Customer Reviews (1)

Welsh without tears...
Welsh is a wonderful, ancient language that has survived on the fringe of the island of Great Britain despite the dominance of its now world-wide-dominant neighbour, English. The literary works, particularly the poetry, has great power, even when translated into English, and English speakers can get a sense of the flavour of this Celtic language from the various worlds that have been absorbed into English.

This course created by T. J. Rhys Jones (about as Welsh a name as they come) is a very easy, step-by-step process to learn what is in many ways a very difficult language - particularly for English speakers, whose language comes from Germanic and Latinate roots, going to a Celtic language which stems from a different tree is truly an excursion into foreign territory. Rhys Jones has made this trip quite enjoyable, and quite do-able.

Unlike English, Welsh pronunciation is a lot less flexible in terms of matching spelling to sound, so learning the pronunciation is a bit easier to do. The grammar seciont also looks at the way words are put together - like many languages, there are colloquial expressions and multi-word phrases that stand in for single English words, and vice-versa. Each unit starts with a brief dialogue, which is then analysed for vocabulary and for grammar structure, and any other points of interest.

There is also an introductory section on mutations, the shift of a sound from one to another depending upon use - Rhys Jones gives the examples of road signs: the word for Wales is Cymru, but a border sign when crossing into Wales might read Croeso i Gymru; similarly, the word for England is Lloegr, but the sign might read Croeso i Loegr. This is a codification in letters of what happens in regular speech - we do not as a rule stop and start between each word, and the spelling in Welsh takes this into account.

There are a few difficulties with the text. While Rhys Jones indicates that there are dialect differences, some of the words don't match what I heard while in Wales in any location. As with any language text, I am more often to account the difficulty to myself than to the author of the instructional text.

There is a glossary of words in the back, but I often found myself wishing it were a fuller dictionary rather than a simple word list. There are exercises to work through, whose translations are found in the appendix, as well as more detailed tables on mutations, gender in language constructions, the special verb 'have', which in Welsh can be variously translated as gyda, cael, wedi, or rhaid.

This is a useful text; used in connection with travel or a book of poetry (Dafydd ap Gwilym is one of my favourite poets).

... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Social Sciences, published by Science Publications on October 1, 2008. The length of the article is 8641 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: Key words: Turkish teaching as a foreign language, teaching strategies, methods and techniques

Citation Details
Title: Teaching strategies and class practices of the teachers who teach Turkish as a foreign language (a qualitative research).
Author: Ali Gocer
Publication: Journal of Social Sciences (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2008
Publisher: Science Publications
Volume: 4Issue: 4Page: 288(11)

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
Teach Them Spanish! is for the teacher who has a little knowledge of Spanish and a lot of enthusiasm. This book guides you through practical lessons in beginning Spanish. Students with little or no previous Spanish will experiencethe thrill of success with a second language. Lessons appropriate for second grade are organized by topics familiar to the student, such as colors, clothing, food, family, and animals. Each lesson includes a simple-to-follow teacher lessonplan, a practice page, and activity pages. Lessons also include games, puzzles, songs, chants, and writing activities. Try this fun and practical program for teaching and learning basic Spanish. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Good supplement
I use these reproducible worksheets here and there in my private Spanish classes (for the younger, elementary ages), and the students enjoy them. I do believe this is better used only as a supplement rather than a complete curriculum. For my own children, we use them in addition to just speaking in Spanish and of course my own curriculum - but they do ask to listen to the words on a CD (I guess that's what they're used to).

I also make out vocabulary lists for the different worksheets and flashcards to give more practice. So ... for someone who doesn't already know Spanish, I think they might be frustrated. If you start with something that comes with a CD like Ana Lomba's book Play n Learn Spanish, or Flip Flop Spanish, this is a useful add-on.

Sra. Gose Creator of Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 1 & Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 2

Great introduction to Spanish for young children
This book was designed for classroom teachers, but also works well in a homeschool setting. I am using it for my 4 1/2 year old daughter and we both enjoy it. Through cut and paste, coloring, and other activities, children learn: introductions and greetings, numbers 1-10, colors, classroom objects, family, food, clothing, and community words. There are suggestions for supplemental books as well as easy lesson plan ideas included.

The downside for homeschoolers is that it requires quite a bit of photocopying. The book is cheap enough, though, that you might decide just to have your child draw and write in it and buy another copy for subsequent students. I felt very comfortable using this, but I do have the advantage of some knowledge of the language. If you have zero Spanish experience, you would want to make sure that you know how to pronounce the words before teaching them to your child. Other than that, it is very easy to pick up and run with it.

Simple ( but effective) introduction to the Spanish language
I'm using this book to teach my 5 year-old son some basic Spanish as part of our homeschool curriculum.The lesson plans are less detailed than I am used to as a home educator, but easy to figure out and adapt to the homeschool environment.The reproducible worksheets have illustrations that are visually appealing without being overwhelming.These worksheets are to be saved and combined into the child's very own "Spanish Book" (complete with motivational cover page that can be filled with stickers provided by the teacher).Game ideas, songs, and book recommendations accompany each lesson.This book is good for parents and teachers who have at least a little knowledge of Spanish pronunciation (since there is no audio)!Highly recommended!

Good idea, needs more explanations
I like the idea behind this book, but it's not real organized. If you want to supplement a classroom with a few worksheets, then this might help a little bit. I bought it to use in my private Spanish classes, and have yet to use it - it's just too specific to its own lesson plans, and not thorough enough to use as a stand-alone curriculum. Of course I'm biased, but the Flip Flop Spanish curriculum is much more concise and simple, and comes with a CD.

