Useful German gap-plugging 
This is for the moment the final installment in the Michael Thomas German series, and the only one not recorded by MT himself (who died in 2005). Basically the dialogue approach is the same, the teacher gives a phrase in English, you translate into German. The learner voices - criticised by some reviewers - of the Beginner and Advanced courses have now been replaced by native speakers.
Where the MT method works really well in German is in helping you to practice verb forms and sentence order. You pick up a bit of useful vocabulary and (especially in Language Builder) phrases, but the focus is really on core verb structures, with the other parts of German grammar (gender, agreement, cases etc) largely downplayed. This installment is I think designed to plug these quite sizable gaps and works only partially. There is a lot more vocabulary but the often-used pattern 'If the German for A is B and the German for C is D, how do you say AC?' is not really challenging enough. The vocabulary itself is a bit random, too, only occasionally exploring the excellent word-families way of tackling German vocab.
There is some attempt to talk about agreement and cases, but the original MT format shied away from grammatical terms. This is understandable at a beginner's level, but surely advanced students can be introduced to 'object' rather then 'victim' or 'past participle' rather than 'diving board'. This is not geekery but the grammar terminology is used in *every* other German course. It is IMO unfair not to familiarise learners with these concepts, given that the MT series doesn't (and cannot) cover everything, so the learner has to go to other sources.
These not insignificant gripes apart, once again I felt the format to be fruitful and enjoyable. My confidence in using verbs and the sometimes complex German word order has certainly grown immeasurably, so I'd really give it three-and-a-half stars simply because for me the method really works. |
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