Learn Spanish Today

Software Review

The course has been designed by a US university professor who has combined many years of language teaching experience to produce the content. It does not waste time teaching obscure language, but pinpoints the vocabulary and language you are most likely to need in everyday situations. Writing and reading are not a focus of this course, so if you just want conversation skills, then this is a good choice. If you want to develop all areas of Spanish, there may be better options for you.

The try before you buy free Spanish lessons on the website can help you to determine whether the Visual Link program is suited to your Spanish learning needs.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

(features / teaching tools / support etc)

On the Learn Spanish Today website, you can take a whole lot of free lessons to try before you decide to fork out for the endorsed Visual Link Spanish program that is used on the site. When you have bought the Visual Link program you will find that it offers quite a lot of content in 2 CD ROMS and 10 audio CDS. There are 201 interactive lessons among which are 49 training lessons, 28 vocabulary building activities, 38 interactive games to help retain learning and keep you motivated, 45 oral quizzes, 13 written quizzes and 28 pronunciation centered lessons.

Many students will find the content of the lessons easy to understand and the interface easy to use. The variety of teaching tools that are used throughout the program make learning fun and motivating. The online testing and included quizzes are also very motivating as you get to see some of your progress with the language and progress tracking features keep track of areas you need to improve upon.

The program comes with a user manual and FAQ section, which can troubleshoot any potential problems, but if necessary there is phone and email support as well.

LEARNING POTENTIAL

Teaching throughout the program focuses on developing conversation skills to a pre-intermediate level. It does not focus on developing vocabulary and grammar in a vacuum, but instead centers learning around everyday situations and building up an understanding of vocabulary and grammar more organically. This is a good approach to take and the visual aspects included with the program help to develop some reading skills in Spanish.

The Visual Link software promises to have you conversational in 30 days. Whether or not you are successful in this timeframe really depends on the amount of time that you devote to your learning. Of you complete the program, you will have developed some conversational Spanish skills that form a decent foundation. On the other hand, you should not expect to be fully fluent within this time frame.

People that want to have some Spanish before traveling to a Spanish speaking country will be fully armed to get by. People who want to study Spanish seriously and become fluent in reading, writing, speaking and listening will need to use other sources to develop an overall Spanish ability: this program alone cannot do it for you.

VALUE FOR MONEY

The price of the Visual Link Spanish software is reasonable and you do gains access to 11 free lessons of Spanish before you choose to purchase the software.

There is also a lot of content that is provided with the course and does develop decent conversation skills following a well designed teaching format. Although it is not one of the cheaper Spanish software packages available, it is based on sound teaching principles and offers a professional and thorough introduction to Spanish.

      AT A GLANCE

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