Larousse Méthode des Langues Courses (1990's)

[Speakeasy]

Similar Product, Similar Review
In May, 2017, I published a review of the “Éditions Atlas” series of language courses (https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=5898). In this review, I will be presenting the “Larousse Méthode des Langues” series of courses. As these two series shared much in terms of teaching methodology and their approach to sales and marketing, I will be drawing on my previous comments and comparing/contrasting the two series.

Larousse Méthode des Langues Courses
The “Larousse Méthode des Langues” series of courses was published in the mid-to-late 1990’s. As for the Atlas/Globo/Agostini series, the Larousse courses covered the commercially popular Western European languages (French, Spanish, Italian, German, and English) and seem to have been prepared from a shorter list of these languages (French, Spanish, German). Larousse adopted the same sales and marketing approach as had their competitor. That is, the courses were offered in 96 weekly instalments, each of which included a pamphlet and an audio cassette. Later versions included CDs. As far as I can tell, sales were effected either through direct subscription or through newsstands, kiosks, et cetera. Packaged sets containing 12 weekly units were also available.

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Printed Materials
Whereas the Atlas/Globo/Agostini series adopted something of an “audio-visual” approach, wherein the “visual” portion was a series of comic-strip-style situational drawings in support of the texts, the Larousse series relied on a more conventional approach employing short texts, explanations, information in tabular form, along with a few sketches that were meant to evoke either the overall theme or specific aspects of the individual lessons. Since the former’s comic-strip-style situational drawings took up goodly amount of printed space, the latter’s pamphlets contained more textual information. A very nice feature of both series was the inclusion, in the latter half of the courses, of native materials. As to the physical aspects, in both cases, the dimensions of the pamphlets were somewhat over-sized but were limited to approximately 20 pages in length. Also, both publishers offered binders for archiving either the pamphlets or the cassettes. Both courses had the potential for bringing the student to somewhere within the A2 range. Nevertheless, given the amount of printed space taken up by the former’s comic-strip-style situational drawings, I am left with the impression that Larousse materials had a slight advantage in terms of content.

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Audio Recordings
The recordings of the Atlas/Globo/Agostini series were in the L2 language only and, while the cadence of speech in the initial lessons was understandably slow, it increased to a more natural rate in later lessons. The same slow-to-quicker cadence of speech was used in the Larousse recordings. However, in contrast to former, the Larousse courses included a fair amount of superfluous L1 comments and explanations throughout the recorded lessons. Beyond that, I deplore the totally unnecessary and thoroughly irritating introductory background sound track, at the beginning of each cassette, that seems to have been borrowed from Queen’s “We Will Rock You” … this "dunk-dunk-paff, dunk-dunk-paff" pounds on for the first full frigging minute of every fragging cassette! Despite this annoyance, a very pleasant feature (for me) was that the native speakers on the Larousse German course were those who had lent their very professional voices to the Éditions Pocket / Langues pour tous course “40 Leçons pour apprendre l’allemand” of the same era. Both courses offer approximately 26 hours of audio.

Educational Success versus Commercial Success?
The following comment has been copied directly from my review of the Éditions Atlas courses. The 96 weekly instalments were available through newsstands and subscriptions to individuals, either on weekly basis or for the purchase of complete packages. Life being what it is, I suspect that the probability of missing an instalment (more than once) would have been quite high. Re-ordering missed instalments or attempting to progress without them would have been bothersome which I believe would have lowered the “completion rate” for these courses. For the quick learners, the necessity of awaiting the arrival of the next instalment would have been a source of frustration. Frankly, I have serious doubts as to the efficacy of such a programme and I suspect that the "completion rate" was even lower than that for more conventional programmes. However, the fact that the courses were available in several different L1-L2 pairs suggests that the programme was a commercial success. As far as I can tell, only used copies of these courses are presently available.

Recommendation: Yes!
I was very pleased with the overall quality of the "Larousse Méthode des Langues" Courses. As for the Éditions Atlas courses, the inclusion of authentic materials is a rather rare and refreshing component, particularly in introductory-level courses of this nature. If you are interested learning any of the languages in this series, and if you can get your hands on a complete package, these courses represent a very interesting option. Then again, you could simply use the equivalent Assimil course and, upon completion, move on to authentic materials.

EDITED:
Minor corrections to the text.
Addition of "1990's" to the title.