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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| JohnPaul Diglot Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5520 days ago 28 posts - 63 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 12 29 July 2014 at 6:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello,
I was interested to know if people use the Dover dual language readers in the course of their study? I have few and they have been interesting to slowly work through. I am interested to know if there is another publisher with a good selection as well. Dover Dual Language Books Page Edited by JohnPaul on 29 July 2014 at 6:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3862 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 2 of 12 30 July 2014 at 12:50am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello JohnPaul,
You could always try the recently published and ever-increasing collection by Language Practice Publishing. I bought one each in German, Polish, and Portuguese. Their initial offering is fairly basic, but they might have a plan to publish additional volumes at more advanced levels. The audio files can be downloaded free-of-charge from the publisher's website. The publisher touts the ALARM Method. Frankly, I've never heard of this "method" and, in my experience, their claims of it's efficacy are wildly over-stated. However, having said that, the readers are "okay" for entry-level students. You could also try the Penguin Parallet Text readers (I have their collection of readers in German, French, and Spanish). They are available in several languages, they are inexpensive, and they can been found in many bookstores and in the collections of online sellers such as Amazon. As for the Dover readers, the original stories were written for native-speakers; thus, the level would be C1-C2 on the CEFR scale. Frankly, although I have a nice collection of parallel readers, I'm actually not a great fan of them. I prefer graded readers and differing levels of pulp journals as they force me to dig through the dictionary, whereby I have the opportunity to discover the full "word families" involved, along with the different shades of meaning. Graded readers are also widely sold; however, they tend to be significantly more expensive than either the Dover or the Penguin publications. If you're interested, I'll provide a "hit list" of graded readers. Hope this helps! UPDATE TO MY POST ABOVE: On my way to the fridge, it struck me that I have a small collection of Bilingual Text readers in German-French. The website of these publishers are not the most user-friendly that you'll ever come across and their "Customer Service" departments and "Contact Us" features must have been discontinued some years ago. However, if your French is good enough, you might consider these. Here they are: Langues pour tous / Les éditions Pocket They offer a series of bilingual text pocket books for students of French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and goodness-knows-what-else. Gallimard - Folio Bilingue ... ditto ... Le livre de poche / Lire en ... ... ditto ... Heading back to the fridge ... Edited by Speakeasy on 30 July 2014 at 2:51am 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7015 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 3 of 12 30 July 2014 at 1:12am | IP Logged | ||
Oh yeah, please provide! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Eryk Newbie United States Joined 3640 days ago 9 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto | Message 4 of 12 30 July 2014 at 2:17am | IP Logged | ||
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For French-English dual language books, you can order from Amazon.fr -
http://www.amazon.fr/Nouvelles-anglaises-am%C3%A9ricaines-da ujourdhui- Volume/dp/2266139851/ref=pd_sim_b_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=066YZ498K RZBM5JMFVG3 Edited by Eryk on 30 July 2014 at 2:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3862 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 5 of 12 30 July 2014 at 2:34am | IP Logged | ||
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To Luke et al,
Generally Speaking As to the question of Graded Readers, one might also mention Magazines, either with or without audio, that are specifically designed to help students improve their understanding of a given target language. I'm pretty sure that both of these types of publications have been discussed in this forum in the past. However, I have been unable to find the links (alas, I've never had much success using the Search features of this forum). So, perhaps some other members might provide links to previous discussions? Graded Readers, In General I have a collection of over 160 graded readers in German, Spanish, and Italian, along with a few others, in languages in which I have only dabbled. In my experience, they seem to come in two versions: (a) readers with original stories that are written for younger students; that is pre-teens and teens, wherein the story lines present simple adventures and fantasies of first love (apparently, the authors have not been following what's going on the real world ... for the past three decades), and (b) readers that are, for the most part, simplified versions of 18th century and 19th classic literature, or mini crime novelas, for which the target audience would be mostly adults. I have two complaints. First, in my experience, and somewhat surprisingly, the "grading" of these readers is (a) quite consistent within a given publisher's collection, but (b) quite inconsistent between any two publisher's collection! So, for me, the grading is only a general guideline. Second, while I did indeed increase my reading skills, along with my listening skills with those readers that have accompanying audio, I was rather surprised by the rather limited vocabulary that is used ... uh, seemingly repeatedly. Yes, I did increase my vocabulary, but the increase was disproportionally small to the mass of readers that studied (yes, studied, I fill my readers with annotations). I found that reading pulp journals, magazines, cheap pocket books, and newspapers helped me much more (try reading a year's worth of Reader's Digest in your target language, you'll see what I mean). My "Hit List" of Graded Readers (Publishers) Okay, with a collection of over 160 readers, I'm not going to list them all by title, author, etcetera. However, I will provide links to some publisher's websites, where many of these can be found. You will note that most of the publishers are located in Europe and that you can order directly from them, if you wish. I have done so, with success; however, ultimately, I found it much simpler to conduct my own search and then provide my list to my local bookstore and let them deal with publisher, customs, etcetera. Oh, there are some specialist online bookstores that serve mostly American, Canadian, and U.K. customers. I assume that you find them on the