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Habla Espanol in your spare time



Author: Jackie Foote
Date: May, 1994
Keywords: Hyperglot Learn to Speak Spanish language tutor program application review
Text: Learn to Speak Spanish 4.0 is the program I wish I had two years ago prior to a trip to South America. Having taken four years of high school Spanish over twenty-five years ago, I pulled out old textbooks and took a local parks and rec Spanish class in preparation for my visit. Though somewhat helpful in refreshing my memory, these efforts did not have the power of this program-a way to gain confidence in speaking the language in everyday situations that I might encounter on my trip. With the microphone that was packaged with my Macintosh IIvx, I was able to record vocabulary words and conversational dialog and immediately compare my speech to native speakers. This was my favorite feature, but this CD-ROM program offers many more inter-active lessons and cultural tips. Installation was not a problem as the program is designed to work entirely from the CD-ROM. The only things you need to install are QuickTime 1.6 and Sound Manager 3.0 and this is done for you with the Install Learn to Speak Spanish program. The program also offers a utility for slow computers and CD-ROM drives (i.e. an LCIII or Performa 450 is considered a slow computer, while a slow CD-ROM drive is one that has a seek time of greater than 350ms). The company suggests the program works better if you install chapter files on your hard drive, though it does take up space. An Install/Remove Utility is provided for placing and removing individual chapters on a hard drive. Being a patient person, I had no problem accessing the program from the CD-ROM drive and never felt the need to use this utility. Once you open the program you're treated to rousing Latin music and colorful pictures of daily scenes, all taken in Mexico City. Double click and the Orientation Screen appears. Audio and video preference can be set and you can select how the lessons are offered-by chapters or by grammar. Anyone familiar with HyperCard will feel right at home with this program. I chose to begin with the chapters. At that point I didn't realize that the chapters in the program correspond to the first 15 (of 30) chapters found in the 360-page textbook which comes with program. (One can spend hours at the computer, never feeling the need to crack the textbook.) Chapter topics reflect vital tourist interests: 1) Arrival, Changing Money, 2) Getting a Taxi, 3) Arriving at the Hotel, 4) In the Hotel Room, 5) Making a Long Distance Call, 6) Making a Local Call, 7) At the Restaurant, 8) Asking for Directions, 9) Finding an Address, 10) Greetings, 11) At a Party, 12) Making an Appointment, 13) At the Pharmacy, 14) At the Doctor's Office and 15) At the Laundry. The way the program is designed, you can begin with whatever chapter topic (or whatever grammar lesson) you choose. By clicking on a chapter icon, the chapter introduction screen appears. Centered in each of these windows is a 2" x 2" movie screen. Hit the ''play movie'' button and you view a short movie filmed in Mexico City that relates to the chapter and story line. Its stated purpose is to provide a visual cultural background and a backdrop for various types of Spanish music. I feel it's somewhat of a gimmick, but I must admit that until I saw the ''getting a taxi'' movie, I didn't know they used so many VW bugs as taxis in Mexico City. There are two ways to navigate throughout the program. At the top of the screen there is a title bar between a left pointing arrow and a right pointing arrow. These arrows can be used to go to the next screen or the previous screen. Clicking on the title bar makes a navigation panel of 12 buttons appear, ten of the buttons are related chapter activities. Also, in the lower right corner of each screen, is a help button that produces colorful bal-loons with instructions for all activities pertaining to each particular screen. The Vocabulary Screen is the first in the sequence of chapter activities and the user's first chance to go head to head with native speak-ers. A window in the upper left lists the chapter's vocab-ulary words and you can scroll to any word you choose. By clicking on a word, a picture repre-senting the word appears as the word is pronounced in Spanish. This is followed by an audio English translation. If there happens to be vocabulary notes about that word, they appear in another window. Then the fun begins. Click on the record button and the word is once again given in Spanish followed by time for you to repeat the word. When the recording time is finished, the program automatically plays back the native speaker's words, followed by your recording. With such immediate feedback it's very easy to hear the subtle differences between the two pronunciations. And if desired, you can record again to correct any errors. If you want to hear any particular word in context, a video of a native speaker comes to life using the word in a sentence (which actually is part of the story or dialog that appears in later chapter activities). Also the Spanish sentence and English translation appear below the movie. With almost 50 words per chapter, quite a bit of time can be spent on this screen alone before it's time to tackle other activities. I've found my 11 year old son, who gets a smattering of Spanish in school, choosing and really enjoying this part of the program. The next screen encountered is the Vocabulary Drill, however the option always exists to choose the order activities are attempted . More advanced Spanish speakers may skip the vocabulary screens and jump right