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$33.49
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| INSTANT IMMERSION SPANISH - PRODUCT SUMMARY | |||
Rating based on all products in this price range - Below $50  |
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Instant Immersion Spanish has value for money stamped all over it. There are many different features rolled into this software package that would normally only be available in a more expensive software program. Interactive games and lesson flexibility combined with progress tracking and speech recognition software make Instant Immersion Spanish a great option for learning Spanish. The program falls down on technical support and no online chat with few word tools, but these can be located on the Internet to make up for what’s lacking in the software. |
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$34.99
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| BERLITZ SPANISH - PRODUCT SUMMARY | |||
Rating based on all products in this price range - Below $50  |
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Berlitz Spanish Premier is a budget software package that comes with a lot of features for a very low price. It offers learning content from beginner to advanced level although some beginners find the initial level quite difficult. There are many useful word tools included with the software and useful video conversations for developing listening and conversation skills. The biggest criticism of this software is the difficulty in navigation that many users report and no progress tracking to monitor your retention of the learning points. |
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$24.95
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| START SPANISH - PRODUCT SUMMARY | |||
| Rating based on all products in this price range - Below $50 |
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Start Spanish is a basic program that teaches starting grammar and offers simple activities to practice the grammar. It has little interactivity and lacks many of the features that only slightly more expensive packages offer the consumer. At less than $30 it is certainly affordable, but it is not meaty enough to offer Spanish learners enough on its own. It is more useful as a pre-cursor to other software packages that follow the immersion teaching method. |
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$67
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| SYNERGY SPANISH - PRODUCT SUMMARY | |||
| Rating based on all products in this price range - Between $50-$150 |
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Synergy Spanish is a totally different system to most of the other software packages available for teaching Spanish. It lacks a lot of the impressive features that other software has, but the teaching approach is interesting and uses mnemonic memory devices and other techniques to make Spanish conversation as easy as possible based on only 138 Spanish words. This is a very good program for complete Spanish beginners to develop some conversation skills and confidence. |
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$99
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| ROCKET SPANISH - PRODUCT SUMMARY | |||
| Rating based on all products in this price range - Between $50-$150 |
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Rocket Spanish is one of the big guns on the market for teaching Spanish and offers downloadable software that promises to teach you Spanish in less than 8 weeks. The overall consensus with the Rocket Spanish software is that it offers affordable, to the point and easy to follow language instruction that is ideal for people that want to learn to communicate quickly. It will appeal to people that are heading to a Spanish speaking country for vacations or business, but probably not to someone who intends to become completely proficient in the language. |
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$69.95
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| 101 LANGUAGES - PRODUCT SUMMARY | |||
| Rating based on all products in this price range - Between $50-$150 |
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The 101 Languages of the World software offers Spanish alongside many other languages. The problem with including so many languages in the one package is that the content devoted to Spanish is not as intensive or thorough as some other programs that devote themselves solely to Spanish. On the other hand there are some good features that are included with the software that make it affordable and good value for money. The content is ideal for a beginner, but it is not challenging enough for higher levels. |
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$87.96
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| LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY - PRODUCT SUMMARY | |||
Rating based on all products in this price range - Between $50-$150  |
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Learning Spanish Like Crazy will appeal to people that want to learn Latin American Spanish for traveling or those that are audio learners. It is based purely on audio files that you can also download to MP3 or I-pod. While it does offer an immersion approach to Spanish, you are unlikely to be fluent after completing this program as the spiel would have you believe. In fact, the program only offers conversation skills using a listen and repeat format, which is not substantial enough to provide you with a solid Spanish base. |
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$65.99
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| LEARN SPANISH NOW - PRODUCT SUMMARY | |||
| Rating based on all products in this price range - Between $50-$150 |
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The Learn Spanish Now program is a bit hit and miss: it includes some great features that are not included in some other programs and completely lacks other features that are standard in others. Vocabulary is well designed and taught and the speech recognition included in each lesson gives helpful benchmarks in the language, but there will not be enough emphasis on structure for some. If you already have a little bit of Spanish you are likely to progress faster with this software than if you are a true beginner in Spanish. This is one of the cheaper software programs for sale, but it may be worth spending more to have a broader program delivered. |
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$204
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| ROSETTA STONE - PRODUCT SUMMARY | |||
| Rating based on all products in this price range - Over $150 |
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Rosetta Stone Spanish software is an immersion based program that can teach the fundamentals of Spanish at the beginner’s level. One of the strengths of the program is the speech recognition system, which gives immediate feedback on pronunciation. Another positive aspect of the program is the progress tracking, so you can see your improvements and areas that need work easily. It lacks some of the features that other programs in a similar price point have, but it is easy to use. |
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$323
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| FLUENZ SPANISH - PRODUCT SUMMARY | |||
| Rating based on all products in this price range - Over $150 |
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Fluenz Spanish software is a reasonably new product on the market and is quite different to most other software packages. The makers have tried to streamline the learning process and include content that is more relevant to people that are wanting to learn Spanish for everyday situations. The software is easy to navigate and includes very useful language instruction, but its downfall is that there is no extra content available on its website. This product is great for beginners that have short term Spanish goals, but there are better options for people who want to develop Spanish beyond beginner level. |
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$179.95
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| SPANISH COMPLETE EDITION - PRODUCT SUMMARY | |||
| Rating based on all products in this price range - Over $150 |
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Spanish Complete Edition is a solid program for beginners of Spanish. It comes with a heap of features that teach Spanish fundamentals across reading, writing, speaking and listening effectively and make the learning process interesting and stimulating. While you are learning the progress tracking devices help you to monitor your language acquisition. Spanish Complete Edition combines five software programs to offer you a wide range of Spanish learning at an affordable price. It is a thorough and well designed introduction to Spanish at a reasonable price. |
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$199
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| POWER SPEAK SPANISH - PRODUCT SUMMARY | |||
| Rating based on all products in this price range - Over $150 |
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Power Speak Spanish is hands down the most complete Spanish course that you will find anywhere. Although it is designed for school age children, there is no reason that adults cannot use it too and find it just as engaging and easy to understand. There are wonderful and content rich activities that help to develop Spanish skills across all areas to a high level and the range of activities is such that you will never be bored. Around two years of content is provided at a reasonable price and makes it excellent value for money. |
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| WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A SPANISH LANGUAGE SOFTWARE PRODUCT | ||
When choosing a Spanish software product, you should ensure that it has resources that cover all the learning elements of reading, writing, listening and speaking to develop your language skills effectively. In order to be proficient in a language, you need to be able to manage all four areas well. The program should not consist merely of grammar tables and a couple of exercises on that grammar point for example. An effective Spanish language learning software will introduce the target language in a clear way, offer supportive practice methods and then a practice that requires you to use the language more independently. Further target language should build on the knowledge and understanding that you have acquired through the program and extend it. Previously learned target language should crop up in later lessons to allow you to review and reinforce your use of the language or grammar point. |
Essentially what you should be looking for in a Spanish software product that works is a mixture of features, the fundamentals (reading, writing, listening, speaking and pronunciation), a program that is easy to use and navigate, a range of teaching tools and resources to meet different learning styles and keep you interested and a good amount of technical support. A package that combines these in a balanced way is a winner and will be able to offer you a good footing in Spanish language. Learning Spanish through software is much easier than it was before as the product providers have in general done an outstanding job of combining language learning needs with the current technological capabilities on the Internet. |
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