Learn to Speak Spanish 8.0

Description:

The Learning Company packs two years of foreign language curriculum into Learn to Speak Spanish. Speaking, reading, writing and listening skills are all addressed in a personalized study program. The program can be expanded by using the internet to download additional lessons and to interact with other foreign language students. The Learn to Speak series also includes French, German and English titles.

Features:

• Four complete courses covering pronunciation, vocabulary, listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar
• Advanced Speech Recognition
• Voice Recording and Playback
• Progress Checks
• Talking Dictionary
• Personalized Learning System with preassessment test, customized study plan, subject-specific study topics and progress tracking

Technical Aspects:

This title is heavily dependent on sound and is not appropriate for use by hearing impaired users.

Report and Conclusions:

Learn to Speak Spanish begins with a pretest to assess the user's skills. My ego was deflated right away as I was placed in the Basic Course despite having taken Spanish Conversation at the college level. That's OK though, it gives me more material to explore!

Navigation is fairly easy and intuitive. There is so much to this title -- a talking dictionary, stories, vocabulary, grammar, exercises, and games -- to name but a few. My copy of the software came with a coupon for a free microphone (for a small shipping and handling fee) and I can't wait for it to arrive so that I can test the speech recognition feature.

There is a nifty feature when the user is required to type a response. A pop-up bar appears with all of the characters that do not appear on an English keyboard, such as vowels with accent marks, n with a tilde, and upsidedown punctuation marks.

I am very impressed with the features that I have seen so far and am looking forward to exploring more of the title. For someone sincerely interested in learning Spanish, and with the motivation and self-discipline to keep at it (my downfall, unfortunately), Learn to Speak Spanish appears to be an excellent choice.