What options are there for Spanish that are either online or DVD?

[Quiver0f10]

I know about Rosett Stone, BJU and SOS. What else is out there? Thanks!

[AngieW in Texas]

Tell Me More

Visual Link Spanish - on cd and cd-rom rather than dvd

 

My dd didn't do well with Rosetta Stone because she needed explicit instruction. She has typical Aspie issues with inference, so inferring meaning was very difficult for her. We were able to try it free through the library before RS pulled the plug on library memberships.

 

Tell Me More worked beautifully for her at first. The whole introduction section was laid out nicely for her, especially once we got our issues with the microphone worked out. After the introduction section, it didn't work very well. It started expecting things to be picked up by inference and didn't review enough. We did this program free through the Arlington Public Library online.

 

We have Visual Link Spanish now. My dd hasn't started it yet. Her load is heavier this semester because of a Teaching Company Course she really wanted to do, Philosophy of Mind. Doing the supplemental readings and answering the questions from the guide takes 3-4 hours/lesson. She just doesn't have the bandwidth to add on anything else right now. We're going to try Visual Link this summer.

[Kareni]

One frequently hears raves here for Oklahoma State University's online German program. I've no firsthand experience, but they also have an Online Spanish program.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[GailV]

Our public library has Mango free for cardholders. Older dd is using it for Spanish, younger for French.

 

We've also tried Destinos. We got derailed with a computer crash, and when we got a new computer we simply neglected to start it again.

 

And someone once posted the link in this forum for the Tell Me More at the Arlington Public library, but I don't seem to have bookmarked it. Should be easy to find by searching Spanish in this forum.

Edited February 11, 2010 by GailV

[gingersmom]

We are going to try this-

 

http://www.cdis.missouri.edu/exec/public/detailedcourseinfo.aspx?k=6605

[AngelBee]

:lurk5:

[Quiver0f10]

We are going to try this-

 

http://www.cdis.missouri.edu/exec/public/detailedcourseinfo.aspx?k=6605

 

This looks nice!

[Brindee]

We are going to try this-

 

http://www.cdis.missouri.edu/exec/public/detailedcourseinfo.aspx?k=6605

$400? :001_huh: Ouch! Looks decent, but it's way out of our budget....

[Halftime Hope]

$400? :001_huh: Ouch! Looks decent, but it's way out of our budget....

 

Brindee, that's what I thought at first as well until I looked more closely. Half of the cost is in the books and CD-ROM, which are available used on Amazon for a fraction of the list prices. My guess is that you might end up spending the $175 course cost plus ~$50 for the books and CD. Granted, that's for the first half of Spanish 1, so you'd probably have to spring for another $175 for the second half, but I'll bet the books would span both semesters. Guessing roughly, it might cost $400 for a full year of Spanish, not the $400 it looks like for just the first course.

 

Does that help at all?

[Brindee]

Brindee, that's what I thought at first as well until I looked more closely. Half of the cost is in the books and CD-ROM, which are available used on Amazon for a fraction of the list prices. My guess is that you might end up spending the $175 course cost plus ~$50 for the books and CD. Granted, that's for the first half of Spanish 1, so you'd probably have to spring for another $175 for the second half, but I'll bet the books would span both semesters. Guessing roughly, it might cost $400 for a full year of Spanish, not the $400 it looks like for just the first course.

 

Does that help at all?

Yes! :D Still a good amount, but as I look around, it's not way out of the realm of things compared to other classes like that!

 

I can get the BJU Spanish 1 & 2 Homeschool sets for $434 brand new. But I know that's different than this.

 

Thankyou for the explanation!

[Yolanda in Mass]

Yes! :D Still a good amount, but as I look around, it's not way out of the realm of things compared to other classes like that!

 

I can get the BJU Spanish 1 & 2 Homeschool sets for $434 brand new. But I know that's different than this.

 

Thankyou for the explanation!

 

I just want to jump in and add to this conversation. I, fortunately, do not have to worry about Spanish since I'm practically a native speaker, having spoken it all my life. You don't have to mortgage the house to learn to speak another language. Many of these pricey programs rush through the material, or present it in an encyclopedic fashion that completely baffles me as to how anyone learns anything!

