General Linguaphone Discussion

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neumanc
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby neumanc » Fri Nov 02, 2018 10:14 am

CateDS wrote:On a slightly different note - what is the difference between the brown 1971 French kit, and the white/silver1988 10 cassette kit? I have the former and have found the latter.. if it is more advanced, I’d like to get it... but if it is just the same content on more cassettes... obviously not.

TIA.
If the course you found is also called "Linguaphone Cours de français", then the content of the lessons should be the same. The same applies to the handbook and the written exercises. However, Linguaphone later added a fourth book to the course with audio-lingual oral drills. The drills were recorded on cassettes with pauses provided. At first, these drills were recorded on 4 extra cassettes, so that the course had 8 cassettes in total. Later editions had 10 cassettes with the same content, but the drills directly recorded after the respective lesson. There were only one or two lessons per cassette side, so that you could easily access the lesson and the drills. I asume that you have found a copy of this edition. The oral drills are not bad, but I myself found them less helpful (and considerably less numerous) than the drills of the FSI French basic course, which one can download free and legally. I would say that the drills aren't worth the extra money to buy another edition of the Linguaphone French course.
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Speakeasy
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby Speakeasy » Fri Nov 02, 2018 11:12 am

In addition to neumanc’s comments, I would note that, typical for this publisher, the fourth manual, which contains the transcript of the sentence-pattern drills, does not contain any explanation of how the latter are to be used and what relationship they might bear on the main course materials. Their unexplained presence leaves one with the impression that they were simply “tacked onto” the existing courses as an after-thought. In fact, these drills were meant to illustrate, and to provide additional practice of, a selection of the grammatical features which appear in the corresponding lessons; however, the novice learner can easily be left wondering what purpose they serve.
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Elexi
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby Elexi » Fri Nov 02, 2018 7:38 pm

I totally agree with you Speakeasy. When I worked through the Linguaphone German course I started to write an explanatory preface to each of those drills, pointing out the grammar and referring to the paragraph in the coursebook where it is explained - just as the Linguaphone Business course does. But then I already knew the basics of German grammar and so could work out what the drills were aiming at.
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PeterMollenburg
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby PeterMollenburg » Fri Nov 16, 2018 7:37 pm

I have some questions regarding the Linguaphone Dutch Course (1984). I’ve never completed, or for that matter even started a Linguaphone course before. I thought I’d try out the Dutch one from 1984 since it seems pretty meaty and gets general good feeback on the forum here.

I own the audio, I own the handbook and the tekstboek, but...

...there a 176 page Supplemental Exercises guide that is meant to accompany the supplemental audio tracks found over four CDs which I do not own.

Since the supplemental audio takes up four CDs out of the 8 CDs in total for the content supplied by Linguaphone with this Dutch course, it’s a LOT of content. Yes, I could skip pas this bonus content, but I’d rather make use of it if I can, since it’s so extensive and is likely to, quite simply, improve my Dutch! So, has anyone used this course and the supplementary content as well? How important is the so-called Supplemental Exercises guide? Can you do the exercises without the guide? Is it available somewhere independently?
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Speakeasy
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby Speakeasy » Fri Nov 16, 2018 10:25 pm

I have a copy of the Linguaphone Dutch (Curus Nederlands) which was completely revised in 1984. The main Course Book and accompanying Handbook are divided into 45 lessons, which are presented in 4 Levels. The accompanying Supplementary Exercises book is divided into 20 lessons, which are also presented in 4 Levels. The supplementary exercises do not follow the themes and characters portrayed in the main lessons directly. Rather they contain supplementary materials, quite separate from those of the main course, to expand your knowledge of the language and to give you extra practice. In my view, one could ignore the exercises; however, this would be depriving oneself of their value. Earlier this year, Linguaphone U.K. began offering to sell copies of their courses going back as far as the early 1950’s which, I presume, might be digitized in some cases or print-on-demand in others. You could contact them and request to purchase a copy of the Supplementary Exercises manual only. In passing, the CDs contain the recordings for the following lesson materials:

CD1 Lessons 1-15, test 1
CD2 Supplementary Exercises 1-6
CD3 Lessons 16-25, test 2
CD4 Supplementary Exercises 8-12
CD5 Lessons 26-35, test 3
CD6 Supplementary Exercises 13-16
CD7 The sounds of the Dutch language, Lessons 36-45, test 4
CD8 Supplementary Exercises 17-20

The Course Book, Hand Book, and Supplementary Exercises book do not contain instructions on how to integrate the 20 exercises into one’s study plan for the 45 lessons. However, there is a slim “Study Leaflet” which does provide two suggested study plans which in my opinion should have been included in the manuals. I have appended a copy of the plans below. PS: Because the Study Leaflet is easily misplaced, I made three photocopies of the notes below, cut them to size, and pasted one in the inside cover of each of the three manuals.
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Last edited by Speakeasy on Sat Nov 17, 2018 3:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
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PeterMollenburg
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby PeterMollenburg » Fri Nov 16, 2018 11:23 pm

