The Pimsleur method (sometimes billed as the Pimsleur Language Learning System) is an audio-based language acquisition method developed by Paul Pimsleur that stresses active participation over rote memorization. During lessons, the listener repeats words and phrases given by native speakers and constructs new phrases by inference. As new phrases are introduced, the listener is prompted to recall older phrases. The prompts for any given phrase are gradually spaced out in ever-increasing intervals.
Between 1963 and 1971, Pimsleur created Greek, French, Spanish, German, and Twi courses while teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles. Some of the courses started being marketed commercially in the 1970s.
The courses are made up of 30-minute daily sessions and shorter reading lessons. They are published and sold by Pimsleur Language Programs.
Read more about Pimsleur Method: Methodology
Famous quotes containing the word method:
“... [a] girl one day flared out and told the principal “the only mission opening before a girl in his school was to marry one of those candidates [for the ministry].” He said he didn’t know but it was. And when at last that same girl announced her desire and intention to go to college it was received with about the same incredulity and dismay as if a brass button on one of those candidate’s coats had propounded a new method for squaring the circle or trisecting the arc.”
—Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)