Overview of the Swedish Basic Course
The Swedish basic course is primarily for use as the foundation for an intensive
classroom course, but it has also been designed to benefit the student who does not
have an instructor. The first 12 units consist of dialogues which cover a range of
situations relevant to everyday life and work in Sweden. The last few units are
written in a narrative format and act as transition to additional reading.
The Swedish Basic Course provides all the essential information and vocabulary
for learning to speak everyday Swedish. The course takes into account grammatical
structures and pronunciation pitfalls that present consistent difficulties for the
English speaker. The primary goal of language learning is to communicate with the
native speakers in a natural and productive way. The secondary goal is to learn to
read and translate Swedish.
Preface
FSI Swedish Basic Course developed from a need to provide a
more comprehensive and up to date curriculum htan had been afforded
by an earlier work, Spoken Swedish. The latter had been
produced during the 1950's by William R. Van Buskirk and Fritz
Frauchiger of the FSI linguistic staff, with the assistance of members
of the staff of the Post Language Program of the American Embassy in
Stockholm.
FSI Swedish Basic Course is intended primarily for use as the
foundation for intensive classroom use with a qualified instructor,
but it has also been designed so that the student who does not have
the benefit of an instructor may use the text and its accompanying
tapes with profit.
This book was developed entirely at the Foreign Service Institute in
Washington. Under the general editorship of Allen I. Weinstein, the
text was conceived and executed by the Swedish instructional staff,
headed by Ingrid S. Beach and including Margareta Weyl, Margareta Feller,
and Anne-Marie Carnemark. Illustrations were conceived and drawn by
Peter Weyl. Layout for the text and the cover design were executed
by John McClelland of the FSI Audio-Visual Staff. The tape recordings
accompanying this text were voiced by Peter Ling-Vannerus, Niklas Lund,
Claes Rohl, Ingrid Beach, Anne-Marie Carnemark, and Margareta Weyl, and
were made at the FSI studios under the direction of recording engineer
Joese Ramirez.
The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Foreign Service
Institute students who used the field-test editions of the book in
Washington and who contributed many helpful ideas and criticisms.
A special debt of gratitude is due Marianne L. Adams who, as
FSI Publications Officer, provided the initial stimulus for the
creation of this book and whose encouragement along the way was
of great importance.
To The Student
Welcome to the world of Sweden, Swedes, and Swedish!
You have obtained this book as a way to help you learn
the Swedish language, and to help you prepare for life
and work in Sweden. We hope that both these experiences
will be enjoyable for you, but before you begin we would
like you to know some facts about language study in
general, and this book in particular.
The new FSI Swedish Basic Course has been written
especially for th future U.S. diplomat in Sweden. It is
meant to serve as a textbook as well as a source of
cultural information and it is accompanied by a complete
set of tapes.
How to Use Tapes
The tapes provide the correct pronunciation of the dialogs,
narrative texts and grammar practices. On the tapes each
Unit begins with the dialog "For Listening Only" to give
you the chance to understand as much as possible unaided.
Remember that it is just as important to understand what
is being said as to produce your own sentences. Following
"For Listening Only" there is a section called "For Learning."
It contains the same dialog, but this time each new word is
given with a pause, during which you are to repeat the word
before the correct pronunciation is confirmed. The same
pattern is then used for longer utterances. Try to mimic
the native speakers as closely as possible, paying close
attention to stress and intonation. When an utterance is
very long it will be divided into two or more sentences,
and then given in its entirety.
The grammar practices have also been taped, in order for
you to hear the pronunciation of the correct response
given in the practices. We advise that you keep your
book open when doing the grammar practices with the tape,
since you will always have to read the instructions for
each individual practice in order to know which cue words
you are supposed to use. However, you will find that some
practices can be done orally using only the tape. In those
instances, try to rely on what you hear on the tape and
don't look at the book.
Studying a Swedish textbook and listening to the accompanying
tapes does not guarantee mastery of the Swedish language. We
hope that this book will serve as one of many aids in your
endeavor and that you will find numerous opportunities to
practice you Swedish. The best way of doing that is to
close your book and put your vocabulary and grammar
to use in real situations. This is when you have to
transfer your book-learning into something productive and
meaningful. When you speak, understand and read outside the
classroom environment you have truly learned to communicate
in your new language.
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