What language learning software is the best in your opinion? Please explain why.?

Question

I've been looking for language software to learn Asian languages, but I'm wary of the quality of most of the programs. I know I can download programs, but I really don't want to waste time downloading something that isn't worth my time. Nor do I want to waste my money on something of poor quality.

Answer 1

I used pimsleur it worked great for me. I was learning spanish and i felt like i learned more in 2months than i did two years in spanish in high school. my girlfriend who is fluent in spanish was surprised by how much i learnt in such a short period of time.

The Pimsleur Method uses four learning principles

The Principle of Anticipation
Language courses commonly require a student to repeat after an instructor, which Pimsleur believed was a passive way of learning. Pimsleur developed the "challenge and response" technique, where a student was asked to come up with the correct phrase in the target language, which was then confirmed. This technique developed an active way of learning, requiring the student to think before responding. Thus, the principle of anticipation is thought to better reflect real life conversations where a speaker must recall a phrase quickly.


Graduated Interval Recall
Graduated Interval Recall is a method of reinforcing learned vocabulary by having students rapidly recall learned material once it is learned and then gradually reviewing the material with larger and larger time intervals in between. It is a version of retention through spaced repetition. For example, if a student learns the word deux (French for two), then it is tested every few seconds in the beginning, then every few minutes, then every few hours, and then every few days. Thus, the word gradually moves from short term memory into longer term memory. The Pimsleur training programs in their current form specifically ask that a student listen to one 30 minute lesson each day (although few seem to take this advice) because the lessons are designed around optimal use of graduated interval recall.

Pimsleur's 1967 memory schedule was as follows: 5 seconds, 25 seconds, 2 minutes, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 5 hours, 1 day, 5 days, 25 days, 4 months, 2 years.


Core Vocabulary
One little known fact about languages is that a small core vocabulary is used most of the time. It varies depending on the language, but the vast majority of words spoken are from the most common words. Corpus linguistics compiled for various languages show what number of words is required to cover a certain percentage of the corpus. Data for Indian languages in the CIIL corpus show the number of words required for 50% coverage varies from 199 words in Hindi to 7,699 in Malayalam, while 80% coverage for those languages is 2,874 and 126,344 respectively.[1] When making a conlang, it is said that one can have a fully functional language with about 2,000 words, give or take a few hundred. The Pimsleur method works by teaching core vocabulary that tend to be most often used in everyday activities (i.e. to do, to say, to be, numbers, buying, eating and drinking). Pimsleur rarely directly teaches grammar, rather letting the student infer the grammar through common patterns in phrases.

Organic Learning
The Pimsleur Method attempts to teach, in the shortest time possible, functional mastery in understanding and speaking a language. It attempts to work on vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation all at once, while also teaching phrases that have practical use in daily life. With the belief that language is primarily speech, Dr. Pimsleur created his language programs in audio format because he believed that students of languages would learn better with their ears, not their eyes. This is achieved through what Dr. Pimsleur called "organic learning," which entails learning on several fronts at once. His system attempts to teach the student grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation in a more natural way. Learning through ears also tends to reduce foreign accents that can be acquired through "reading" memorized words.

sometimes hearing the same word repeated over and over again gets a lil annoying however it helped me retain much more words than if i tried to force myself to memorize it. however like it said above it teaches core vocab so to increase your vocabulary you can supplement it else where for additional words.

Some advice: even though some parts may seem repetitive stick with it and dont skip it will help maximize memorization. Practice daily. Practice as much as you can talking to native speakers.

I cant really compare it to other programs out there because this is the only one i used, but it worked great. I also hear Rosetta Stone is pretty good and I want to try it out to supplement Pimsleur.

If you have anymore questions hit me up on yahoo(mail or messenger). I like learning about languages I am majoring in Linguistics and I'm an aspiring polyglot.

Answer 2

rosetta stone is good but expensive. actually i think the vendor has a sale on it or something.