New Assimil Italian for English Speakers Release Soon?

[Elexi]

Dumbed down in comparison to what era? Without Toil or the With Ease series?

If its 'Without Toil', unfortunately the education level of most people in terms of language learning was different 50 years ago to what it is today. Seriously - I can't see anyone writing or releasing a Without Toil course in today's educational environment.

In relation to the '.... With Ease' series and the newer course (.... Collection Sans Peine), I only know four of them. The new German and Dutch courses are (in my opinion) superior to German/Dutch With Ease - better grammar explanation, more useful language, less off jokes, less boring dialogues and a structured progression that matches the de facto CEFR syllabus. I have the Spanish one - while I have not used it, it does seem to be less error ridden and more approachable than the With Ease course. The only apparently bum one was the Latin course - which Assimil have pulled in order to republish the Clement Desessard course. Having revived my Latin with Desessard, I can say it is a very special course. However, unlike many detractors I found the now pulled replacement to have some charm.

I think the appearance of dumbing down is that the courses are written around the CEFR requirements - and thus have to follow the communicative approach at the heart of those requirements.