Software Review

So obviously the first software that came to mind was Rosetta Stone. I am pretty sure that it is the most widely used supplemental software used in Spanish education. Chapter 13 says that we should always look for education and never for edutainment. It also gave a few criteria for choosing software (although nothing was really talked about for Spanish). I know that Rosetta Stone has a lot of quality content, it is extremely easy to use by everyone, and it keeps an accurate record of progress. Most students are capable of using Rosetta Stone with very few instructions because it is so user-friendly.

Instead of really focusing on Rosetta Stone, I tried to find some other software programs. The Spanish Teacher is a program very similar to Rosetta Stone in that it is designed to allow students to work on their learning of the Spanish language. I actually found a review that someone had already made about the software since I was not able to actually test the product for myself. According to the article, the software consists of 3 components that focus on building vocabulary, understanding grammar, and engaging in conversations. The article states that almost all of the instructions and interaction is in Spanish (which may be frustrating for the beginner.) It goes on to list several advantages and disadvantages (that I will not simply retype here). Some of the advantages were that it also incorporated cultural aspects (the article gives the example of the word comer and how the program says that in Spain it is cheaper to eat at the bar instead of at an actual restaurant.) One of the disadvantages that it mentioned was the fact that the program's feature that allows you to right click and have words defined does not recognize idioms.

If you would like to read the article yourself, here's the link... http://spanish.about.com/library/weekly/aa080999.htm

If you are looking to learn Spanish or learn more Spanish, this program has a "street value" of about $50, and this is a lot cheaper than Rosetta Stone.