RocketSpanishReviewed.com

Rocket Spanish have two educational games to help you learn Spanish. They are :
Megavocab
Megaaudio

This post will talk about megavocab. As the name suggests, the game is aimed at teaching you vocabulary. In some respects I think vocabulary is pretty hard to pick up.

It isn’t something that you can learn in a scholarly manner. The word just has to stick in your head so that it is triggered whenever you see an example of it. I think the best way to get a word stuck in your head is to use it in conversation. This seems to form a link in the mind; maybe even an emotional connection with the word. Once you have used the word, you will find that you remember it. Use it a few times and it will be part of your Spanish vocabulary.

Of course speaking Spanish all the time is not always practical if you are living in a country that doesn’t speak Spanish so how do you learn vocabulary ?

Common teaching methods are to use audio-visual materials to reinforce the meaning of a word. By repeatedly seeing the audio-visual material it is hoped that the connection in the brain will form. Another simple technique is to use flash cards. Flash cards are, essentially, home made picture cards with the corresponding Spanish and English word underneath or on the other side of the picture. The flash cards can be used to play vocabulary games. So you could play at guessing the word for a picture, against another student, and the one with the most cards at the end is the winner. It is hoped that this ‘competition angle’ provides enough emotional involvement in the learning process that the words being learned might stick.

Megavocab is a digital set of flash cards.

There are 20 separate topics to choose from. Each topic concentrates on the type of words that might be associated with the topic, some examples being shopping, colors, food and drink, tourism etc.

When you select a topic, you are taken to a screen that has a photograph, 4 Spanish words down the side of the picture and a box where you can display the English word for the picture. Your task is to click the Spanish word that corresponds to the picture.

Each topic asks you 25 questions and keeps a running tally of the number of correct answers. At the end of the 25 questions, an overall percentage of correctly answered questions is given. This can give you an idea of whether you should repeat the topic or do another one.

I found that the box where you can toggle the English word on/off was useful, as sometimes, the picture was a bit misleading. For example, a picture of new shoes would be displayed and the correct answer would be new. My first thought would be that the answer was shoes, so this feature helps. But I would try to keep the English word toggle on as a back up, as this makes it too easy. You start associating the Spanish word with the English word and not the picture, which isn’t the point of the exercise.

The Megavocab also has a feature where you can add your own questions to the system. You can add your own picture, Spanish word and English word. In effect, you can create your own digital flash cards on any topic you desire. Given that there are many websites where you can get free pictures, you can create a flash card on virtually any word you can think of. I imagine this process of finding the word and picture might help you to learn the word anyhow so it’s a useful feature even though it might be time consuming to create hundreds of original entries.

In my opinion, Megavocab is a useful vocabulary learning tool. It is easy to use and gives you feedback on how you are doing. It is also a bit of fun to play when you need a break from the lessons.

Find out more about MegaVocab and the Rocket Spanish course by visiting the Rocket Spanish site