This
is a very good website that has not only free tools but a premium service as
well. The premium service is
$14.95 a month, and free for a year if you buy their audio tape course. However, I believe that if you only use
the free tools you will have a solid head start towards learning Spanish.
The
site offers verb drills for all different tenses, with the option to generate a
unique quiz after each lesson. I
took the quiz for the verb form of to give and to go and got a 90%. Considering
the magnitude of verb forms to master, this website offers a great start
towards that goal.
An
online translator is also offered, but I have used this one before and had only
marginal success with it. Instead
of translating entire thoughts as a whole and in context, it translates each
word independently of the others, causing some mistakes in grammar. However, this is a good start.
There
is a section for preparing for travel to a Spanish speaking country that has
useful vocabulary and phrases for everything from the airport to shopping. There is even a link to a pronunciation
exercise provided you download shockwave.
Another
interesting part of the site is a link to cultural information. It includes sections about Machu
Picchu, Madrid, and even the Alamo.
The section with information on Cervantes had a short reading about the
author in Spanish and a comprehension quiz at the end. This is an excellent addition to the
site in that most websites and programs for Spanish only offer introductory
level lessons, and little more.
www.angelfire.com/de/hadas/indel.html
The title of the website is “Spanish for Children”. This site at first glance is deceptively simple. The first page welcomes you and invites you to follow the link to the next page. The layouts of the pages are very simple. There is a table with links to such topics as colors, fables, grammar, and games.
When I chose the flag page, a brief introduction in Spanish was given then a very plain page with South American flags shown. This may be a little discouraging since the introduction is about a minute long and entirely in Spanish. However, some believe that then only way to really learn Spanish is to completely immerse yourself in the language.
I also opened the link for small children. Although there was not much information on the link, what was there was of high quality. The cursor has a trail of balls of different colors following it. Each line of text is a color that matches the ball and describes it. This gives the child the opportunity to learn not only colors, but also some simple grammar and how to say first through sixth in Spanish.
The animals page is interesting in that it is laid out like an open book with each page turning to a new animal with it’s name in Spanish. The pages turn a little too fast, and there seems to be a glitch that is preventing you from seeing all the animals, but nonetheless, it is a good idea and probably has enough movement to keep little kids interested for a little while.