Description:
It is a credit to Fairfield Language Technologies that its Spanish Explorer is one of the best examples of language-learning software--period. If you are used to the old-fashioned but lamentably persistent grammar-translation method of learning languages, Spanish Explorer may surprise you because it involves no overt instruction in grammar or lists of vocabulary with English translations. Instead, it relies on very clever contextualization of Spanish words and structures with photographs so that you never realize you're learning grammar. We literally found ourselves speaking and understanding quite a bit of basic Spanish in about an hour. Each graduated lesson works like this: First, you learn a new word by seeing a picture of, say, a dog. You then read the Spanish word for "dog" and hear it spoken: perro. After learning a whole set of words this way, you move into self-quizzing mode, where you see just a picture of a boy and have to choose the right word, either from spoken or written cues. This emphasis on listening comprehension is fantastic and is one of the components that sets the software apart, but there are also reading and writing exercises. So how do they cover grammar? Eventually, for instance, you'll see perro under a picture of one dog and perros under a picture of two dogs. If you are a grammar guru, you might be able to figure out that certain singular nouns end in o; plural nouns end in os. However, the beauty is you don't have to be a grammar guru at all because the software doesn't expect you to state rules like that; it expects you only to associate a picture of more than one dog with perros instead of perro. Eventually, you get into longer phrases that cover verbs, adjectives, and prepositional phrases. It's amazingly effortless, especially so for children as young as 6. Caveats: The CD-ROM includes both Mac OS and Windows versions. Your installation will include the first-level lessons of a couple dozen other languages for free, too, so you have to know that the Spanish word for "Spanish" is Español in order to select it from the list. Also, remember that software is no replacement for Spanish-speaking people, so take what you learn and use it in the world! --Erik Macki
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