Contatti 1: A First Course in Italian: CD Pack: Transcript Pack

click here for more details, find new or used items	Mariolina Freeth, Guiliana Checketts Our price £15.59 (£23.99) New from £13.67 Used from £99.44 Pages: (Paperback) ISBN: 0340882964 Pub: Hodder Arnold Pub date: 2004-06-25 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 45382

Reader Reviews:

Excellent illustrated guide ... must have! (13/15 people found this helpful)

I bought this textbook when learning Italian whilst at university. It was such a useful guide all the way through the year, and it helped when writing essays and creating dialogue. Great basic guide, I even took it holiday with me to Venice, and got a quite a few smiles from the locals ... good for pronunciation.

To accompany a course only (29/29 people found this helpful)

On its own this book is of no use if you want to teach yourself Italian, since it consists just of questions/excercises but without the answers or the relevant audio clips.
With the associated tapes and answers book it is a very good way of practising your Italian, but there is still little in the way of teaching material. It is a good support to a structured classroom course or other learning material.

A good textbook for classroom use (24/24 people found this helpful)

This textbook covers a good variety of topics and grammar and is ideally suited for someone who's starting to learn Italian to use on holiday, but covers the grammar in enough detail to form a good base for future GCSE and A-level studies.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who's looking to learn Italian on their own as the vast majority of exercises are based on roleplay with a partner and some of the grammar needs to be explained in more detail by someone who's more fluent in Italian.

The only thing missing from this set would be some video material for the teacher to show the class in order to familiarise them more with Italy.

Doesn't do quite what it says on the tin (16/16 people found this helpful)

On the back of the book it says it contains most of the GCSE syllabus and that its good for both individuals and group learners.
Its not very useful to contain only some of the GCSE syllabus is it?! You're always going to need more books if you're using it to work on a GCSE. (I did a GCSE at an adult evening class).
Also it would be pretty hopeless if you were using it alone because there are loads of role plays where "Student B"'s part is at the back of the book. It does have useful bits like the revision at the end of every chapter and the pictures and interactive stuff but its not much cop as an exam companion.
The tapes are quite good though - quite a few of the conversations sound like they are real situations.

Excellent for in class work (15/15 people found this helpful)

Really good for class work providing the teacher/lecturer is also up to standard. Only cassettes available, not CD's which is a pity as it becomes invaluable as an out of class learning tool once you know how to use it (I have recently acquired a car with CD player, but no cassette, and really miss in car revision sessions). It does assume the student has an unrealistically advanced grasp of the language from an early stage and, for this reason, I would not recommend it for anything other than class work. However, in that context it is, from my limited experience (ie it is the only class tool I have used), well worth while. It is definitely possible to work through the whole book within 2 years, @ 2 hours per week in class and approx. the same "homework", and become pretty fluent - any further study is entirely down to the student. Suffice to say that in 1973 I was at a well known Grammar School and was taken out of French classes to concentrate on alternative "O" Level subjects that I had more chance of passing. I was that bad at languages! If I can do it, later in life, anybody can. And that is probably the best testimony I can give. It gets 3 stars from me as I haven't tried any thing else but, as I say, strictly for class work, then you will really see the benefits of this material...

Similar Products

Contatti: A First Course in Italian: Activity Book Vol 1 (Contatti)

Italian Verb Drills (BGR12)

Contatti 2: An Intermediate Course in Italian: Student Book

Collins Easy Learning Italian Dictionary (Easy Learning Dictionary)

Oxford Italian Grammar and Verbs (Dictionary)

Categories

Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories: