In order to learn foreign languages, many of us strive to choose the best methods that are appropriate for our personal capabilities, in a way that guarantees the selection of the best ones with effective results. On the other hand, language professionals and those interested in this field periodically develop innovative ways and methods that can help us learn. Through this topic we will present one of the most important ways that was devised for learning foreign languages, which is the Pimsleur method.
Pimsleur method .. what?
Paul Pimsleur is an American language specialist, whose research revolves around children's learning of the language in an informal way and is not codified by grammatical controls. Based on the results of his research, he developed a so-called Pimsleur method, which is a method of language learning entirely dependent on listening, by attending online lessons on the site for this method.
This method is verbal and very active, as it relies on the principles of “divergent repetition” and learning “new terms”. From the first lesson (usually 30 minutes) a foreign language dialogue is heard (mostly, the learner does not understand any of it), then it is done The dialogue is divided into words and each word is explained separately with the request of the learner to repeat its pronunciation, then the words are collected in the sentences of the dialogue and explained and then requested to pronounce and repeated by the learner. Finally, the professor asks the latter to take the place of one of the person
alities of the dialogue and conduct it directly. In this way, the learner dives into the dialogue that he just learned, which often expresses a habitual attitude towards daily life.
Pimsleur method .. is it a good way?
It is noticeable, then, that this method of learning is very similar to the way children learn the mother tongue, as they begin to pick up words intermittently and then they get used to them in a sentence - depending on their context - to finally start to repeat them and try to pronounce them correctly after a set of attempts.
However, in this regard, we talked earlier about learning foreign languages as children, and why we should not rely on it. The method is not very active, and may take more time to reach beginners stages of learning than even advanced! Also, the development and acquisition of foreign languages is not necessarily confined to the process of listening and strengthening the ability to speak, but there is a side of reading and written expression that is considered one of the most important pillars of language learning, especially if the purpose of learning it is closely related to the job market and everything that is practical.
On the other hand, participation in Pimsleur lessons is not free, and therefore, the student may hesitate to pay a sum of money (not a little) in order to learn a foreign language in a way that may appear to be "almost complete". Especially if he is not proficient in the English language, as all learning lessons consider the learner to speak English, and the latter is adopted as a reference language for translation.
How do you benefit from the Pimsleur method?
It is clear that Pimsleur and other foreign language learning methods are limited to listening as Assimil and Michel Thomas are not sufficient to learn languages, despite their proven efficacy in the aspect of acoustic acquisition of languages. Thus, this method can be benefited by:
Adopting the Pimsleur method along with other methods of learning, whether reading or any classic method of acquiring written language, and thus the integration of the methods is guaranteed.
Adopting the principle of the Pimsleur method instead of the same method, if you are not ready to participate in the site and follow the lessons online, it can include how to learn the same to your learning methods without the need to participate. For example, if you personally select scenes from films or works of art in the language that you want to learn, and apply the principle of Pimsleur to it, by looking for the meaning of words, then the meaning of the sentences (meaning the meaning of words in their context and combining them), then reenacting the scene by reincarnating one of the characters. Of course, don't forget to jot down words and phrases and refer to them later for your review.
This way, you will be able to benefit from Pimsleur indirectly, as a way to familiarize the language or acquire part of it and not to learn it as a whole.
Author: Rikimaru