Based upon a customer survey of Pimsleur™ Program purchasers, Pimsleur™ Language Programs are among the leaders in the world’s language markets. And based on testing results by a nationally recognized agency, Pimsleur™ is the foremost language program in the successful teaching of spoken foreign-language communications skills to adults.

Customer Satisfaction!

Ø       85% reported satisfaction with Pimsleur™ Programs.

Ø       25% purchased 2 or more courses.

Ø       50% were considering additional Pimsleur™ Programs and were waiting only to complete the course at hand.

Ø       Nine out of ten respondents said the Pimsleur™ teaching techniques helped them communicate with native speakers.

Ø       74% reported Pimsleur™ Programs are the only courses they will purchase in the future.

Ø       73% did the course while commuting to work.

Ø       29% purchased for vacation; 71% for professional reasons.

Ø       59% were male; 41% were female.

Ø       61% who purchased were between 35 to 54 years of age.

Ø       92% were college graduates.

Ø      49% earned more than $50,000 a year.

Because Pimsleur™ teaches you to speak the language!

Want to speak another language to advance your career, enhance your travel, make new friends? The unique Pimsleur™ Method guarantees that within thirty-days you will be successfully conversing about everyday situations with native speakers of the language.

Dr. Pimsleur’s breakthrough audio programs use a natural mode of interactive communication – questions and answers; statement and rejoinder; give and take – beginning with the most frequently utilized vocabulary native speakers use in their every day conversations with each other. These are the most useful words and structures every language learner needs to insure communication.

This isn’t about memorizing or translating, but rather enables you to acquire the essential core of the language you are learning. Instead of going through old fashioned memorization drills, Pimsleur™ trains your ear to capture and retain the sounds of the spoken language you are learning. This enables the generative power of language to work for you. How? The language-learning network in your brain internalizes the grammar in the spoken-forms you are acquiring —and you can express what you want to say. This means you will comfortably, flexibly re-combine the target-language words and sentences to use in new situations. The result is: you will have spoken-language proficiency at the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Intermediate Level Proficiency scale within a month!

Pimsleur™ Comprehensive Language Programs

Each of the three levels of the Comprehensive Pimsleur™ Programs contains 30 lessons. Every lesson of a Pimsleur™ Program contains six parts, which is what insures that you will learn to both understand and to speak the language.

1.      Introductory conversation, where you meet the two native speakers (male & female), and your tutor who will assist you through the program;

2.     Review of previous material;

3.      Introduction of new material;

4.      Graduated Interval Recall, a unique programmed instructional component which automatically trains your memory so you will remember everything you are learning;

5.      Integrated Review, which gets you to utilize and create grammatically correct new sentences with what you have learned in new situations;

6.    Reading Lesson, included in language courses in which the language has a written alphabet, to teach you the orthography (spelling) of key items for sight-reading.

Pimsleur™ Compact Language Programs!

Pimsleur™ Compact Programs have erroneously been listed elsewhere as an “Abridged Pimsleur™.” In fact no one can abridge effective language teaching. A Pimsleur™ Compact is more accurately described as a Mini-Pimsleur™, since each of the 10 lessons contains exactly the same six parts as the Comprehensive Programs. It is simply 10 instead of 30 lessons.

Each lesson of a Pimsleur™ Program contains six parts, which is what insures that you will learn to both understand and to speak the language.

1.        Introductory conversation, where you meet the two native speakers (male & female), and your tutor who will assist you through the program;

2.        Review of previous material;

3.         Introduction of new material;

4.         Graduated Interval Recall, a unique programmed instructional component which automatically trains your memory so you will remember everything you are learning;

5.         Integrated Review, which gets you to utilize and create grammatically correct new sentences with what you have learned in new situations;

6.        Reading Lesson, included in language courses in which the language has a written alphabet, to teach you the orthography (spelling) of key items for sight-reading.

Pimsleur™ Compact Programs provide the absolute maximum amount of everyday spoken language facility that is possible in 10 lessons, and still enable the learner to establish rapport with native speakers. Intended for individuals who have to make an unexpected quick trip to a country. The Compact can be completed within 15 days.

The Compact German-Plus and Spanish-Plus are an exception, since they are designed to be done after the learner has completed Levels I, II, and III of Pimsleur™’s Comprehensive Programs.

Pimsleur™ Basic Programs

Pimsleur™ Basic Programs are the first 8 lessons of a Pimsleur™ 30 lesson Comprehensive Program. Each lesson contains the parts for a regular Pimsleur™ lesson – described above – except there is no introduction to Reading because there is no time, within the scope of 8 lessons to establish a useful relationship between the target language sound system and the spelling system of the language, so this is included only in Comprehensive Programs.

The Basic Program is designed as an effective way to introduce a language learner to the Pimsleur™ spoken-language communication skills teaching, since it actually teaches enough material to establish basic communication skills in the target language.

The Basic is the perfect way to pre-view the Pimsleur™ Teaching Method because it is designed as both a “little taste of a language,” as well as an Introduction to a full 30-lesson Comprehensive Level I Program. (Includes a trade-up coupon worth $50.00 when the learner purchases the full 30 lesson Comprehensive Program) The Basic is truly an informative way to fully acquaint the learner with an effective oral-aural (non-textbook approach to foreign language acquisition).

"Memory" – How Important?

The ability to “recall” is probably as important as any aspect of language learning. An entirely new memory training technique was developed by Dr. Pimsleur called the “Gradu­ated Interval Recall.” Here’s how it works:

Let’s suppose that you have just learned a new word (follow closely what happens as you commit it to memory). First, you repeat it a few times, perhaps adjusting the pronun­ciation. You may tell yourself you want to remember it, but then you think about other things, and as you do, the word you have just learned starts fading rapidly.

If you try to think of it again after five minutes have passed, you will probably find it is no longer in your mind. (You think, “How depressing, I don’t have a memory for these for­eign words.”)

But suppose you had not let the memory fade for five minutes? Suppose you had tested yourself again after a few seconds? The chances of your remembering would have been much greater. Now the secret: if your study is programmed correctly, then every time you revive an item, you make it harder to forget!

If you test yourself after five SECONDS, thereby re­viving your memory of the new word, then you can let it go a little longer before reviving it again (perhaps half a minute), still longer on the next time (perhaps 1 ½ minutes), and so on until you remember it indefinitely.

The Graduated Interval Recall schedule has been found to be exponential in form. The first interval can be de­fined as the time that elapses before the learner’s probability of remembering the item drops to some arbitrary level, say 60 percent. Within a few seconds of your being introduced to a new item, the tutor on your Pimsleur™ tape will ask you: “Do you remember how to say such and so?” You recall it and say it out loud. You then hear the confirmation on the tape provided by a native speaker. In accordance with the pre-planned automatic schedule on the tape, you build your memory of the item(s) through this powerful device which takes the item from short-term to long-term memory without your even being aware of the schedule which builds your memory. You know it works when you “recall” the many items you have been learning.

List of Pimsleur audiobook courses on cassette, compact disc and Audiofy bookchip