Speakeasy wrote:I have a copy of the Linguaphone Dutch (Curus Nederlands) which was completely revised in 1984. The main Course Book and accompanying Handbook are divided into 45 lessons, which are presented in 4 Levels. The accompanying Supplementary Exercises book is divided into 20 lessons, which are also presented in 4 Levels. The supplementary exercises do not follow the themes and characters portrayed in the main lessons directly. Rather they contain supplementary materials, quite separate from those of the main course, to expand your knowledge of the language and to give you extra practice. In my view, one could ignore the exercises; however, this would be depriving oneself of their value. Earlier this year, Linguaphone U.K. began offering to sell copies of their courses going back as far as the early 1950’s which, I presume, might be digitized in some cases or print-on-demand in others. You could contact them and request to purchase a copy of the Supplementary Exercises manual only. In passing, the CDs contain the recordings for the following lesson materials:

CD1 Lessons 1-15, test 1
CD2 Supplementary Exercises 1-6
CD3 Lessons 16-25, test 2
CD4 Supplementary Exercises 8-12
CD5 Lessons 26-35, test 3
CD6 Supplementary Exercises 13-16
CD7 The sounds of the Dutch language, Lessons 36-45, test 4
CD8 Supplementary Exercises 17-20

The Course Book, Hand Book, and Supplementary Exercises book do not contain instructions on how to integrate the 20 exercises into one’s study plan for the 45 lessons. However, there is a slim “Study Leaflet” which does provide two suggested study plans which in my opinion should have been included in the manuals. I have appended a copy of the plans below.


Thank you, Speakeasy, for your, as usual, help and very useful information. I will update this thread of any relevant findings, as I plan to contact Linguaphone UK.
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addylad
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby addylad » Fri Nov 23, 2018 3:16 pm

Hi all, I've enquired about the 1971 Mandarin course, to be told that it's £148. That seems very steep to me; does anyone have any experience of it?
Thanks in advance!
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Speakeasy
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby Speakeasy » Fri Nov 23, 2018 4:49 pm

Hello, addylad, welcome to the forum! First, as to the pricing of the Linguaphone courses, while I agree that they do seem somewhat expensive, the publisher does offer refurbished copies at reduced prices, in the neighborhood of £125.In addition, the company frequently offers their entire line of products at significantly reduced prices about once every quarter, you could always subscribe to their Email advisories. Finally, I suggest that you search eBay and other websites for used copies. For example, there is presently an offer for a complete course for the price of only £40 (6 days left).

eBayUK – Linguaphone Mandarin
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Linguaphone-chinese-mandarin-course-books-and-CDs/223240762682?hash=item33fa2fb53a:g:ONQAAOSwA~1b2FSF:rk:1:pf:0

Second, while I have not studied Mandarin, I have used the Linguaphone Complete courses for every language that I have studied and I can attest to their high quality and their value despite the seemingly high prices. Nevertheless, as many of these courses were last revised as to content in the 1970’s, they are beginning to get a little long-in-the-tooth. This does not diminish their usefulness, though. Here is Professor Arguelle’s review of the basic Linguaphone courses:

Linguaphone Foreign Language Learning Series Reviews - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujRgmG0uAqE
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addylad
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby addylad » Fri Nov 23, 2018 8:42 pm

Speakeasy, many thanks for your welcome, and for your rapid and detailed reply. I have followed this forum for a long time without feeling the need to post, until I finally decided to throw caution to the wind and start learning some Mandarin in addition to my growing addiction to French.

I will check out your eBay link and report back. :) I have watched many of Dr Aguelles's videos, and have found them very useful. I have nevertheless rewatched it, thanks again.

Would you happen to know whether all of the vintage Linguaphone courses are solely in the target language?
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Speakeasy
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Re: General Linguaphone Discussion

Postby Speakeasy » Fri Nov 23, 2018 9:51 pm

Yes, addylad, the audio recordings of the main Linguaphone courses have always been in the target language only. As described in Professor Arguelles’ video, the main course manuals are also in the target language only whereas the explanatory notes appear, in a wide selection languages, in a supplementary handbook. Presumably, this helped the publisher minimize the costs associated with production and inventory management.

As far as I am aware, Linguaphone departed from their standard practice in a couple of product lines: (a) As described in one of Elexi’s earlier posts, during the early 2000’s, Linguaphone introduced two completely revised editions of their French and Spanish courses which included a fair amount of unnecessary English commentary accompanied by some particularly annoying chintzy theme music; these courses are, thankfully, no longer available, (b) The very short phrase-book-style PDQ courses which probably served as the inspiration for those just mentioned, and (c) the AllTalk courses which, as they are audio only, include a very large amount of English commentary.

As you are a self-avowed lurker, you should be able to locate many of the discussion threads wherein the resources for Mandarin are presented and discussed, the numerous requests for advice on how to begin studying this language, and the like. If you’re unsure, and would like to discuss your own project, I would suggest that you open a discussion thread under the “Practical Questions and Advice” sub-forum.

By the way, as you can appreciate, other members will be reading our brief exchange and some of them, who might also be interested in the Linguaphone Mandarin course, could easily purchase the one that is presently available at 40 GBP on eBay. So then, if you are truly interested, you'd best not dally! ;)
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