| There are many self study courses around that | | | | make your own games with. They are pretty |
| teach you how to speak Spanish. Some are good | | | | good for learning these skills. MegaVocab can be |
| and some are not so good. This article will | | | | customized to add you own words and pictures |
| compare two popular self study courses - Rocket | | | | so that it can be a massive game if you want it |
| Spanish and Rosetta Stone. | | | | to be. |
| Rocket Spanish | | | | They have good support for their product. They |
| Rocket Spanish and Rosetta Stone have different | | | | have a forum where you can ask questions and |
| teaching methods. Rocket Spanish is a more | | | | talk to people at all levels of the Spanish. They |
| traditional learning course that uses familiar | | | | send out fresh lessons every fortnight for a few |
| methods to teach. | | | | months. |
| This includes an audio component. Two people | | | | Rosetta Stone |
| take you through a series of situations. One is an | | | | Rosetta Stone uses something they call dynamic |
| English speaker, the other native South American | | | | immersion. This is a completely different approach |
| Spanish. The English speaker controls the lesson | | | | to learning a language. The theory is that you |
| and asks you questions. The native Spanish | | | | learn as you learned your native language via |
| speaker does all the Spanish speaking and | | | | sight, sound and validation. Four pictures are put |
| answers questions. They encourage you to | | | | onto the screen and a word or sentence is |
| repeat the words or sentences after the Spanish | | | | spoken. You have to guess which picture relates |
| speaker. This is a pretty useful course and will | | | | to the words. This is how we learned as a baby. |
| give you confidence in your comprehension and | | | | Your native language is never spoken and you |
| spoken Spanish. | | | | learn by immersing yourself in this process. |
| There is also an ebook that has a series of | | | | They use this method for comprehension, |
| lessons on the Spanish language. This aims to | | | | vocabulary and writing practice. There is also a |
| teach you vocabulary, grammar, reading and | | | | speech analysis component where you can match |
| written Spanish. There are tests at the end of | | | | your pronunciation with that of a native Spanish |
| each lesson in the ebook. | | | | speaker. They have a Spanish and South |
| Rocket Spanish also has a few games that teach | | | | American versions of the course. |
| you vocabulary and comprehension skills. These | | | | Summary |
| are called MegaVocab, MegaAudio and there are | | | | I think both courses have a place in the Spanish |
| some flash cards that you can print out and | | | | self study market. |