For somebody who had studied Spanish seven years in High School and a few years in college, I needed an interactive approach to help me apply my vocabulary and help build my confidence again enough to speak the language so I signed up for a free, 15-day account so see how effective I could learn this lyrical language again through a site known as SpanishSense.

Subscribing to the free podcast seemed to be the most convenient way to listen to the daily conversations. The lessons evolve around using specific language structures around specific scenarios. They are taught using a deductive model of language learning experience – that is, first hearing the dialogues, then isolating the grammatical forms, special verbal and repeated them much more slowly with special emphasis on the grammatical structures and vocabulary lexis. For the visual learner, there is a PDF file for each corresponding lesson and you can browse through the archive of lessons and add them to your custom feed allowing for easier accessibility.

Navigating from the site to the content material is relatively simple but be prepared for some language adjustments especially, if you have not learned Spanish in quite a while, like me. I love Spanish and I find I can pretty much connect with any program. But as an ESL, there were specific pedagogical issues that made the learning element difficult.

There wasn’t enough material in writing. The exercises and vocabulary review were aimed at a high audience and it would have been helpful to receive some grammatical explanations about the grammatical usage behind ‘estar’ which tend to confuse many non-speaking Spanish learners. The speakers are engaged in a rapidamente – rapidly dialogue and the pace and accents take time to adjust to and do not quite legitimize a learner’s desire to improve his speech because it’s quick but the good news is that it does slow down eventually.

It is not quite clear to the learner how the podcast lessons will be organized and this information is not presented effectively up front neither in some brief introduction nor on the home page. The explanations for grammatical usage are not so clear during the podcasts. For somebody who comes with an average plus level of understanding, I felt the explanations were satisfactory but definitely not suitable for a beginner.

This language learning program is definitely not for the beginner; most probably for the intermediate plus, like me.

Back on the home page, there is an interactive opportunity to understand the linguistic nuances behind words. Usually the commenters write in English making it easier to relate to the subject and comment. Since the focus is production and making yourself effectively understood, the lessons appeal to a general language threshold of understanding. Additionally, there is a feature of ranking lessons which would be helpful for the first time lurker to get a feeling of community as there are quite a few commenters.

After fifteen days, are required to make a decision on your account. I might print the vocabulary and grammatical exercises, but I seriously doubt I would pay to upgrade my account in order to receive additional language lessons.

This article was contributed by Dorit Sasson.