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Assimil’s founder, Alphonse Chérel, rejected the rote memorization and dry grammar explanations typical of 20th-century language courses. Instead, he proposed a two-phase approach: a passive phase followed by an active phase. During the passive phase, the learner simply reads and listens to short, natural dialogues—usually one per day—alongside translations and brief grammar notes. No forced speaking or writing. The goal is to absorb the language passively, allowing patterns, vocabulary, and sentence structures to sink in subconsciously. In the active phase (starting around Lesson 50 of French with Ease ), the learner revisits earlier lessons, this time attempting to produce French: translating from English back into French, repeating aloud, and forming original sentences.
Each lesson typically includes: