Customer Reviews

Easy Italian Reader: A Three-Part Text for Beginning Students (Easy Reader Series)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Definitely not for your beginner. I learned with book with a teacher, and I found it very useful. Also I would read some of the stories on my own -- it was a good way to see the grammar in action while at the same time learning new words, etc.

I enjoyed using this book, and if I ever got the chance to teach, I would use it myself.

So my assessment.........
If you are an absolute beginner, you can buy the book. But I'd wait until you were a bit more knowledgable before using it.

Intermediate students -- go for it. I think you will get a lot out of the book.

Advanced students -- probably too easy.

I am just learning Italian and this book is great for the basics. The exercises really help make it fun and real-life-like. I highly recommend this book.

I bought this book to keep my Italian fresh after taking one entire year of Italian at my college.

The first few chapters were easy to understand, and as I continued I noticed the vocabulary was getting tough as well as the grammar. As you read from cover to cover the text will become advanced.

As you notice, you're following a character who's also learning Italian. She goes to Italy with her family and slowly learns more about Italy and the Italian language, which I think is the most brilliant idea for a foreign language book. What better way to learn Italian than learning it alongside the main character. So the vocab and grammar the main character learns will later be used by her and her friends, which is a good drill.

Between chapters there will be questions in Italian with spaces for you to answer in Italian, which was helpful. Sometimes there's crossword puzzles, fill in the blanks, and true or false questions. I liked how this book had ideal answers in the back of the book so you can make sure you're understanding the question and know how to answer it. It leaves space for you to write in, but I like to use a separate loose leaf paper.

The reason why I gave this book 4/5 stars instead of 5/5 because I found the same exact book at my college library but with a CD. The story is on the disc so you can listen along as you read, which is helpful when you get to the dialogue portion of the book. I'm the type that can read and write a different language but as soon as you try talking with me... I'll blank out, lol. Oral is a big part of learning so try searching for the same book but with the CD accompaniment. Otherwise, I recommend this book to every beginner-intermediates.

I find the text too difficult for first year students in secondary school. Better suited for end of second year or third year. What is needed is a reader that follows people having dialog traveling through the different cities of Italy visiting famous places with culture mixed into their travels. I don't feel the text fills the need for a basic reader for continuing adult education programs. It would be helpful to be able to see samples of the text on line so one can make more intelligent purchases.

This reader complements "Il Milione" and "Le Avventure di Pinocchio" for interested students of Italian literature. "Easy Italian Reader" has great (dopo la lettura)after reading written comprehension exercises to assess ones reading skills. Helpful word glossaries assist in vocabulary
enrichment.

The format is a little longwinded and you do have to write some of the responses on a separate notebook due to space restraints but it is an excellent starting reader for an Italian 102 0r 103 student. Introduces italian poetry, writing, songs and history. I highly recommend it. Good practice in reading and critically responding to text. There are also some breaks with crosswords and fill in the blanks.

The readings in this book become more difficult gradually, making it easy to increase your vocabulary and your exposure to more complicated grammatical structures. As a fringe benefit, the later readings will also add to your knowledge of Italian history. The book does have a vocabulary section, but you'll still need to keep an Englisth-Italian dictionary handy.

This reader is a delight for the begining student of the Italian language. The Chapters are short and new words introduced are defined. Love it!

I'm learning Italian with the help of a tutor. I bought this book as an intermediate text, after I'd completed all the exercises in a book for beginners. I was not impressed with the way the readings and exercises are presented; the lessons are not created in a way that would make the information easy to learn.
For example, a vocabulary list in a beginner's foreign language text should include the articles (il, la, i, le, etc.) that precede the nouns, to help the student learn the gender of the noun. This book omits them.
The questions that follow readings are of the sort teachers ask to see if the students have completed their homework, not the sort that engage the students with the reading or facilitate familiarity with the language.
If you are seeking an easy beginner's reader, I do not know of any. If you are ready for an intermediate-advanced book, I recommend the Easy Readers series (try an amazon search for "Easy Readers Italian"). These are paperbacks of Italian literature, made accessible to language students through vocab lists and illustrations.

Don't let the name fool you: you need some basic Italian before attempting this. My 11-yr-old and I have used Rosetta Stone for 45 min a week for six months, and then we tried this. We are plodding through and are very proud of ourselves! Doing this alongside "Essential Grammar" and "Verb Drills" is a complete beginning course in Italian. Great for homeschoolers!