> I've been looking over their website - it seems like it is just audio lessons and no tutor is provided? If that is correct, how would someone learn to correctly pronounce words in say Mandarin using this?
Audio lessons vary widely in how they're designed. In the context of Pimsleur, it's an interactive back-and-forth.
Tape: "Tell her your flight is tomorrow."
[30 second pause. I say "你的航班是明天。"]
Tape: "你的航班是明天。"
[30 second pause. I correct "你的航班是明天," based on the feedback]
Tape: "你的航班是明天。"
[30 second pause. I repeat again]
And then the tape goes on.
That is feedback. It's prescriped, but it's incredibly effective. After I say something, I hear it pronounced back at me by a native speaker. That's 90% of the feedback a tutor or teacher would give you, only it's there for everything you say.
I found my pronunciation after a couple of months of Pimsleur to be dramatically better than people who've been in classes for a year or two. Indeed, when I tried stepping into a class, I left, since my pronunciation got worse.
That, combined with spaced repetition (which Pimsleur uses), combined with a half-dozen other research-based techniques, makes it ultra-effective.
> After I say something, I hear it pronounced back at me by a native speaker.
I imagine that being sufficient is going to vary a lot by individual learning styles and ability to mimic. I'm guessing you are rather good at mimicking sounds/music/etc.
> That's 90% of the feedback a tutor or teacher would give you, only it's there for everything you say.
I'm not so great at mimicking, so without someone telling me I'm actually pronouncing the words wrong, I'm just going to converge on an incorrect pronunciation. I cannot self-assess the accuracy; I need a tutor to point out that what I mistakenly believe is correct is not correct -- that is provide feedback to me. (I've tried similar exercises to what you describe and it just results in incorrect convergence)
This is especially an issue with Chinese where my native English brain naturally ignores tonality. Since the information is being stripped away, it's borderline impossible to self-ascertain whether my tones match or not.
Audio lessons vary widely in how they're designed. In the context of Pimsleur, it's an interactive back-and-forth.
Tape: "Tell her your flight is tomorrow."
[30 second pause. I say "你的航班是明天。"]
Tape: "你的航班是明天。"
[30 second pause. I correct "你的航班是明天," based on the feedback]
Tape: "你的航班是明天。"
[30 second pause. I repeat again]
And then the tape goes on.
That is feedback. It's prescriped, but it's incredibly effective. After I say something, I hear it pronounced back at me by a native speaker. That's 90% of the feedback a tutor or teacher would give you, only it's there for everything you say.
I found my pronunciation after a couple of months of Pimsleur to be dramatically better than people who've been in classes for a year or two. Indeed, when I tried stepping into a class, I left, since my pronunciation got worse.
That, combined with spaced repetition (which Pimsleur uses), combined with a half-dozen other research-based techniques, makes it ultra-effective.