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Pimsleur language learning system
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Pimsleur language learning system is a language acquisition method developed
by Dr. Paul Pimsleur. It is based on four main principles: Anticipation, Graduated
Interval Recall, Core Vocabulary, and Organic Learning.
The Pimsleur method works entirely through listening. The listener recalls
and constructs phrases from memory, rather than repeating what they hear. The lessons
are 30 minutes long and designed to be repeated until the student attains 70-80%
comprehension, at which point he or she may move on to the next lesson. As the lessons
repeat themselves and add new material, it is not necessary for the student to master
each lesson perfectly before moving on to the next lesson. The learner is tested
and retested on new material at varying intervals throughout the course to reinforce
memory.
Methodology
The student listens to a recording on which a native speaker speaks culturally
rich phrases in both the foreign language and the language used for teaching (usually
English but the method is not tied to a specific language).
At precise intervals (graduated intervals), the student is prompted to repeat a
phrase after the speaker finishes it
The student is then introduced to a new phrase and the meaning is explained After
repeating a couple of times, the student is asked to repeat the previous phrase
but borrowing from the words and meaning of the new one (recall and construction).
More new phrases are introduced, while old phrases are prompted at random.
The random recall prompts the learner's mind to associate words with meanings.
Pimsleur Learning Principles
Language courses commonly require a student to repeat after an instructor,
which Pimsleur believed was a passive way of learning. Pimsleur developed the "challenge
and response" technique, where a student was asked to come up with the correct phrase
in the target language, which was then confirmed. This technique developed an active
way of learning, requiring the student to think before responding. Thus, Pimsleur
thought the principle of anticipation reflects real life conversations where a speaker
must recall a phrase quickly.
Graduated Interval Recall
Graduated Interval Recall is a method of reinforcing learned vocabulary by having
students rapidly recall learned material and then gradually reviewing the material
at longer intervals. It is a version of retention through spaced repetition. For
example, if a student learns the word deux (French for two), then it is tested every
few seconds in the beginning, then every few minutes, then every few hours, and
then every few days. Thus, the word gradually moves from short term into longer
term memory.
Pimsleur's 1967 memory schedule was as follows: 5 seconds, 25 seconds, 2 minutes,
10 minutes, 1 hour, 5 hours, 1 day, 5 days, 25 days, 4 months, 2 years.
Core Vocabulary
Studies have shown that a relatively small core vocabulary accounts for the majority
of words spoken in a particular language.
Corpus linguistics compiled for various languages show what number of words is required
to cover a certain percentage of the corpus. Data for Indian languages in the CIIL
corpus show the number of words required for 50% coverage varies from 199 words
in Hindi to 7,699 in Malayalam, while 80% coverage for those languages is 2,874
and 126,344 respectively.[1]
A constructed language could be fully functional with about 2,000 words. The Pimsleur
method works by teaching core vocabulary that tend to be most often used in everyday
activities (i.e. to do, to say, to be, numbers, buying, eating and drinking). Pimsleur
rarely teaches grammar, rather letting the student infer the grammar through common
patterns in phrases.
Organic Learning
With the belief that language is primarily speech, Dr. Pimsleur created his language
programs in audio format because he believed that students of languages would learn
better with their ears, not their eyes. This is achieved through what Dr. Pimsleur
called "organic learning," which entails learning grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation
simultaneously. Learning by listening can also teach the proper accent, which cannot
be heard in written material.
Effectiveness
Paul Nation's comprehensive review of vocabulary learning, *Learning Vocabulary
in Another Language*, concluded that Pimsleur's "memory schedule" has been validated
by research subsequent to Pimsleur's seminal paper. According to Nation's summary
of the research, effective retention of vocabulary requires a certain amount of
repetition over spaced intervals.
Criticism
The Pimsleur system does not teach how to read and write a language. A gradual understanding
of word etymologies and how words are related to each other(which is facilitated
by literacy) is key in developing beyond the beginner level in a language. One might
have difficulty in responding to any variation of the phrases taught. Pimsleur does
not teach grammar, and without grammar, it may be difficult to comprehend sentence
structures that were not encountered in Pimsleur. Although children acquire their
native languages without learning grammar, they are generally surrounded by their
language and interacted with in it on a daily basis, as opposed to the "one-way"
Pimsleur method. Furthermore, children do not learn how to speak their language
properly until they reach a certain age(after having been immersed in this language
for years previously); it might be argued that listening to audiotapes a couple
of hours a day does not compare to the immersion and interaction that children experience
daily when learning a particular language. Children learning languages experience
many kinds of feedback as they grow; for example, a toddler might hear the word
"orange" many times while watching people make orange juice, eating oranges, or
reading a children's book. The Pimsleur system, however, only provides auditory
feedback. As with any self-study program, the learner may have difficulty in learning
proper pronunciation unless they have the feedback of a native speaker.
References
Basic Statistical Analysis of Corpus and Cross Comparison among Corpora Akshar Bharati,
et al.
Nation, I. S. P. (Ed.) (2001). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Pimsleur, P. (1967). A memory schedule. Modern Language Journal, 51, 73-75.
Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimsleur_language_learning_system"
This page was last modified 03:51, 13 February 2007. All text is available under
the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia®
is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a US-registered 501(c)(3)
tax-deductible nonprofit charity.
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