I just reread my comments on this post, and found that I was probably reacting to Malcolm's statement about the later modules. Everything he says is true, but I think I felt at the time that it might encourage some to try to skip the more structured format of the early modules. I hope I made my thoughts clear without offending Malcolm.
However, I didn't really address the post by KayElleEm about how to use the modules. So let me give it a try. I think we all owe it to gdfellows and the others who have put in so much work to get this stuff up. We should pitch in and share our experiences with these and other languages, ask questions about how to use the materials, and ask (and give) advice on using these materials with our chosen language. I have noticed excellent contributions on other language threads on this site, and on the ill-fated new site, and I'm eager to see some on the Chinese thread, too.
As to the original question on how to use the modules, and by extention, the optional modules, let me try to give some idea of how I think the material should be used.
Main modules
First, The comprehension tapes are designed to introduce and help you understand how to say or ask something. Then the production tapes are designed to enable you to actually say or ask this yourself. No brainer, right? I think that this is exlained in the text, and on the tapes, too, so I don't want to sound like I'm telling you something you don't already know. But maybe some people have jumped right in without reading the copious explanations in the text (rather than the workbook).
Because of the way the labels on the modules are alphabetized, the tapes are lined up in a Windows folder as C-1, C-2, Drills, then P-1, P-2. But, as I'm sure everyone has already figured out, the usage sequence should be C-1, P-1, and then C-2, P-2, and finally, Drills.
However, the stuff on the comprehension and production tapes is actually cumulative. It is possible to do the drills after the C-1, P-1, tapes, and rush through without doing the C-2, P-2 sequence at all. The first sequence (C-1, P-1) introduces the target material, the second sequence (C-2, P-2) adds to it, practices it a little bit further, and then supplements it with other interesting things. I must confess that the first time I saw these materials and got limited access to the tapes, I flew through using the C-1, P-1 sequence only.
However, as I mentioned in my first post here, it is good to realize that there are many, many good things on the C-2, P-2 tapes that are not on any of the C-1, P-1 tapes. If you choose to go through in the speedy sequence, be sure to make time (and really schedule it) to go back over the C-2, P-2 tapes at a later date.
By the way, the workbook is designed to be used in a classroom, where you have others to practice with, and a native speaker to ensure you don't say things like "Which watch is it, my dear? Three watch, my love, we must go." But if you don't have a partner or a native speaker to help you, the workbook can be skimmed for information and vocabulary for the C-2, P-2 tapes.
But the textbook for each module really should be read thoroughly, not just once, but regularly, as a review. There is so much in the texts that I doubt anyone can absorb it at one time. In fact, many things won't make sense to you, especially if this is your first foreign language study experience, until you have gone a good way into the course, and come back later with more hard-won experience under your belt.
Here, I think I should emphasize the importance of the Drills tape. Many years ago, on another planet, in another time, I was allowed to study Russian in a high school that was not my own, and which was fortunate enought to have real LL equipment: booths with headphones, individual tapes, and all that good stuff. Being an ungrateful prig, I found the drills boring in the extreme, and often had to be awakened by the not too gentle voice of the teacher, "Gospodin Zaboon...!!" But since then, I have learned, the hard way, obviously, that drills are the heart of effective language learning, especially for those without access to native speakers and their culture. Whether you choose the quick route using only the C-1, P-1 sequence, or the longer route using C-1, P-1, then C-2, P-2, go over the drill tapes until the response is quick and natural. Then schedule time to do the drills from past modules on a regular basis. This is the best advice I can give, even though I still find it difficult to do myself.
Optional modules
There is a chart on the Standard Chinese site telling where each of the optional modules should (or can) be studied. They are placed there so that the materials required to understand the optional module will already have been acquired by using/mastering the associated main module. The optional modules follow the same general philosophy as that of the course itself. I feel the optional modules are not really necessary to do the later main modules, but they are recommended at various stages of the course sequence, and really using them can never hurt. I think a module can be studied later than recommended, but it may be difficult to study earlier than recommended, but this must be tempered with your own experience with Chinese.
As to the importance of the optional modules, this course was designed and built when the first waves of task/accomplishment-oriented teaching materials came into vogue. A number of specific goals or tasks that the student should be able to accomplish in the foreign language were decided upon, then materials appropriate to helping the student learn and accomplish these tasks were written. This explains why, for example, the restaurant module in this course has four tapes, and a considerable portion of the textbook, devoted to it. Anyone who has ever been to China for business or pleasure knows the importance food occupies in Chinese culture. And as people in other countries don't do as much home entertaining, perhaps, as Americans do, not only how to order a meal for oneself, but also how to order a meal for others or arrange a restaurant meal for others, is tremendously important. I think it is obvious you have to say the same kind of thing about the optional Marriage, Birth, and Death materials. These portions of the course serve to widen and deepen the command you have of the language, and, probably more important, instill the empathy for the culture you need to effectively function in somebody else's cabbage patch.
I think I have said too much. I also think others in other threads may have said it better. (It's a good idea to check what those studying other languages have to say, by the way.) But Little Zaboona thinks I have to have an outlet for all of my energies, and kindly allowed me the time to write this windy missive.
I'm afraid I may have told KayElleEm too much about penquins. I hope it is not too late to be of some help.
The Big Zaboon
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