The CD ROM package I decide to review is a language program offered by Berlitz.

University Degree Education and Teaching

Carlota Medina

Assignment 3:

Review of a CD-ROM/software package

The CD ROM package I decide to review is a language program offered by Berlitz. It is called Berlitz Live! Spanish Sierra. Berlitz is a sub-company of Sierra On –line. Your own Spanish tutor, named Rosalinda, teaches the program. She uses accurate lip movements, so along with hearing the pronunciation you can hear it as well. The program offers many real life situations, such as arriving in Mexico City, how to catch a taxi, asking where the bathroom is etc. There is also an on-line dictionary and skill-building games. The program is excellent. Quality pictures make comprehension easier. Learners demonstrate comprehension individually by playing games (e.g. click on the picture of the word heard, fill in gapped text). Learners as well record themselves onto the machine, playback and compare against original and should rectify.

After reviewing other packages I was fully impressed with the outstanding quality of Spanish Sierra. It is clear, well explained, well organised, the units are set in manageable chunks. It has very good and descriptive images as well as intuitive procedures and very user-friendly control interface. The sound is a high fidelity sound and clear to understand. It has good graphics and the whole range of colours is appropriate for the kind of package.

The CD ROM is extremely appealing from the very beginning. It starts with an opening cartoon portraying the story of the unexpected change of plans of a businessman who instead of going to Tokyo lands unexpectedly in Mexico and he feels worried and uncertain about learning Spanish. This cartoon is good because it might represent the doubts and fears many language learners might feel.

This package is suitable for the beginner, lower intermediate and intermediate learner. It would certainly be of good use for a GSCE or A level student. It is useful as well for those who already have some knowledge of the language because there is a lot of vocabulary and of course it is fascinating and revealing to know the Latin American use of the language. The program can be enjoyed by any kind of pupil and would be of better use if the teacher uses it for small groups of students.

CD ROM is also good for those tourists planning to go to Spain or Mexico. It gives information on airports, immigration laws, police emergency numbers and conditions of roads. It teaches sentences of survival for airports, situation where you are lost and car rental. I found very useful survival expressions such as “llame a la policía”, “socorro”, fuego” or “necesito un médico.

The program is very easy to use, even for those users who do not have much knowledge of IT. There is an explanation of every tool bar once you press it. It is well organised ...

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The program is very easy to use, even for those users who do not have much knowledge of IT. There is an explanation of every tool bar once you press it. It is well organised into eleven different sections. All of them are equally fun, entertaining, motivational, exciting and really encourage the user to want to learn the language. It is without room for any doubt a must for teachers of Spanish at GSCE and A level.

The first unit is called Language essentials. Each of the eleven units is divided into different sections. Every time you press on any one section in the package a small box appears with a historical fact of any country of Latin America or Spain. The historical facts that are revealed are curious and entertaining, certainly not boring at all. All of them are relevant and it adds another touch of interest for those learners keen on the culture or history of Latin America. From my point of view the idea is original and wonderful, certainly a good way for A level students to deepen into the history of Spanish speaking countries. It is also good because that means that the learner can on the one hand have a bit of a rest by reading these anecdotic historical facts, but on the other, will remain interested in going to the next activity. I think that this is one of the characteristics a good teacher should have always in mind: combine the actual teaching but intercalating some anecdotes so that the student does not get bored.

The user can also record his voice and compare it to the voice of the native speaker in the dialogues. The CD also includes practice tests where they have to fill in the missing parts of the conversations in Spanish. The voice can be recorded not only in the section of dialogues but throughout the whole package. The user has to repeat the new phrases or vocabulary that the on screen personal tutor says. An excellent way of learning vocabulary for visual learners is portrayed in the activities where there is for example a room in a hotel and the user has to press any item in the room and then the item makes a funny movement or appropriate noise and then the tutor says the word out loud while the written word is seen on the screen.

The first section teaches you the very basics to start with the language. The alphabet is taught with the different pronunciations from Spain and Latin America. Frankly, I have to admit that I really love the idea, because although it might be a bit confusing for a beginner student, it does not get into much specific detail about pronunciations in different regions of Spain. This language essentials sections, as its name says, gives you survival phrases like No entiendo, No, Si gracias and some phrases on basic needs.

The onscreen instructor uses English when she gives instructions on the activities to be done. She also uses English to explain the grammar. I definitely agree about using English to give instructions and explain grammar specially when dealing with beginner students. It is interesting to see that she uses quite a lot of praise phrases and even when the user does not get the right answer she will say comments like“ una vez más”, “ no del todo” “ puedes hacerlo mejor”, “ inténtelo”. There are a lot of different activities, like matching up what you hear with the right picture. It also has a quiz at the end of each section and shows the percentage of right answers the student got. I think this is quite good because it gives them an idea of how much they need to improve and they can set themselves their own targets. They also have a dialogue section in each unit and the learner can choose to be one of the characters in the dialogue and practise his pronunciation. The result will be to listen to his/her own voice and compare it to that of the native speaker. The student can access both a written and an oral explanation of the characteristics of Spanish grammar.

I must say that the grammar explanations are as good as the whole CD ROM itself. She explains it in a straightforward and clear way without getting into complicated or unnecessary details. Thanks to the online instructor there is no room for doubt or misunderstanding of any grammatical term or structures explained throughout the CD. Other grammar exercises are fill in the gaps with the correct article, listening to phrases in Spanish and select the correct form of the pronoun. Another exercise is on choosing the correct form of the verb “ to be” which I believe is quite complicated in Spanish.

The CD ROM also provides cognate words to encourage beginner students of the language. It has been amazing and revealing for me to find out the large number of cognates that the Spanish shares with the English language. All the pronunciation in the dialogues is portrayed with Latin American accent. Even some vocabulary is taught with the Latin American instead of the Spanish form. This may be one of the weaknesses of the package. It may be argued that perhaps, the learner should be taught the standard Spanish expression. As I have already mentioned, the alphabet is explained with the different pronunciations there are in Latin America and Spain. Even thought I like the idea, I have to admit that it can be positive but negative at the same time. On the one hand the student is taught that there are different pronunciations for the same letter and he/she can choose the pronunciation they find more suitable for them; on the other hand, teaching the different accents and pronunciations at the early stages of learning a language might be confusing for the learner.

On the whole it is a really exciting CD ROM. It is colourful and user friendly. It is, above all, a fun and entertaining way of learning Spanish. I was myself motivated and keen to participate in the activities and games. It has got songs and information of most of the Spanish speaking countries. It is though very fond of Latin America. Indeed, the learning instructor is a Mexican native Indian woman. This though humorous also enhances some stereotypes of the Latin American woman, which are not so much alive among most of the modern society and population in Mexico.

Finally I have to say that I cannot express with words how much I like and admire this program! We could claim that it is nearly perfect and it will make any one who takes a look at it want to learn our rich and beautiful Spanish language.