tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30114385.post4032947143322492579..comments2023-12-20T08:35:04.633+00:00Comments on Lingua Frankly: Take nobody's word for it - not even mine.Titchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03003350618976942468noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30114385.post-14399688694106189892011-02-05T19:49:49.039+00:002011-02-05T19:49:49.039+00:00If only there were a way to sell a title called &q...If only there were a way to sell a title called "Things you can try that might help you learn a language"!<br /><br />Your observations about self-observation are especially on target. A book by a polyglot, self-taught or otherwise, may be interesting and have some good ideas. But such people likely have no idea how many things that seemed like dead ends at the time wound up adding to their understanding at a later point, and no idea how much of their "common sense" notions about language derive from an uncommon amount of previous exposure.<br /><br />A final thought: This is the beauty of the original Michel Thomas courses, for whatever they're worth - Nobody, including Michel Thomas, had to understand what the actual method was, how to use it, or why it worked. All that was needed was a gifted teacher who used it through a combination of intuition and experience, whatever it was. If that's the case, the fact that Michel Thomas' big patent was for recording courses such that an outside person could pretend to be a participant may be more revolutionary than we realize. What's more useful to a real-world student? To know that the course they're taking uses the best and latest research in an exemplary fashion? Or to be able to take a course with a gifted teacher whose students consistently report good results?gbartohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05992016559235916986noreply@blogger.com