Just Listen 'n Learn Greek, and: Just Listen 'n Learn Language Programs: Teachers Manual (review)

Reviews 291 The theoretically most exciting portions of the work are on the religious and magical symbolism related to group identity and corporacy at the household, village, and regional levels. Stahl shows important parallels in socio-religious organization across ethnic groups. He does not discuss whether the existence of holy places for units at different levels is an inevitable outcome inherent in any social organization or whether some of these similarities might be construed as parallel historical developments within the framework of a particular universal church. The theoretical underpinnings for this problem lie well back in structural-functional analysis and in some applications to European and even Balkan data, but Stahl does not identify these in a theoretical context. The book will make instructive reading for western European historians of family and household, who when they reach for comparative evidence typically find it easier to include former colonies than neighbors in their discourse. At the same time, Stahl's analysis would have benefited from studies of socio-religious organization in other areas in order to address the higher level theoretical problems that remain largely implicit in his own. E. A. Hammel University of California, Berkeley E. Marcopoulos-Gambarotta and J. Scamp, Just Listen 'n Learn Greek. Lincolnwood, 111. Passport Books. National Textbook Company. 1985. Pp. 235 + 3 χ 60 min. audio cassette tapes + D. Rolfs, Just Listen 'η Learn Language Programs: Teachers Manual. Pp. 51. $29.95. This language-learning package for modern Greek consists of a textbook, three 60-minute audio cassettes paralleling the text, and the general teacher's manual for the series. The text consists of a general introduction for the do-it-yourselfer (4-6), 15 lessons covering topics from "Talking about yourself through "Shopping" to "Stating your intensions" (7-221), a grammar survey (223-224), the numbers (225), a vocabulary (227-233), and an index (235). The manual gives a brief account of the methodology of the Just Listen 'n Learn series (1-2), tape-recorder use advice (3), the description of four approaches to using the system in a classroom situation (4-18) and three appendices providing: 1.) "a description of the dialogues by content" (for all the languages covered in the series but with 292 Reviews French, Spanish and German as the only ones used for exemplification ), 2.) "a description of the grammar presented by unit and listing of grammatical exercises," and 3.) "a catalogue and description of the comprehension exercises according to level of skill involved." For a couple of decades, there have been many text and cassette packages available. In the early 1970s, the Educational Services, Washington, D.C. was producing them in two forms: a two-tape plus Phrase Dictionary and Study Guide version and a full length Audio-Forum version (7-24 cassettes, depending on the language plus text), many of them developed by the U.S.F.S.I. At the moment, Campion-Linguaphone is putting out several packages, including a minilab version, consisting of 12-15 "special multi-track audio cassettes ," 3 textbooks, a cassette recorder, and a briefcase, at a cost of several hundred dollars. The Just Listen 'n Learn claims to provide "at last . . . a refreshing new language program that speaks your language," one that is based "on the most modern and proven language learning methods from Europe." This, quite frankly, I fail to see in the product; however , the texts and the tapes, all recorded "on location" (sic!) in Greece, are generally sensible, well-produced and nicely error-free and are at least as useful for the beginner as any other on the market. Phonetics is quite rightly all but ignored (thankfully also, perhaps, considering the statement about stress [p. 4] that "it is impossible to overdo it"!) and the "grammar" is simply, but effectively set out as particular points arise in the dialogues. Whether deliberately or by accident, the size of the vocabulary strikes me as being mnemonically and functionally near-optimal, given the aims of the course. The Just Listen 'n Learn series is audio-visual and communicative in the sense of the Voix et Images system, and falls into some of the same errors. For instance, although Just Listen 'n Learn Greek has...