First Polish Reader for Beginners: Bilingual for Speakers of English

by Paula Wojcik

There are simple and funny Polish texts for easy reading. The book consists of Elementary and Pre-Intermediate courses with parallel Polish-English texts. The author maintains learners' motivation with funny stories about real life situations such as meeting people, studying, job searches, working etc. The ALARM method (Approved Learning Automatic Remembering Method) utilize natural human ability to remember words used in texts repeatedly and systematically. The author composed each sentence using only words explained in previous chapters. The second and the following chapters of the Elementary course have less than 30 new words each. Audio tracks are available on www.lppbooks.com/Polish/FirstPolishRe...

Genres: Polish Literature

170 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2010

Reviews

[Grant Dawson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those bilingual basic books for language learning that teaches by repetition of common vocabulary and grammar. It starts well, but the complexity jumps far too quickly. The dictionary lacks details of what forms nouns may have, and why one form is used rather than another, and what tenses verbs have and how they are created. The stories take rather silly turns, and the English translation is, at times, poor. This kind of book can be helpful with language learning—this one, not so much.

[Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book opens with an alphabet and pronunciation guide. The terrific thing about the book is that their is an audio track for listening to what you are reading online. Since many of the lists of words are numbered, it would be helpful to provide a list translating English and Polish numbers.
The book provides both elementary and pre-intermediate sections and an English-Polish dictionary. The author uses the ALARM Method of teaching Polish which stands for Alarm Learning Automatic Remembering Method. There is a lot of review and reinforcement which encourages student success and retention.
I'll be looking for the Spanish and Mandarin Chinese versions of the book for home and library. I would like to see hardbound editions published for library use. I'm impressed by the quality of the book.