We are excited to be sharing with you today our review of Middle School Spanish I from Middlebury Interactive Languages.
As linguists, my husband and I love to learn about languages, and we both speak a few reasonably well, but in general, we tend to be dabblers. It seems we have, for better or for worse, passed this tendency on to our children. But our oldest daughter decided recently that she wanted to really focus on Spanish and learn more than a few words. We’ve tried several programs with varied success but aren’t in love with any of them, so we jumped at the opportunity to review Middlebury Interactive Languages, especially since we’ve heard such great things about this program!
About Middlebury Interactive Languages
Middlebury Interactive Languages is an online program that focuses on all four components of language – listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Each lesson includes activities for both listening and reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, and writing as well as several quizzes. There are also videos that describe cultural aspects of Spanish-speaking countries. Each unit concludes with a test.
Here is what Bignificent thought about the program:
About a year ago I decided I wanted to learn Spanish. I thought it would be a useful skill to have. But right before we received this product to review, I was almost ready to give up. I just couldn’t find a program I liked. When I saw this option I decided to give it a try and boy, was I glad I did. It is the best Spanish learning curriculum I have ever seen.
Some reasons why I like it best are:
-I like it because it really makes sure you learn each word and gives you interesting activities instead of just having you repeat a word over and over again.
-I like it because there is more than one type of activity. For instance, you would work on writing, listening, reading, vocabulary, grammar, as well as culture all in one unit. I really like that variety.
-I like how you learn around thirty words at a time instead of only one or two.
-I like how each lesson is short and doesn’t take very long to do. I especially appreciated this because, as I had tried several other Spanish programs, I already knew most of the content in the first two units. So I was able to do several lessons at a time quickly until I reached something new to me.
-I like how it gives a word then has you match it up with pictures, then you might practice saying it, and then practice typing it, instead of only doing one of those activities at a time in a lesson.
-I like how some of the writing projects are in English until you have sufficiently learned enough to write in Spanish. I couldn’t believe how quickly I was able to actually do a writing project in Spanish!
-I also liked how there was audio provided for everything.
After having tried a number of different approaches to learning a foreign language, we highly recommend Middlebury Interactive Languages. Outside of being immersed in the culture and taught by native speakers, it is definitely the best option we have come across to date.
Connect with Middlebury Online
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Middlebury-Interactive-Languages-141015515949753/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MiddInteractive
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/middinteractive/
I, along with other members of the Homeschool Review Crew, received a free copy of this product in exchange for our honest reviews. You can see what my fellow Review Crew Members thought of it by checking out the Crew Blog Post for this product. I always love checking out everyone’s reviews as they always come up with creative ways I never would have thought of to use these things!
