Passport: Foreign Language Learning Series Reviews
Alexander Arguelles presents a series of video reviews and demonstrations of those foreign language learning series that he has found most useful in his own studies. For further information about the series, please refer to www.foreignlanguageexpertise.com
Thanks Professor. I had completely overlooked this series.
Are there many drills that go along with the lessons in the Practice and Improve series and what kind of drills are they?
Yes, there are oral drills after each radio melodrama-like “scene” = lesson. The guide comes on to comment what has happened and then speaks about the grammatical points that were employed and/or different nuances of doing such things as excusing oneself, avoiding giving an answer, levels of politeness in asking for information, etc., etc.
I’ve heard that these are wonderful courses. But from what I understand, the ‘Practice and Improve’ series isn’t produced anymore, and the titles like ‘Practice and Improve your French’ are well nigh impossible to obtain in the United Kingdom.
Anyone who IS lucky enough to have them, should perhaps consider sharing the audio material with fellow learners by recording to Mp3 and putting it on BitTorrent…?
Professor, I am a bit surprised by the fact that you said that the Lingua Latina courses have been “dumbed down” over the years. As far as I see, the texts have remained the same for all these years; indeed, I’ve seen an old Spanish version which doesn’t even feature the illustrations that are extremely helpful, if not essential for the method.
Could you explain what you find “dumbed down” about the course?
What does this have to do with Passport Books? The Linga Latina method is still of absolutely sterling quality. However, the courses that are available today (LL per se illustrata) are somewhat abbreviated – though certainly not “dumbed down” – from their predecessors (LL secundum naturae rationem explicata). The versions currently available contain fully 90-95% of the text of the older ones, but there were more details and more information in that missing 5-10%. That is all that I meant.
how do I zoom in and out?