Which audio lessons best suit your language learning needs?

Pimsleur    Praxis Podcasts    101 Podcasts     Barron's     Dummie's     Living Language     Linguaphone     Rocket Languages     Teach Yourself     World Nomads Podcasts

Audio lessons are a great way to build new vocabulary whilst getting used to the sounds and structure of a language. Quite conveniently you can listen to them when you have spare time at home, at the office or even in the car. Check out some of our favorites, and why they're so great...

PIMSLEUR AUDIO LESSONS

When it comes to audio language courses it is very difficult to find anything better than Pimsleur. The lessons, provided on CD, cassette and mp3, are fun and interactive, a great way to begin learning a new language. They are based on the methods devised by the renound Dr. Pimsleur, who spent years researching how the brain learns languages. Many feel these audio lessons are in a league of their own because they employ two unique methods called "backwards build up drill" and "graduated interval recall."

Languages Covered...

Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Chinese Mandarin and Cantonese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Farsi (Persian), French, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Ojibwe, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Swiss German, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Twi, Ukranian, Vietnamese.

Best For...

Memory: To aid long term memory Pimsleur lessons use the Graduated interval recall method. In the lessons you are asked to recall a word or phrase just as you find yourself beginning to forget it. This is not mere coincidence, but rather, a carefully timed repetition of the words/phrases which is presented at the optimum time at which long-term memory can take place. Many have found that even years after using the lessons you find yourself remembering phrases which the Pimsleur method forged indellibly into your mind.

Pronunciation: Pimsleur also employ rge Backwards Build-up Drill method. Words and phrases are broken down into syllables and words, and then repeated backwards. Through his research Dr. Pimsleur discovered that by using this technique, language students very quickly learnt to immitate the exact pronunciation and intonation of new words and phrases.

Tonal Languages: As Pimsleur is so good for developing accurate pronunciation, it is an excellent tool for learning tonal languages. A good example is Chinese Mandarin. The learner is quickly taught to use the four tones correctly, and to distinguish them from eachother when listening to Chinese. Each time a new word is introduced the tones used are explained.

Also Good For...

Practicality: The lessons are always based on real life scenarios and cover regularly used vocabulary.

Business and Travel: If you regularly need to use the same language on your travels, Pimsleur will quickly teach you to ask for directions, order food and make conversation about day to day matters. The courses tend to teach formal speach first, gearing them perfectly to business use.

Levels Covered...

Pimsleur courses are ideal for complete beginners wishing to get a quick start and solid foundation for learning a language. The langauges in which the full 3 course Pimsleur set is available, will take you up to about intermediate level, but to go any further you'll need something else like Rosetta Stone - Language-Learning Software (covered in detail on our software page).

Where to Buy...

Pimsleur-Languages are one of the cheapest sites to directly order the lessons from.

Talking Book Store provides Pimselur audio lessons downloads in mp3 form at excellent prices.

PRAXIS LANGUAGE Podcasts

Also known as Chinese Pod, French Pod, and Spanish Pod. Language learning fun through excellent audio lessons, each about 10 minutes in length for beginners, intermediates, and advanced learners of Chinese Mandarin and Spanish.

Languages Covered...

Chinese Mandarin:

Spanish:

Best For...

Fun: Chinese Pod and Spanish Pod, and now French Pod, audio lessons are presented in a friendly, entertaining manner, which often involves humorous day-to-day situations.

Culture: Language and culture are so intrinsic to eachother that you can't learn one without the other. The Podcast lessons always consider the culture behind new language being considered to help you get a feel for when and why it is used . A good example is the Chinese Pod lesson which teaches you how to request no MSG in your food, and why this can be a challenge.

Day to day speech: Many of the podcast lessons teach you common expressions i.e. how the real people speak. Each time a new phrase is introduced several translations of the same phrase are given in English. This helps you get a real feel for what a phrase really means and when to use it. This can be a plus over Pimsleur which tends to focus more on formal speach.

Also Good For...

Your pocket: All the podcast lessons are free on the internet, to anyone, no membership required. However sign up for the 1 week free trial of the Praxis upgrade package and you will have access to many other excellent learning resources.

You may also receive the audio lessons on a cd for free, to save time on downloading.

Online Community: The free online study group facility provides a way to practice your new language and get tips or questions answered from other learners. Other learners post comments, questions and responses by each lesson. You too can get involved.

Levels Covered...

Praxis provide lessons suitable for all levels, from "newbie" righ the way through to medial level.

Where to Buy...

While the audio lessons are free, you are invited to reinforce them with a suite of online and mobile review tools, for a reasonable price. For example, each lesson's vocabulary is provided for you to look over. You can even collect the words you want in your own personalized Dictionary online. Each word is also clickable for repeated audio pronunciation. There are games and exercises to help you embed the new expressions and words into your memory.

The varying access to this extra lesson material is extremely user friendly and at the end of the free-trial you will see that the cost of continued access is well worth it. There are different packages available depending on your budget.

101 LANGUAGE Podcasts

Here is another range of FREE podcast language lessons, available in many more than what Praxis provides however it follows the same line and view of each lesson, so that they are short, practical and interesting... that's right, language learning on your terms!

BARRON'S

Also a long time established and reputable provider of language audio lessons is Barron's... all from this website... providing French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish.

DUMMIES LANGUAGE SERIES

Ah yes deep down we don't mind admitting that we don't have a single clue about some things! And there is the genius of this language course material provider... they know what we don't, and make it available to us in an easily graspable manner. Providing audio instruction for Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish.

LIVING LANGUAGE In-flight Audio Series

What a great idea this series is! Why not pass the time on a flight, learning the language of your destination? These lessons provide help for Arabic, Armenian, Chinese Mandarin, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Farsi (Persian), French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese.

LINGUAPHONE

Audio lessons available in the following languages: Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish.

ROCKET LANGUAGES

This company has done a fantastic job because the audio language lessons combine several different methods of language learning to give you a complete package. The Rocket package combines dynamic audio lessons with interactive software games, grammar exercises and much more. Follow the course by doing a little each day and you'll be chatting competently in your target language within 3 months. That's right you'll learn your language like a rocket!