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The trouble with language textbooks

  Tags: Usefulness | Textbooks
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
52 messages over 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
atamagaii
Senior Member
Anguilla
Joined 6000 days ago

181 posts - 195 votes 
Speaks: Apache*

 
 Message 49 of 52
06 February 2008 at 5:43pm | IP Logged 
To Volte

Yes, Iversen is great. I like his comments. He's very patient. I wouldn't be able to write so much. A gentleman. And you're a lady. And I'm a fool. A nobody's fool.
1 person has voted this message useful





Iversen
Super Polyglot
Moderator
Denmark
berejst.dk
Joined 6497 days ago

9078 posts - 16473 votes 
Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan
Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 50 of 52
06 February 2008 at 5:57pm | IP Logged 
I'm surprised at the number of times my name pops up everywhere, just because I don't fight (too much) but just carry on writing long posts about the themes of the threads with the bullets whistling around my ears. Seriously, I thought that was the idea of having a forum?

By the way, my long rants may be notorious, but have a peek into the Greek thread where Alexander writes one page of commentary every time I write ten lines. I'm not always the most talkative in the room. To the Greek gods: one of you please bless him, I learn a lot of Greek in order not to provoke even longer commentaries.
This forum is fun.


Edited by Iversen on 07 February 2008 at 10:21am

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brian00321
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6392 days ago

143 posts - 148 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German

 
 Message 51 of 52
06 February 2008 at 7:53pm | IP Logged 
I'm a little late on this topic but I have to agree with siomotteikiru and other's that textbooks are pretty much useless. At my college we're currently using Neue Horizonte and are supposed to go through chapters 1-4 for the semester; 5-8 for the next; and so on until chapter 16. Apparently when I went to the counselors office and asked them for the CLEP test they told me NOT to take it. They said the language taught in college is tougher and technical.

Technical my ass. I just got finished working through the entire workbook for all 16 chapters in 2 weeks. I still feel at the intermediate level though despite the fact that I can go through most of the Harry Potter books without a dictionary. Anyways, that's 4 semesters of German and couple thousand dollars. Oh, and may I mention that the teacher seems more like she's hindering the student's capability by already making them speak. The class isn't driving me nuts yet, it's just frustrating.

Most of the kids took German for 3 years or so in high school and can't even pronounce things right, especially the R (not that I'm perfect, but I feel as if I'm close), or even form the simplest of sentences. As for my track record, I have never taken German in school and will be the next one to say that school, yes even college (depending on which, of course), just doesn't cut it for learning a language.

Maybe some teachers should take an approach like teaching the students different ways to learn a language and letting apply that to their studies for better results? Although it might be difficult to put practices like that into play it would be better for the student. And isn't that what teachers are there for, to help get pupils get the most out of themselves instead of turning them into puppets, repeating word for word after the teacher while looking at a written script (which we all know here usually fosters into an atrocious accent)? Sorry 'bout the long rant. Just needed a place to vent some my frustration from that pathetic class.

Edited by brian00321 on 06 February 2008 at 8:02pm

1 person has voted this message useful



atamagaii
Senior Member
Anguilla
Joined 6000 days ago

181 posts - 195 votes 
Speaks: Apache*

 
 Message 52 of 52
07 February 2008 at 8:27am | IP Logged 
tmesis wrote:
Me, too, though I'm also curious whether siomotteikiru uses the IPA.


IPA


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