Sra. Gose
Author of Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 1 & Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 2

Needs more focus and helps for homeschool teachers
I tried to use this book to homeschool my student.Not having any knowledge of Spanish - this was not the book for us.For example, they have a writing practice on page 31 in spanish and the child is supposed to be able to read it.However, they don't give you the translation in English.Since I can't read or correctly pronounce Spanish - well, let's say we were both in the dark.I would recommend this book if you can read, write and talk in spanish. ... Read more

Product Description
Offers a curriculum of twenty lessons that present casual conversations in both English and Japanese and encourages partners to speak the other's language and correct each other's pronunciation. ... Read more

Product Description
Take the frustration out of learning new grammar

The Teach Yourself Language Grammar series brings the languages of the world within the reach of any beginning student. Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually elevates the student to a level of confident communication. Enjoyable and user-friendly, the new editions and titles feature improved page designs and even clearer explanations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Practical, compact and great for beginners
Let's face it, grammar is hard enough in your native language.It's even harder in a foreign language-you don't need a thick complicated book covering every nuance of the language when you're staring out.This teach yourself book is well organized and not overwhelming like many other grammar books I've tried.

Each chapter is a few pages long and covers a couple related grammar concepts.The topics are very practical for everyday situations.The topics get more difficult as you progress through the book.

I've taken this book to Italy twice now and use it in conjunction with a dictionary and the Pimsleur audio course.It's great for travel because it's compact and easy to find the derivations of words you hear people use.

Practical Italian grammar
This book has a knack for explaining tricky points of grammar succinctly in simple, easier-to-understand terms than most Italian grammar books.It also throws you the lifeline of some pretty decent examples of how words are used in a grammatical context. This book I depend on daily. Grazie perquesto libro. ... Read more

Product Description
This course in Hausa, a West African language spoken by over 30 million people, introduces the structures of the language through a series of graded lessons, complete with exercises, dialogues and traditional fables. Easy-reference grammar tables and an extensive two-way vocabulary are included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Old Book with Old Style Teaching Methods
This book, part of the popular "Teach Yourself" language series, has not been updated in quite some time.The copyright date on the book is 1973. And I fear the book has many of the problems typical to older-style language books.
Most books in the TY series (and, indeed, in most contemporary self-teaching language books) teach through dialogues and readings. Each chapter would open with a brief dialogue or reading passage, followed by a glossary of new words and then explanations of the grammar points taught in the lesson and some exercises to reinforce knowlege and understanding.

By contrast, "Teach Yourself Hausa" is little more than a sea of grammar rules and explanations, with a few disjointed sentences to show the rules in use. (And then, of course, some practice exercises to do, mostly translating brief phrases/sentences from English to Hausa or vice versa.)
But there is no story line to follow, and no real sense of how the language is actually used.

The other issue is that Hausa is a tonal language, with rising and falling tones often critical to understanding the meaning.The author makes a good effort to explain all this in print, but tapes or CDs would obviously be much more helpful. Unfortunately, there are none.

On the positive side, the book progresses slowly.It has about 30 very brief chapters, each introducing just one or two new grammatical ideas and a small selection of vocabulary words. So the dedicated learner could probably end up with a reasonable grasp of the basics of the language.

Still, I think it's time to update this book to meet the generally high standards of the rest of the series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

I have not received the book.Really bad.Will be returned \
I have not received the book.Will be returned.Really not a good purchased.Extreme delay in delivery.

Si estas iniciando en OOP o sabes muy poco, te servirá.
Es un buen libro desde el punto de vista de alguien que quisieseintroducirse a la programacion orientada objetos. Como libro introductorio a java es muy bueno, si embargo; solo se concentra en los applets, los Threads solo los aplica a los applets, ademas swing es tratado con escasa profundidad. Sobre losJavaBeans muy poco se trata, y servlets ni siquiera se mencionan asi como otras características del lenguaje. La verdad que el libro tambien tiene cualidades: es bueno para iniciarse en lo que es Java, pues explica muy bien el concepto de clase, creacion de clases, creacion de objetos, metodos, etc.. lo cual proporciona muy buenas bases para luego saltar a conceptos mas avanzados de Java, los ejemplos estan libres de errores, pues el libro tiene su sitio web en el cual estan todos los codigos fuentes de los ejemplos (y todos se ejecutan correctamente). Pienso que si no sabes nada de Java, y muy poco sobre lenguajes de programacion puedes pensar en comprarlo. Si ya tienes bastantes conocimientos de C++ o C podrias buscar mejor un libro mas avanzado.

Todo depende...
Como cualquiera de la mayoría de libros de enseñanza en computación, todo depende del grado de conocimiento del lector en el tema. Si usted está aprendiendo Java desde cero, entonces este libro es ideal para darse unaidea general de este lenguaje de programación. Trae bastantes ejemplossencillos para que usted empieze a entender cómo funciona Java en el CD queincluye el libro.Por otro lado si usted ya sabe algo de programación(especialmente programación en C), este libro no lo dejará satisfecho. Javatiene mucho parecido con C, de manera que si usted ya conoce de C, podríaaventurarse con otro libro más avanzado como Java 2 Bible. En resumen: siusted de verdad es un "newbie", este libro es un buen comienzo,si desea explotar más de Java, este libro no es lo que usted busca. ... Read more