Many of the dialogues are quite long. Many of them do deal with practical things like travel and/or business, but there are some other topics like attending a political rally, watching television etc.Each dialog is followed by explanatory notes, then a grammar and usage section with lots of example sentences, then a business section (which I usually skipped,) and a short "quiz" (practice exercises.) About half of the lessons also have a section covering idioms and common expressions, and a few have a cultural reading. There are 8 cd's. 4 of them are all TL and have the lesson dialogue, first without any silent gaps and then with them for listening and repeating. The gaps are not long and are rarely between every sentence, you usually have to repeat a pretty long string of the dialog without a break. The other 4 are supposed to be for "on the go" and each lesson includes a shortened form of the dialogues with translations and gaps for repeating, then some English explanation followed by drills w/translations. Looking at Spanish Extra now, I think I actually rate its book higher than that for LL, and that the only reason I had the half-formed idea that it was less useful was because I don't have (and have never heard) the audio. Which is silly, because the audio is of course available and recommended to be used with the book, although I'm not going to seek it out at this point as I have enough to occupy me with native materials and the remaining coursebooks I haven't finished. Anyway, each lesson begins with 2 dialogues centering around the chapter theme (examples being leisure time, the environment, looking for an apartment, etc.) here without translations. The dialogues are I think more interesting and useful than the ones in LL. After each dialog there are explanatory notes in English with additional example sentences and their translations, and then a comprehension exercise in L2. Then there is a section of "important phrases and expressions," another of grammar, followed by exercises and a reading passage. Then there is what they call listening comprehension; (another dialogue or sometimes a monologue; they are transcribed in the back of the book)followed by more exercises, another reading passage, and more exercises. So it essentially has more of everything (dialogues, readings, exercises) than LL and more interesting, less business-oriented topics. If the audio is well-done I'd now definitely rate it higher than LL. For book-only, definitely this one. Plus it's cheaper. Edited by Gala on 27 April 2013 at 11:42pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Paco Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 4088 days ago 145 posts - 251 votes Speaks: Cantonese* | Message 8 of 36 28 April 2013 at 2:21am | IP Logged | ||
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What are the DVDs of Aspekte for? Do I need them or only the CDs?
And, just curious: I have always had the impression that the concept of B1+ is rather unique for German publishing houses, which is also true for the two you have mentioned. Is it because there is evidence that generally B level is harder and takes longer for German than other languages? Or is it implying that the materials are really in between B1 and B2 (given the series usually do not include A level stuff)? Thanks. Edited by Paco on 28 April 2013 at 2:24am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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