RocketSpanishReviewed.com

The audio component of any language learning course is the most important part in my opinion, because it teaches you how to speak and comprehend spoken Spanish. This is the whole point of learning a new language – to speak to people from different cultures and experiences. You will also find that once you get the confidence to talk to Spanish speaking people without feeling foolish or embarrassed your learning will come on in leaps and bounds. Speaking words and sentences make them stick and being able to communicate your thoughts to other people motivates you to learn more Spanish.

I think the Rocket Spanish audio course is very good. It comprises 31 lessons of about 20-30 minutes in length.

The basic format of each lesson is a scene involving the narrator of the course and her native Spanish speaking friend.

So for example, they might be in a restaurant and they would have a conversation revolving around things you might say at the restaurant.

After the conversation the lesson would work through the conversation explaining points of grammar, vocabulary and, most importantly, pronunciation.

The narrator is an English speaking person and she will guide the teaching and explain concepts and meanings of Spanish words.

The native Spanish speaker (Mauricio, the creator of the course) speaks all the Spanish conversations. He will say a sentence and then say each of the words or pronunciation chunks separately so that the listener can repeat the pronunciation after her.

This method is similar to the Pimsleur way of teaching pronunciation. It might be a bit slow to begin with, but it breaks down each syllable and ensures that you stress each syllable correctly.

The native Spanish speaker generally says all the sentences once and then pauses allowing the listener to say the sentence out loud. They stress that you have to speak the words out loud to get the pronunciation right. As I said before, by saying something it seems to stick in your head.

At the end of each lesson the narrator recaps the points of the lesson. They will run through the conversation again and then ask a few questions that try to incorporate what you have just learned into what you learned in previous lessons.

The interactive part of the audio lessons involves speaking the sentences and pronunciation chunks after the native speaker and answering the questions that the narrator might ask. If the narrator asks a question, there will be a pause that allows you to answer, then the native Spanish speaker will give the correct answer.

As I say, I think the audio course, in conjunction with the games, e-book course and flash cards makes the Rocket Spanish course good value for money. It will definitely help you to learn Spanish or take your Spanish learning to the next level. I think the audio will give you more confidence to speak to real Spanish people, which is half the battle when it comes to becoming fluent in a new language.

For a review of the other components of the Rocket Spanish course see my Rocket Spanish Review and description on how to use the Rocket Spanish games.

Go to the official Rocket Spanish website.