into the Story and Action Screens, dealing with sentences that describe the story line and actual dialog in the story. This is a unique vocabulary drill. You can choose from English to Spanish or Spanish to English. The user's guide recommends from English to Spanish (which is the default) because as they state ''if you cannot recall Spanish words to express your thoughts, you will not be able to communicate.'' Press the button to begin the drill and you will see and hear an English word. When ready, press the record button and say the Spanish word into the microphone. That is immediately followed by the correct Spanish word and once again you get immediate feedback from your recorded pronunciation as well as your recall. You score yourself and the option is given to redrill those words that were incorrect. The continuing story (from which the program gets all the vocabulary and grammar) of Thomas Smith, a businessman from Chicago, and his trip to Mexico City is played out in the next two screens in each chapter, The Story and The Action. The Story Screen features a movie of the narrator describing the story in Spanish. Practice with Spanish sentence structure, comprehension and pronunciation is the main purpose here. Once again, recording and comparing your sentences to the native speaker is key. These sentences are not fully translated for that was done in the ''hear in context'' window of the Vocabulary Screen. However, if a word stumps you, just click on it and its translation will appear. The Action Screen is where the dialog of the story is played out. The screen and its activities are very similar to the Story screen, except different native speakers play the different roles. As in other screens you can choose the option to have the speaker mouth the words as you record. In this screen you are recording actual dialog that you might use as a tourist. Also tucked into this screen are helpful cultural notes. The Listening Skills Screen follows. A written dialog is presented with blank spaces to be filled. A Spanish word is spoken and you must type it correctly in the proper spot. This is the first activity where written feedback is requested. Appendix A in the User's Guide has a Macintosh Keyboard Table to show you how to type the various Spanish characters needed in these activities. The next three screens are the Exercise Screens, and if I had chosen to learn the program by grammar instead of the chapters, this would have been my starting point. Exercise 1 is a Fill in the Blanks Screen. By pushing the show grammar button, a window opens with a couple of grammar lessons. For example in chapter one it includes plural nouns, gender of nouns, and definite and indefinite articles. Both Exercise 2 and 3 are Drag and Match Screens. Native speakers dramatically respond with a variety of phases depending if you get answers right or wrong. I often found myself unconsciously repeating these phases*yet another form of subtle learning included in the program. These two screens reinforce the same grammar lesson in Exercise 1. Word Jumble follows the exercises and it's purpose it to put the words of a sentence in proper order. The true test of each chapter comes in the Communication Skills Screen. Situational questions are posed and the correct dialog responses (typed perfectly) are required. The screen keeps score, gives you the opportunity to see the correct response (s) and gives you the option to retake those questions that were incorrect. It's not easy and reinforces the need to know how to communicate when in a variety settings. I had two minor problems with the program and both times called Hyperglot's 800 number. The first time I waited approximately ten minutes, but I was given the option to leave a message. The second time it took about three minutes to get the tech help I needed. Both tech representatives were courteous and helpful. My first call concerned the arrows in the scroll bar in the cultural notes window of the Action Screen. They did not work. After trying his program, the tech representative agreed with me, said that he would file a bug report, and said that if became too frustrating they would ship me the next release where the bug would be fixed. My second problem was more of a concern. Periodically when I'd go away and come back to the program I'd get an error message stating ''Unable to play. Error # 2004. There is a problem with the sound channel.'' The tech representative explained that I needed to get rid of my After Dark program, as the two programs were competing for the same sound channel. As with any instructional program, the value to the user is directly related to the motivation to learn the information being offered. My 15 year old daughter, who is taking Spanish 2 in high school, found some of the repetitiveness ''boring'' as she went through an entire chapter's worth of activities in one sitting, but it did keep her interest and she did agree with me that she thoroughly enjoyed using the microphone to compare herself with native speakers. I would highly recommend this program to any person or family with a desire to learn Spanish at their own pace. Program Requirements: LC III 520, LCIV, or Performa 450 Performa 600, 600CD, Macintosh IIci, IIsi, IIfx, IIvx, Centris Series, Quadra Series, Color-Capable PowerBooks, ([68030/ 25 MHz] or greater) 4MB RAM System 7.0 or greater hard drive CD-ROM drive microphone or MacRecorder 256-color monitor (at least 12") Price: Retail-$149, Street-$99 (CD-ROM Warehouse) Publisher: Hyperglot Software Company P.O. Box 10746 Knoxville, TN 87932-0746 800/726-5987

Copyright © may, 1994 by Jackie Foote


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