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I used Machen in college many years ago. Machen is solid and a wonderful tool, but has not kept up with the ways we go about learning languages. Machen is deductive, in that it is a lot of learning of charts and endings and memorization, then a bit later you try to do some translating.
Mounce is based on some of the more recent findings in language learning techniques. It uses both deductive and inductive methods, in other words you begin right away to translate before you know completely the conjugation of a certain verb, etc.
Obviously, in both there is a great deal of rote memory work. I am using Mounce at present to teach Greek to a young man with some brain damage received in a car crash. I like the fact that it comes with very helpful software and slideshows with Mounce actually lecturing. Vocabulary words can be viewed by chapter.
I would never criticize Machen, it is the standard but it is a bit dated in my opinion.
Bob
[Edited on 2-24-2004 by maxdetail]
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