Mastering Italian: Book and 12 Cassettes (The Foreign Service Institute Language Series) [Audio Cassette]

Foreign Service Language Institute (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0812073231 | ISBN-13: 978-0812073232 | Publication Date: February 1, 1987 | Edition: Book and Cassette

This is the same course developed by the Foreign Service Language Institute to train diplomats and other government personnel to be fluent in foreign languages. An in-depth course for students intent on complete competency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing Italian, this program stresses development of conversational skill, vocabulary, pronunciation and mastery of grammar. The twelve cassettes emphasize the use of the spoken language through intensive drills, and the book uses written exercises to help students master grammar and the written language. An ideal tool for language labs.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series; Book and Cassette edition (February 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812073231
• ISBN-13: 978-0812073232
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 9.9 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,787,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > Books on Cassette > Languages > Italian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Promising concept, but should be revised and updated..., August 6, 2001

By 

David Coletti (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mastering Italian: Book and 12 Cassettes (The Foreign Service Institute Language Series) (Audio Cassette)

There are 2 major drawbacks to this course... Firstly, a large part of the course revolves around the learning and recognition of pronunciation-related technical terms (accents, inflections, tones, ect.) which can be tedious to some. Secondly, the actual language instruction (grammer, vocabulary, ect.) really doesn't go beyond a certain beginner's level despite the size of the book and large amount of recorded material on the cassetts. While the premise behind this type of instruction is unique and forseeably effective, I wish this course could have been designed in a better way.

Most language courses begin with a general pronunciation guide then devote the rest to learning new phrases or grammer rules as well as hearing the target language spoken. This course instead begins with a foundation of phonetic sounds and learing their technical terms... and then being tested on them until later in the course when those same terms are used to teach Italian words and phrases and to recognize their meaning. A typical sequence in this course is to listen to an Italian phrase and then to answer which type of inflection was used, and in turn, to deduce the meaning of the phrase based on this. Like I said, this is a unique way of approaching language instruction, but in this case the langauge instruction doesn't go far enough. The drills in the book and on the tapes can be useful to beginners, but I don't see them being too useful for the intermediate or advanced student.

A note about the pronunciation drills presented early on: a previous review stated that Italian is very easy to learn to pronounce and therefore the pronunciation drills shouldn't have been as long or tedious. This may be true for some people who have a good ear for picking up new sounds in a language and easlity reproducing them exactly. But in my experience, Italian is the language most people think they can pronounce perfectly but actually can't. This is because on the surface it doesn't look as difficult as many other more complex languages, but slight variations in tone and accent can really lead to miscommunication. I've found this to be true especially with travelers relying solely on phrase books and tapes (as well speakers of other romance languages who use the pronunciation and inflection from that language for Italian words), many times they still aren't understood when traveling to Italian cities despite using the correct phrases. Non-native speakers usually don't pick up the subleties, but the locals will. Attention to these little details in sounds DO make a huge difference.

For the most part, being understood in a general sense isn't difficult to achieve. But if the goal is total fluency with no accent, then that takes specific practice and knowledge of the phonetic sounds like the ones presented in this course (however boring it may be). So the tedious pronunciation drills are a necessary evil for many beginners and should not be underestimated. Although the later drills can serve as a refresher course to keep sharp, the end result falls short of expectations.

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Look elsewhere for Italian instruction., April 21, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mastering Italian: Book and 12 Cassettes (The Foreign Service Institute Language Series) (Audio Cassette)

I took this course and I found it virtually worthless as an instructional tool. The author seems solely bent upon teaching pronunciation alone and goes really overboard when explaining how this or that is pronounced. Hundreds of pages and many tapes are spent drilling in the ideosyncracies of the Italian language as it is pronounced. These are things one would digest as a natural part of the learning process. Italian is one of the easiest languages to pronounce anyway. The course doesn't have many drills or repetitive exercises nor does it offer extensive grammer information. Everything a beginning speaker would need to have just a basic conversational level by the end of the course is missing. Incidentally, both the German and French versions of this series are excellent. I don't know how they could have missed the boat on this one.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Complete waste of time, April 6, 2006

By 

Skipper (Queens Village, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mastering Italian: Book and 12 Cassettes (The Foreign Service Institute Language Series) (Audio Cassette)

I was truly disappointed with this course. After listening to the first few CDs, I realized that I had wasted over $75.00 on nothing more than one heck of a boring course on countless pronunciation drills--one cd after another. After the fourth CD, I did not want to pursue this nonesense any further. I wanted to get a reimbursement right then and there, if only it wasn't too late. I'll know better next time to read these reviews first.

I learned French at home, minored in Spanish in college and taught myself Portuguese. So, I consider myself a serious student of the romance languages. And after taking a basic course in Italian, which was truly a lot of fun, I figured I was rest ready to do the rest on my own. But contrary to the hyped blurb, this Barrons course was truly a flop. Save your dollars!!