Ann Pale Kreyol: An Introductory Course in Haitian Creole

by Albert Valdman, Pierre-Henri Philippe

nn Pale Kreyol is a comprehensive set of teaching materials designed to provide beginning and intermediate learners with a thorough grounding in the phonology, grammar, and vocabulary of Haitian Creole. It is designed to meet the needs of persons who wish to acquire a mastery of the language sufficient to communicate with monolingual speakers. These represent more than eighty percent of the population of Haiti. Ann Pale Kreyol consists of 25 chapters, labelled Leson. Beginning with chapter 4 (Lesson 4), each chapter contains the following components: Dialogue. This is a representative situational interaction. It deals with the topic featured in the chapter and illustrates the lexical field and grammar points that are treated in detail. Matching contextual English equivalents are provided for these dialogs. In addition, the Dialog contributes to the learning of pragmatics: it shows how to end and to begin a conversation, how to be polite, how to tailor speech to reflect the relationship among those engaged in communicative interactions. The Dialog is followed by a set of questions whose answers are provided. Vocabulary. New vocabulary items are provided, often accompanied by illustrations. Later chapters typically contain two Vocabulary sections. Each section also contains exercises (Let's Practice). The correct answers or suggested answers are given in a key that appears at the end of each chapter. The Key should be consulted after each exercise is completed. Grammar. Each chapter contains from one to three grammar sections, treating a particular feature of the language. Each grammar section contains graded exercises beginning with practice drills and progressing to the meaningful use of the feature in context. Answers are provided in the Key. Let’s check. This section provides a review of the vocabulary and grammar treated in the chapter. Let’s learn to write. Let’s read.

Genres: Language

277 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

Reviews

[Alexander Mesadieu]

This week I finished ann pale kreyòl. I’m not going to give this book a rating because i didnt buy the audio CD that can come.with the book and I read it all alone, not with a class or a professor. If I had done those things, I probably would have learned more as that's clearly what it was designed for. 


Some of the positive things about this book are: 

There is a good variety of.subject matters in this book (a lot of other kreyòl learning materials are focused on specific things like missionary work or nursing) 

I really liked the consistent format in all of the chapters

 The book talks about Haitian culture and history and not just grammar, vocabulsry, etc. 


The negative aspects of this book are: 

The grammar sections use unnecessarily complicated words that you will not understand without google unless you have studied linguistics. For example instead of explaining a,an,la,lan, and nan mean the for a single thing and yo means the for multiple things they’ll say yo is the plural determiner and the others are the singular determiner

There are some words that are not used very often in modern kreyòl in the book. 


There are a lot of good aspects to this book and it has helped me learn a lot but I thought by the end of reading this my creole would be better than it currently is so I do not recommend this book. 



Semèn sa a m te fin li liv “Ann Pale Kreyòl.” Avan m komanze pale de liv sa a m bezwen di ki m pa ka bay yon evalyasyon jis pou liv sa a paske lè m achte liv la m pa achte CD li a. Dezyenman m te li liv sa a ak mwen menm pa ak yon clase oswa ak yon pwofesè. Petèt si m te achte cd la e li li ak yon clase m ta aprann pi bon. 


Premyeman m vle pale de bagay postif nan liv a.  

Liv la gen divès sijè.  

Liv la gen yon bon fòma nan chak chapit. 

Liv la pale de kiltè ayisiyen e pa soleman de gramè, vokab, elatriye


Konye a m pral pale de bagay nefatif sou liv a

 Esplikasyon gramè yo se twòp difisil. Liv a itilize mo ki pat komprann san google. Pou egzanp esplikasyon pou kisa sa vle di  a/la/lan/nan se yon “singular determiner” e yo kòm ‘plural determiner.” Kèk fwa  m renmen ki itilize mo akademik men an jeneral yo pa nesesè. Ou pa ka konprann san google si ou pat etidye lengwistik. 

Gen kèk mo nan liv la ki  yo pa itilize nan kreyòl konye a. M pa pale kreyòl bon men pou egzanp m te gen moun ki di m monnonk se de yon mo franse e nan kreyòl yo di tonton. 


Gen bagay positif nan liv la. Liv sa a m te ede amelyore kreyòl mwen an. Anvan m li sa m pa kone anyen nan kreyòl.  Kanmenm m te panse ki m ta ka ekri pi bon apre m fin li liv la. Liv la pa mal men m pa rekòmande li.