 

I would recommend using something like an Auralog or the like to get the basics down, then find opportunities to practice. Go to the Hispanic grocery store, restaurant or section of your area and speak. Find a Spanish conversation circle at your local library. Whatever you do -don't have your kids spend a lot of time in workbooks 'cause I know for a fact that it doesn't produce kids who can either understand or speak the language in any intelligible way. I can't tell you how many kids (and teachers for that matter) have absolutely no real grasp of the language beyond grammar using that method. It simply is a waste of time. HTH!

 

One more thing - if you do have the money, get a tutor who can actually speak the language, not just teach it. There is a difference.

 

Yolanda

[GailV]

Whatever you do -don't have your kids spend a lot of time in workbooks 'cause I know for a fact that it doesn't produce kids who can either understand or speak the language in any intelligible way. I can't tell you how many kids (and teachers for that matter) have absolutely no real grasp of the language beyond grammar using that method. It simply is a waste of time. HTH!

 

 

 

I do think workbooks have a place in learning. Dh has learned some Spanish through oral/aural means, particularly through simply talking to people in Mexico. However, he recently needed to give a speech to several hundred people; someone wrote out the Spanish words for him (many of the concepts were technical), but he had no clue how to actually read Spanish. His accent is quite good when speaking, but he'd no way to make the leap from written word to spoken word, and kept reading/practicing the speech as though it had been written in French. Fortunately a Spanish professor and a native speaker took him under their wings on the plane on the way to give the speech, drilling him in particular on what a tilde is and why it's so very important to include the tilde when saying the Spanish word for year since leaving it out is a major sign of a gringo (actually, he turned that into a joke in the speech and got a big laugh).

 

The whole thing would've been simpler for him if he had learned the written words along with the spoken words; and I think workbooks are a simple, effective way to gain that exposure. As it is, his "oral" sense of how to pronounce things correctly turns off whenever confronted with written Spanish. It's like learning to read all over again as he struggles to sound out the words.

 

Also, frankly, my dd begged for workbooks because that's the way her mind builds structure. She loves grammar, no matter what the language.

[Halftime Hope]

Ok, that was tongue in cheek, but GailV has a point and it's something the language teachering community has argued about for years. And, sadly, each sides fails to see that they each have a part of the total truth about language learning.

 

Both oral and aural learning and learning the grammar and structure of a language are necessary components of learning a language. The oral/aural only folks don't realize that they can't duplicate the immersion that happens naturally in a home, the millions of exposures to syntax, sentence patterns, and conjugations; the hearing of inflections; and the hundreds of corrected irregulars by the family...that's where learning the grammar of a language can take a learner past the ability to merely imitate/parrot what they've learned aural/orally, to be able to extrapolate and use the vocab that they've only seen, but never heard.

 

Both are necessary.

 

;) Love every one of the posters' thoughts on this.

 

 

 

 

I do think workbooks have a place in learning. Dh has learned some Spanish through oral/aural means, particularly through simply talking to people in Mexico. However, he recently needed to give a speech to several hundred people; someone wrote out the Spanish words for him (many of the concepts were technical), but he had no clue how to actually read Spanish. His accent is quite good when speaking, but he'd no way to make the leap from written word to spoken word, and kept reading/practicing the speech as though it had been written in French. Fortunately a Spanish professor and a native speaker took him under their wings on the plane on the way to give the speech, drilling him in particular on what a tilde is and why it's so very important to include the tilde when saying the Spanish word for year since leaving it out is a major sign of a gringo (actually, he turned that into a joke in the speech and got a big laugh).

 

The whole thing would've been simpler for him if he had learned the written words along with the spoken words; and I think workbooks are a simple, effective way to gain that exposure. As it is, his "oral" sense of how to pronounce things correctly turns off whenever confronted with written Spanish. It's like learning to read all over again as he struggles to sound out the words.

 

Also, frankly, my dd begged for workbooks because that's the way her mind builds structure. She loves grammar, no matter what the language.