Language Acquisition Made Practical: Field Methods for Language Learners [Paperback]

E. Thomas Brewster (Author), Elizabeth S. Brewster (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 382 pages
• Publisher: Lingua House (January 1, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916636003
• ISBN-13: 978-0916636005
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #607,879 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn a language on your own., August 4, 2001

By 

Dale Dellinger - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Language Acquisition Made Practical: Field Methods for Language Learners (Paperback)

This book shows you how to learn a language on your own -- especially if you don't have access to any formal language training courses or materials for the language you want to learn. The book introduces a method that uses a language "helper" to develop a set of phrases that you then practice with people on the street. This method works best if you have access to a community where your target language is spoken since the main thing is to use the langage right away.

I am learning Mandarin Chinese and have found many things in here that have helped me. I also used it once on a business trip to Guangzhou China. With the help of a Cantonese speaker, I made up a few simple phrases before I left and recorded him saying these phrases. I practiced them over and over and during my stay in Guangzhou I found time to walk around a park and deliver my phrases. I found most people very receptive to me and I only wished my trip was longer so I could continue it.

You can't learn a language soley by reading or studying; speaking it with native speakers is the way to go if you want to become fluent and this book shows the way.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relationship-based language learning method, April 7, 2006

By 

R. J. Riediger (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Language Acquisition Made Practical: Field Methods for Language Learners (Paperback)

I used this method for a few months while living in Japan and found it helpful. The focus of the book is on building relationships with local people by becoming a student of their language. Doing this requires humility (you become the student, and everyone you meet is your teacher), self-confidence in social situations (you have to talk to lots of strangers, especially in the beginning), and discipline (you create your own curriculum following the suggestions in the book).

Following the books instructions, I found a language helper. That person helped me prepare dialogues that I practiced on a "route". My route included some local shops, some fishermen drying fish on the beach, and so forth. I had done a little studying already, so I wasn't a complete beginner, but had I been, the L.A.M.P. book would have had me learn, practice, and say to everyone on my route on the first day "Hello. My name is Russ. That's all I can say." The next day I would have learned something else to say, eventually working up to asking questions and soliciting help from those on my route.

The idea is that you get lots of speaking and listening practice, and you start hearing similar responses from native speakers in real life situations. Another benefit of the program is that you decide what YOU want to learn, not what some textbook author thinks you need to know.

Overall, the book was great because it not only gave me tools to learn, but provided me with a new way to think about language learning. That is, that ideally, language learning should be a social activity, not an academic one.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cool pictures, January 4, 2011

By 

Leslie Woodford - See all my reviews

This review is from: Language Acquisition Made Practical: Field Methods for Language Learners (Paperback)

I haven't looked at this book since it first came out in the seventies, and I was a kid back then, but I sure loved the pictures. They made the concepts seems clear and the topic easy to grasp. This book formed the foundation for the Peace Corps training program in the Solomon Islands in the late seventies. The directors, Terry and Ann Marshall had the task of training Peace Corps volonteers to work in remote villages. Each village spoke a different language (something like 70 different languages in the Sols), and they had to teach the volunteers how to teach themselves the language in their assigned villages. In addition, the volunteers needed to learn the Pijin of the Solomons. This book formed the core of the training program. My dad (Terry) later went on to write Whole World Guide to Language Learning based off of what he learned from Brewster and his own experiences as both a Peace Corps volunteer (Philippines 1965-67) and director (Solomons 1977-1980).