internet, yourself. Oh yeah, the readers are often available in French, Spanish, German, Italian, and English. However, they are NOT parallel readers. So, here's my LIST: La Spiga Modern Languages The publisher is located in Italy and may be part of a consortium. Their student publications include readers and other study material. They are printed on, what I would characterise as, heavy newsprint. Their collection is fairly inexpensive and seems to range from A0 through C2. Some, but not all, of the readers are offered with accompanying audio CDs. The story lines of much of the collection, whether for younger or more mature students, are simplified versions of 19th century literature. Their books for history, culture, civilization, etcetera, are well scripted. Cideb / Black Cat and Eli Readers I supect that Siga, Cideb, and Eli are part of the same consortium of publishers, lcoated in Italy. The Cideb and Eli collections are printed on heavy, high-quality paper, and include art-work and other graphic material, and are almost invariably accompanied by an audio-CD. The individual titles are meant either for younger readers or adults and it can be difficult to predict which. However, Eli has recently introduced a line of readers specifically directed at the adult reader. These readers are often slightly more expensive that the Spiga collection. Emc Publishing I "think" that this company is located in the U.S.A. and, who knows, it might be part of the consortium above. While their collection of readers might seem somewhat limited at first pass, if you find a means of locating some of their older offerings (such as: Geheime Mission, or Mysteriose Konzert, in German, or the equivalent story in French, Italian, or Spanish), you'll have a pretty good Intermediate Reader, with a fair amount of audio. Hueber Publications A major publisher of educational material, located in Germany. Their entry level readers (A1) are, for the most part, very simple, original adventure/love stories. The subsequent levels included mini crime novelas. Great for the beginner and low-cost as PDF and MP3 downloads. The collection is mostly in German. Klett and Langenscheidt I am under the impression that Klett and Langenscheidt are now one company, but that they continue to market their separate lines of products. Their readers and activity books seem to be designed either (a) for use in the classroom, or (b) as simple graded readers. The former can be something of a challenge for a beginning independent learner, whereas the latter are similar in content and scope as the Spiga, Emc, Eli, etcetera offerings. Logging off and heading to the fridge ... Edited by Speakeasy on 30 July 2014 at 2:37am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3862 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 6 of 12 30 July 2014 at 4:37am | IP Logged | ||
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To JohnPaul and Everyone Else
I do not wish to be drawn into a debate about the virtues and vices of the Think Language series of online audio magazines. This publication, like so many others, has its supporters and detractors. Nonetheless, despite its occasional failings, I believe that it represents an interesting alternative to the parallel readers and graded readers that are the subject of discussion above. I invite JohnPaul to visit the website and decide for himself. A few additional comments: The magazine is available in three languages: Spanish, French, and Italian. The roughly 25 pages of monthly articles cover the history, geography, cuisine, arts, language, and general culture of the peoples and locales where the languages are spoken. The articles contain glossaries of what the authors anticipate as the more difficult words and phrases for an Intermediate Level student. Given the content, I find that the magazines are more appropriate for adult readers. The magazine is downloadable in PDF format as are the accompanying audio files in MP format. The publisher frequently offers discounted prices or other teasers for new subscribers, which might include access to one year's previous files. However, even at the regular price of about 100 $US per year, the magazine is a bargain when compared to the cost of the equivalent amount of text and audio in graded readers. It is also more varied, contains a wider range of vocabulary, and is more likely to interest someone who has visions of travelling to locales where the language is spoken. IF you do decide to subscribe, I have two suggestions: (a) although the magazine is published in full colour, I suggest that you print it in black-and-white, and (b) be sure to save all of your downloaded copies on your computer, along with a back-up CD-DVD as, once your subscription expires, you will no longer have access to the files. By agreement with the Editor of Think Language, McGraw-Hill has published three readers, the text of which is drawn directly from the Think Spanish/French/Italian magazines. Here is one EXAMPLE: Read & Think Spanish. I purchased this book and I was surprised to discover that the accompanying audio CD contains ONLY A PORTION of the original audio that accompanied the online magazine. So then, the book is not a cheaper version of the original, it is a lower-priced, less complete version. Caveat emptor! There are numerous competing audio magazines available for language students. From memory, they have even been the subject of discussion in this forum. I am drawing your attention to the Think Language versions for possible inclusion in your programme of study. I enjoyed them, despite their occasional defects. À vous de choisir, mon cher! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arnaud25 Diglot Senior Member France Joined 3652 days ago 129 posts - 235 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 12 30 July 2014 at 12:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you have the complete adventures in 3 volumes in English-french (english on the left and french on the right page).
It's primarily made for french fans of Sherlock, but it could be use as a big dual-language book for people learning french (if you don't mind reading translations) Book 1 Edited by Arnaud25 on 30 July 2014 at 12:11pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4063 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 12 30 July 2014 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have a few dual language Dover books and I enjoy doing L-R with them, as well as just reading the target language for what I understand and then checking the English and trying to parse which words mean which. It's time consuming but quite fun.
I was going to mention a few other publishers I know of but as Speakeasy already did such a great job with the posts above I need not parrot most of it, but I will say that I enjoy graded readers more as well, although for different purposes. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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