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ladelfina · 01-19-2008, 02:08 AM

I would think flash cards would help! (as an adjunct).

I don't think books/tapes can really be the core, but they can't hurt. I bought a couple of different series but found I didn't end up turning to them much.

I had a good Italian teacher in the US, and took some 1-2 week immersion classes in Italy as well. Once you get beyond the very first level.. start challenging yourself with reading material that you already are familiar with in English: this could be a favorite book in translation or a news/sports/hobby topic that holds particular interest for you (if you're not interested in the lesson content, it's harder to make it stick). Now that there is the Internet you have an infinity of Spanish-language texts available for free.

I also liked 'parallel text' books with short stories. I read the English first and that gave me the background to bludgeon through the Italian. I also found reading out loud to myself from a foreign-language text (even if I didn't know all the words or pronounced them poorly) gave me a good basis for the rhythm and for common sentence constructions and those enter into your subconscious with repetition.

01-19-2008, 02:08 AM	#22
ladelfina Thinks s/he gets paid by the post Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 2,713	I would think flash cards would help! (as an adjunct). I don't think books/tapes can really be the core, but they can't hurt. I bought a couple of different series but found I didn't end up turning to them much. I had a good Italian teacher in the US, and took some 1-2 week immersion classes in Italy as well. Once you get beyond the very first level.. start challenging yourself with reading material that you already are familiar with in English: this could be a favorite book in translation or a news/sports/hobby topic that holds particular interest for you (if you're not interested in the lesson content, it's harder to make it stick). Now that there is the Internet you have an infinity of Spanish-language texts available for free. I also liked 'parallel text' books with short stories. I read the English first and that gave me the background to bludgeon through the Italian. I also found reading out loud to myself from a foreign-language text (even if I didn't know all the words or pronounced them poorly) gave me a good basis for the rhythm and for common sentence constructions and those enter into your subconscious with repetition.