TeachMe! Italian Reviewer's Comments

TeachMe! Italian by LinguaShop offers one of the simplest navigation systems of any product on the market. The program is divided into four separate sections: Vocabulary Lessons, Grammar Exercises, Stories and Pronunciation.

TeachMe! Italian states that there are two main goals when attempting to learn a language; anyone with a goal of fluency needs to build a vocabulary of at least 2000 words and must understand the rules of grammar. The program does a good job in both of these areas but doesn't let the user progress much farther.

Unfortunately the teaching methods lack many of the features common to other programs. No conversation practice, MP3 player compatibility, culture lessons or even images keep it from having the full impact that language software should have.

Features:  

TeachMe! Italian also lets you run the program in a couple different modes. In the Normal Mode, which is the most difficult mode, you are required to write out each Italian word letter by letter. In the Auto Word Mode, you are only requires to type the first letter of the word and the program will automatically fill it in for you.

Another added benefit to this product is the personal progress tracking feature, which uses a line graph to make it easier to see your progress. The program includes a feature to assess its own teaching effectiveness. There is also a segment which determines your active and passive vocabulary retention. TeachMe! Italian does not have an MP3 player module like many of the top programs do.

Fundamentals:  

TeachMe! Italian does a fine job of building your reading comprehension, as well as building your vocabulary. They also offer effective grammar tutorials. One thing we felt this software needs a better conversation practice tool. Without the ability to practice a simulated or live conversation, it's difficult to gain the confidence you need to use your newfound language skills out in the real world.

Ease of Use:  

TeachMe! Italian is easy to use. The navigation is simple, and the exercises are straightforward.

Teaching Tools:  

While this product isn't rich in tools, it still does offer some great learning tools. One such feature is their story program, which helps you develop your reading comprehension. The speech recognition system is also useful for practicing pronunciation. While it isn’t quite as accurate as some of the top programs, it is still an important tool in learning Italian.

Word Tools:  

TeachMe! includes a dictionary tool that helps you look up and translate words.

Tech Support:  

 

The help and documentation LinguaShop provides for TeachMe! Italian is quite good. They offer a support phone number as well as email support. Although there's not a FAQ section, the help section at the beginning of the program was able to answer all questions we had about the software.

Summary:  

We found TeachMe! Italian to be a good fit for people beginning to learn the Italian language, but not the best choice for someone seeking complete fluency.