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Teach Yourself - how do you use it?

  Tags: Teach Yourself
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 3930 days ago
949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 1 of 5
16 June 2014 at 2:50am | IP Logged 
Has anyone used a Teach Yourself language guide?

I'm currently using Teach Yourself Complete Filipino. It's my first experience with Teach Yourself. As a matter of
fact, it's my first experience with any packaged language course. While I like it so far, I'm not sure that I'm using
it to its full potential.

This is what I'm doing right now:

- reading through a lesson once, listening to the corresponding tracks on the CD (15ish mins)
- listening to the audio again in the car (15 mins, so 2 or 3 reps)
- reading through a lesson a second time, listening to the audio, and doing the written exercises (30ish mins)
- listening to the audio again in the car (15 mins, so 2 or 3 reps)
- reading through a lesson a third time, adding words and phrases to anki (15ish mins)

So in all, I'm spending about an hour and a half on a lesson. I'm only doing one lesson per week, since I'm also
using another course. Once I've finished with a Teach Yourself lesson, I review it periodically during my commute.
So Monday and Tuesday I listen only to the new lesson during my drive in to work, and Wednesday-Friday I'll
cycle through all of the previous lessons.

I never get to the point where I memorize the dialogues. When I listen to a dialogue, I can follow it, but I can't
always "hear" every single word unless I'm reading along with the text.

Thanks for any insight and suggestions!

1 person has voted this message useful



Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 6942 days ago
4228 posts - 8259 votes 
20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 2 of 5
16 June 2014 at 4:44am | IP Logged 
When I begin learning a language using a TY course, I work through it sequentially; no bouncing between chapters.

As a rule I work through the course sequentially. This means that I do L-R and/or shadowing with the first dialogue/narrative, read the accompanying notes on grammar or culture, and then follow the same steps with the next dialogue/narrative. I do the exercises as they turn up with some courses spreading the exercises throughout the chapter (e.g. TY Estonian) while others have them all at the end of the chapter (e.g. TY Ukrainian).

I never expect to achieve mastery of a language or even reach anything close to basic fluency by relying on any TY course. The common shortcoming for me is that none of the TY courses have enough exercises or go deep enough into the grammar to pass on the requisite knowledge and comfort to be use the language fluently and on one's feet. Some courses are better than others though. For example, TY Estonian is very good because it has a lot of exercises relative to the amounts of grammar and vocabulary covered. Unfortunately the amounts of the latter covered aren't actually that extensive. On the opposite end TY Slovene is atrocious because it skimps on both exercises and coverage of grammar and vocabulary.

I generally find that I need lots of exercises with some variation in the vocabulary used so that I get comfortable enough with the patterns and the grammar. Recycling the same set of exercises and/or dialogues too often isn't too productive for me because there comes a point where I go on autopilot and know all of the answers to the exercises or feel that I'm just parroting the dialogues. It feels a bit like doing the same practice exam repeatedly. Eventually you're unsure whether you really understand the material because sometimes the reason you get the correct answer on subsequent tries or sound like a native is because you recall the solution or have memorized lines like an actor.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4695 days ago
2151 posts - 3960 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 3 of 5
16 June 2014 at 12:33pm | IP Logged 
My experience of using TY courses is limited to TY Hindi and German. But I followed a
pattern similar to yours, Stelle. The advice given in TY Hindi is to master a lesson
before moving on, and to listen to the audio until it's coming out of your ears. I
took the mastery suggestion very seriously. When doing exercises, I used to circle the
number of any problem I got wrong and then return to just those exercises later.

The idea of mastering each chapter really did make the courses a tough grind. My
experience is that I would get to chapter 5 or so, and hit a wall. So I would go back
to the beginning, review all the chapters, re-do most of the exercises, and then maybe
get as far as chapter 8 before hitting a wall again. Now, having used Assimil, I'm not
so sure mastery is essential, or even advisable. There is no reason you couldn't work
through a TY course with a passive wave and then an active wave.

Having said all that, I think the process you've outlined will serve you well. The
only thing I would add is that as well as reviewing audio from previous lessons,
preview audio from upcoming lessons. It will get you thinking, and when you start a
new lesson you will already have a bit of an idea what it's about, but you will also
start the lesson full of questions you want answered.

Edited by Jeffers on 16 June 2014 at 12:34pm
2 persons have voted this message useful



Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 3930 days ago
949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 4 of 5
16 June 2014 at 9:07pm | IP Logged 
Chung wrote:
When I begin learning a language using a TY course, I work through it sequentially; no
bouncing between chapters.

As a rule I work through the course sequentially. This means that I do L-R and/or shadowing with the first
dialogue/narrative, read the accompanying notes on grammar or culture, and then follow the same steps with the
next dialogue/narrative. I do the exercises as they turn up with some courses spreading the exercises throughout
the chapter (e.g. TY Estonian) while others have them all at the end of the chapter (e.g. TY Ukrainian).

I never expect to achieve mastery of a language or even reach anything close to basic fluency by relying on any
TY course. The common shortcoming for me is that none of the TY courses have enough exercises or go deep
enough into the grammar to pass on the requisite knowledge and comfort to be use the language fluently and on
one's feet.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I'm working through the course sequentially. The Filipino course has a few
exercises sprinkled through each lesson. But I'm getting most of my grammar, reading and writing from Tara
Mag-Tagalog Tayo, a course that was created for classroom use, but which I'm finding excellent for self-study.

Maybe I'll give shadowing a shot!
1 person has voted this message useful



Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 3930 days ago
949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 5 of 5
16 June 2014 at 9:09pm | IP Logged 
Jeffers wrote:
My experience of using TY courses is limited to TY Hindi and German. But I followed a
pattern similar to yours, Stelle. The advice given in TY Hindi is to master a lesson
before moving on, and to listen to the audio until it's coming out of your ears. I
took the mastery suggestion very seriously. When doing exercises, I used to circle the
number of any problem I got wrong and then return to just those exercises later.

The idea of mastering each chapter really did make the courses a tough grind. My
experience is that I would get to chapter 5 or so, and hit a wall. So I would go back
to the beginning, review all the chapters, re-do most of the exercises, and then maybe
get as far as chapter 8 before hitting a wall again. Now, having used Assimil, I'm not
so sure mastery is essential, or even advisable. There is no reason you couldn't work
through a TY course with a passive wave and then an active wave.

Having said all that, I think the process you've outlined will serve you well. The
only thing I would add is that as well as reviewing audio from previous lessons,
preview audio from upcoming lessons. It will get you thinking, and when you start a
new lesson you will already have a bit of an idea what it's about, but you will also
start the lesson full of questions you want answered.


Thanks for the response Jeffers! As someone who's never used Assimil, I've been intrigued about the whole
"passive/active wave" every time that I read about it on HTLAL. Maybe I'll do some experimenting and see if I can
make that work. Great idea to preview upcoming lessons.


1 person has voted this message useful



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