Kontakte: A Communicative Approach (Student Edition + Listening Comprehension Audio Cassette)

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Editorial Review:

This best-selling German text is based on the Natural Approach, pioneered by Tracy D. Terrell. Students learn German through communicative contexts with an emphasis on the four skills and cultural competence, with grammar functioning as an aid to language learning and not an end in itself. In the Natural Approach, students develop language in stages, with the comprehension stage preceding the production stage. For that reason, Kontakte focuses first on the receptive skills (listening and reading) before asking students to produce the language (speaking and writing).

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0

NOT TOO HELPFUL AND VERY UNORGANIZED!!!:

I'm actually giving this book ZERO stars. First of all, I love to learn foreign languages and I enjoy the German language and culture very much. Some foreign language textbooks that I've come across, including the German ones, have been helpful and easy to understand. However, Kontakte is very, very poorly structured. Unfortunately, it's the only German textbook that's currently being used at my college. All the grammar pages, culture sections and classroom and communication activities appear to be... more info

Not for self-study:

Kontakte is a wonderful book for introductory German, if it's the assigned book for the class. The book is heavy on conversation and classroom exercises. It is not intended for self-teaching. In the classroom, with a curriculum designed around the book, it is very effective.

What the heck?:

This book is strange.
I don't understand how I'm supposed to LEARN and remember new words while I'm still trying to catch old ones (listening to the dialogues online).
I just could not hear the word "frech" to save my life. lol. Their conversations were super fast. But then sometimes the dialogues totally baby you and you're waiting for the next question!
It feels like the book is trying to teach you new stuff in your written exercises too, but they never "formerly introduce" them and it... more info

The Different Style Makes it Easy to Learn:

The book's teaching method is different from other language books I have had. The book has an intuitive learning style which makes the vocabulary relatively easy to learn. The book is split up into several different sections and includes a vocabulary list and grammar section after each chapter. These pages are a different color than the other pages making them easy to find.
My only complaint would be the lack of examples for some of the exercises. Overall this is not a problem but sometimes it is an... more info

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