Today, many people are opting for learning a new language for employment and personal reasons. They scour the net for the best language software and for options unavailable decades ago, such as being able to learn Spanish online. Two of the best language learning programs in my opinion are Rocket Spanish and Rosetta Stone. Interactive Spanish programs are becoming popular due to the following reasons.
Firstly people have increasingly busy schedules and a regular class does not always fit people's timetables. Then there is the problem of affordability - a tutor or full-time class can cost a bomb.
People prefer to "learn on the go" and audio lessons, such as those advertised by Rocket Spanish or Rosetta Stone meet this need. Finally, people want to learn Spanish fast and if they can do it online or through an interactive program, they will.
So what are the pros and cons of the best programs? Well I do not have space here to talk about all of them so in this article I shall cover two of the better, well-known programs: Rocket Spanish and Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone's Spanish program is designed in such a way that the more practical sentences and phrases, that are needed to encourage learning in the initial phase, are available towards the end of the program. This reduces compliance to the program because the learner cannot apply what he/she learns from day one.
This program basically starts off with loads of vocabulary that you have to inculcate before you can totally immerse into it. This can take away the fun part in learning and cause diminution of interest.
Rosetta Stone uses what is known as a 'Dynamic Immersion' technique to teach you Spanish. Basically this involves no conscious thinking by the student; instead the program attempts to immerse the student in the Spanish-speaking world and to pick up words through practice and repetition.
The advantages of Rosetta Stone are: it's an accessible teaching style and you do not need to be always memorizing phrases or writing down rules-you earn language like a baby does; it can definitely help to improve your pronunciation.
The disadvantages of Rosetta Stone are that if you buy into all the levels it gets quite expensive.. Also you need to do practise and repeat words and phrases a lot to remember what you have learned.
Rocket Spanish most users say is more traditional being an audio course (yes you do need to spend time on the computer as well) with extra reading material to give you grounding in grammar and vocabulary. Their games which contain picture/word associations are similar to Rosetta Stone but not as comprehensive.
Rocket Spanish has a forum and generally seems to be more responsive to its students and offers multiple choice questions so students can assess their progress.
Advantages of Rocket Spanish are: it is cheaper than Rosetta Stone and many other language learning programs;it is responsive to what students want and need: it has a reasonably busy forum where you can ask questions. Follow-up lessons can be sent out by email. It offers a good (but by no means exhaustive) grammar and vocabulary guide, a few games like Rosetta Stone and a decent audio course.
Firstly people have increasingly busy schedules and a regular class does not always fit people's timetables. Then there is the problem of affordability - a tutor or full-time class can cost a bomb.
People prefer to "learn on the go" and audio lessons, such as those advertised by Rocket Spanish or Rosetta Stone meet this need. Finally, people want to learn Spanish fast and if they can do it online or through an interactive program, they will.
So what are the pros and cons of the best programs? Well I do not have space here to talk about all of them so in this article I shall cover two of the better, well-known programs: Rocket Spanish and Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone's Spanish program is designed in such a way that the more practical sentences and phrases, that are needed to encourage learning in the initial phase, are available towards the end of the program. This reduces compliance to the program because the learner cannot apply what he/she learns from day one.
This program basically starts off with loads of vocabulary that you have to inculcate before you can totally immerse into it. This can take away the fun part in learning and cause diminution of interest.
Rosetta Stone uses what is known as a 'Dynamic Immersion' technique to teach you Spanish. Basically this involves no conscious thinking by the student; instead the program attempts to immerse the student in the Spanish-speaking world and to pick up words through practice and repetition.
The advantages of Rosetta Stone are: it's an accessible teaching style and you do not need to be always memorizing phrases or writing down rules-you earn language like a baby does; it can definitely help to improve your pronunciation.
The disadvantages of Rosetta Stone are that if you buy into all the levels it gets quite expensive.. Also you need to do practise and repeat words and phrases a lot to remember what you have learned.
Rocket Spanish most users say is more traditional being an audio course (yes you do need to spend time on the computer as well) with extra reading material to give you grounding in grammar and vocabulary. Their games which contain picture/word associations are similar to Rosetta Stone but not as comprehensive.
Rocket Spanish has a forum and generally seems to be more responsive to its students and offers multiple choice questions so students can assess their progress.
Advantages of Rocket Spanish are: it is cheaper than Rosetta Stone and many other language learning programs;it is responsive to what students want and need: it has a reasonably busy forum where you can ask questions. Follow-up lessons can be sent out by email. It offers a good (but by no means exhaustive) grammar and vocabulary guide, a few games like Rosetta Stone and a decent audio course.
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