Review of Learn to Speak, from eLanguage.com
MP3+video+web, Pronunciation scored, Cheap, ★
They teach 4 languages in their full course ($50-100), with MP3 files to learn on the go. They have minimal scoring of pronunciation. They do start with numbers from 0 to 1000, but they go quickly to complex phrases, with little explanation and pauses that are too short to repeat the phrase. There are 40 lessons; each has vocabulary, dialog, grammar.
They show a needle on a dial to score your pronunciation, and it is very inaccurate. In the English course, when I was supposed to say Tail, I got a good score for Teal, and a medium score for Say. Zero pronounced in English, French or Spanish was all acceptable, in the English course.
They have computer pictures of the mouth saying each sound, but the pictures move too fast and are too small and indistinct to learn from.
Some lessons are good and simple, like the difference in English between few and little. Other lessons cover too much, like plurals, and make mistakes. They say, "Both the -s and -es spellings are accepted for nouns ending in -o" and they list heroes and tomatoes. They do not say that -s and -es generally apply to different words. Most require -s. A few require -es, and a few can take either. They teach "How are you?" as a greeting, without saying that the standard answer regardless of health, is "Fine, thanks." They give that answer 4th, after: "Nothing much," "I'm all right," and "Pretty good."
The English course has travel videos of a few US cities, no better than any commercial movie for learning, and hard to hear the words through the music. These mispronounce the Corcoran Gallery and misspell the Juilliard School. Sound quality varies on their MP3 files, which are full speed.
Unlike their 35-language course, this does operate on recent Windows systems. Version 10 works on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8. Version 12 is for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10.
Most Amazon reviewers give good reviews to the Spanish course, not to French, nor to English, where all explanations are in English, unlike the same company's 35-language course which has explanations in 6 other languages, and is reviewed separately. Amazon incorrectly refers to a "newer version" which is a competitor lacking speech analysis.
MP3+video+web, Pronunciation scored, Cheap, ★
They teach 4 languages in their full course ($50-100), with MP3 files to learn on the go. They have minimal scoring of pronunciation. They do start with numbers from 0 to 1000, but they go quickly to complex phrases, with little explanation and pauses that are too short to repeat the phrase. There are 40 lessons; each has vocabulary, dialog, grammar.
They show a needle on a dial to score your pronunciation, and it is very inaccurate. In the English course, when I was supposed to say Tail, I got a good score for Teal, and a medium score for Say. Zero pronounced in English, French or Spanish was all acceptable, in the English course.
They have computer pictures of the mouth saying each sound, but the pictures move too fast and are too small and indistinct to learn from.
Some lessons are good and simple, like the difference in English between few and little. Other lessons cover too much, like plurals, and make mistakes. They say, "Both the -s and -es spellings are accepted for nouns ending in -o" and they list heroes and tomatoes. They do not say that -s and -es generally apply to different words. Most require -s. A few require -es, and a few can take either. They teach "How are you?" as a greeting, without saying that the standard answer regardless of health, is "Fine, thanks." They give that answer 4th, after: "Nothing much," "I'm all right," and "Pretty good."
The English course has travel videos of a few US cities, no better than any commercial movie for learning, and hard to hear the words through the music. These mispronounce the Corcoran Gallery and misspell the Juilliard School. Sound quality varies on their MP3 files, which are full speed.
Unlike their 35-language course, this does operate on recent Windows systems. Version 10 works on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8. Version 12 is for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10.
Most Amazon reviewers give good reviews to the Spanish course, not to French, nor to English, where all explanations are in English, unlike the same company's 35-language course which has explanations in 6 other languages, and is reviewed separately. Amazon incorrectly refers to a "newer version" which is a competitor lacking speech analysis.
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