Vocabulearn Spanish/Ingles Complete (Vocabulearn Music-Enhanced)

Rating:
Summary: 4 stars due to good production
Review: I agree with the martial arts guy instructor from Peru in that learning more complete language is more effective. However, I disagree with reviewer Mr Bucklin, and I'd like to make this point; man, if you can't remember a few words from a vocab list, what are your chances of understanding any of those words when they are spat out at you in lightning fashion in full sentences? Less than zero, my friend. Maybe language isn't for you.
Vocabulearn does exactly what it advertises. It's packaged, presented, and produced well. It is designed to be used as a basic vocab and expression ROTE memorization course. It advertises itself as a vocab builder to compliment other language learning methods. In it's introduction, it announces "not, however, meant to be a course in grammatical structure. For more in-depth language learning purposes, it would be more useful for the student to review sentence structure and grammar of the target language."
Many instructors, like our reviewer from Peru, discourage rote memorization. I'm listening to Vocabulearns Arabic course, and have both the level 1 and level 2 courses, which I have found to be helpful and reasonably priced.
I think you need a complete command of @ 10-15k words in addition to knowledge of grammar to get by in a language. I'm the type of student that needs more rote memorization. Teachers discourage it because they assume you'll get a chance for more of that as you go along, and the grammar and vocab used in complete sentences is much better (which it doubtlessly is).

Rating:
Summary: Winner and Champion By Default
Review: I am a professional Spanish instructor and a native of Peru. I have recommended Vocabulearn Learn Spanish to my students as an aid to help to them learn vocabulary words. I have also recommended the Learning Spanish Like Crazy course to them as something extra to study for when they are not in class with me. I believe Learning Spanish Like Crazy comes closer to Latin American Spanish than the other Spanish courses.

To be honest with you, I am not a big fan of any vocabulary teaching method that just says the word in Spanish and then says it back in English and the other way around. That's what Vocabulearn Learn Spanish does. I guess the main reason why I recommend Vocabulearn to my students is because there aren't any other tapes or CDs out there that are only for learning Spanish vocabulary. So this is the only choice I have when one of my students says please recommend a Spanish vocabulary aid. If there are any other courses that only teach Spanish vocabulary, I have never heard of them. So I guess you can say I make this recommendation by default.

As a Spanish instructor, I know that a better method would be to use no English or very little English in the teaching method. That would be better than Vocabulearn's style which uses just as much English as it does Spanish. It would also be nice if Vocabulearn Learn Spanish used the vocabulary words in complete sentences in Spanish instead of just saying the words or frases by themselves.



Rating:
Summary: Really wonderful -- only vocabulary, no dialog
Review: I have been teaching myself Spanish for about 2 years. I have a number of tapes and CDs that I really like, but am getting a bit bored with the repetition. I bought more new ones lately, but since they are getting harder (intermediate to advanced) sometimes if I have had a stressful day I am just too exhausted to pay attention to them.

That's when I love these CDs. I can be learning new words, but it is so effortless compared to my grammar and drill tapes. They simply say the word in English, give you sufficient time to say the word in Spanish, then they say it, then give you time to repeat it. Then halfway through the tape they reverse the order so the Spanish is first and English second.

The CDs are arranged as beginner, intermediate and advanced. They are really well indexed. At the beginner level, I know about 95% of the words. At intermediate, maybe 60% and at advanced, maybe 20%.

My only complaint is that from time to time they play this really lovely classical music. I only wish they had the classical music going all the time and not just part of the time.

Note that these CDs are stictly vocabulary and short phrases -- they are not dialogs or grammar practice. I really like them a lot. My Spanish is starting to get more advanced and I find it increasingly frustrating to be in a conversation and always be grasping for words.

Rating:
Summary: Great Supplemental Tool for Increasing Your Vocabulary
Review: I own both the earlier version of Vocabulearn, without music and this one which is music-enhanced; and I like this one better. The Baroque music, which plays in the background and is intended to enhance your focus, concentratin and retention of the words, doesn't run throughout the recordings, but comes and goes. The reasoning behind this, when they were creating these recordings was that if the music is played all along, you may drift too deep into a trance (I don't think that's bad for learning, though), and that it would be better if you stay closer to the conscious level.

Trying to consciously remember all the words as they are poured out may be too much, but you can have the recordings also play in the background while you're doing other things. It will help to impress them upon your subconscious mind and you may just find yourself enjoying increased comprehension when you read Spanish, listen to radio programs or watch Spanish movies; and then you'll eventually find yourself using these words with greater ease.

Each level contains 1,500 words and it will definitely help you to rapidly increase your vocabulary

Rating:
Summary: Not an effective way to learn.
Review: This is what you can expect after you purchase the Vocabulearn CDs:

The first track on this CD is nothing more than a man reading a word in English, then a woman reading its meaning in Spanish... for 19 minutes. There is no repetition; it is simply a long list of vocabulary words, which should have (at the very least) been broken down into numerous tracks to make reviewing easier.

The second track (each CD only has two tracks, by the way) is basically the same, except that there is a Completely New List of vocabulary terms, which are read, this time, from Spanish to English. Again, there is no repetition.

What are your chances of remembering every word someone says if they read you a list of words for 20 minutes? No chance. What are the chances that you are going to listen to a list of words that goes on for 20 minutes enough times to learn all the words? Not very good, unless you are highly motivated, masochistic, and unable to recognize an inefficient way of learning.

When you listen to vocabulary being read to you from Spanish to English, you will train your brain to recognize what a Spanish word means in English when you Hear it or Read it, but you will have a more difficult time of producing the same word when you wish to Speak or Write. To become fluent with a language, you really do need to learn the words "backwards and forwards", and products that use repetition or make repetition less monotonous and cumbersome, will always be better tools for learning.