Should I Use An Italian Textbook?

Should I Use An Italian Textbook?

The simple answer to this is of course your should! (If you’re learning Italian)

There is a lot of debate in the language learning community over textbooks. Some peopler think that textbooks are out dated and not useful anymore, others believe that they are everything. Here at Lingo Press Books we’re somewhere in between.

An Italian textbook is a great accompaniment to other methods of learning. 

We believe that an Italian textbook shouldn’t be the only way you study Italian as it wouldn’t give you any chance of getting speaking practise and limited listening practise. To get a fully rounded learning experience you need to be learning through lots of different mediums.

However, if you are doing other things like watching movies in Italian, talking to Italian people, reading books and so on, then an Italian textbook can be incredibly useful.

The textbooks are set up to take you through a natural progression to proficiency. You can follow the material in a similar way that you would do in a classroom setting. Then you can do the practise exercises to check your progress and to make sure you’re understanding everything as you go.

There are also certain ways to make the most out of an Italian textbook and ensure that your learning is being optimised.

Reasons Not To Use An Italian Textbook

There are some reasons that you might not want to get an Italian textbook but in our opinion they aren’t strong enough to not actually get one, just some of the reasons we’ve heard other people put forward that have put them off.

• You have to spend money on them
• They can be heavy to carry around
• They don’t give you a chance to practise speaking
• They require self motivation

Our responses to these reasons not get an Italian textbook would be:

• They’re not expensive and once you’ve bought one it can last you months. And it’s much cheaper than a course of classes
• Leave it at home and designate a specific time of the day to studying
• You can practise speaking in other ways, one resource isn’t going to match all of your learning needs
• This last reason is very true, they DO require self motivation and this can make a huge difference. If you’re someone who self motivates then a textbook can be a great option for you. If you’re not the kind of person who can self motivate then you may want to consider a class instead. Although even if you go to a class, a textbook can still be incredibly beneficial.

We hope we’ve managed to convince you that yes you should get an Italian textbook and if we haven’t then don’t worry, there are plenty of other resources that might be more suited to your personality. You might be someone who is more suited to an app, a podcast, learning through reading, but no matter what learning style, there will be Italian resources to help you get there.