Teach Yourself Improve Your Spanish (Book Only)

This CD/textbook combo does a great job in teaching Spanish effectively. The text provides vocabulary and grammar skills through everyday situations (mostly tourist related, such as finding apartments or shopping), and the CDs include listening exercises for each unit to help learners grow accustomed to recognizing the vocabulary as it's used. If used correctly, this course can be an excellent tool for building a stronger foundation in the language. The focus is on European Spanish, and the recorded material was done by native speakers of that dialect. A number of conversations and listening drills feature South American dialects (namely Chilean and Peruvian), added to provide familiarity with the intonation and pronunciation of the language in those dialects. Although the vocabulary isn't exhaustive for each situation handled in the textbook, it helps learners gain a better working knowledge of how to use what they learn in everyday situations. The audio drills on the recordings are often not transcribed, so listeners build comprehension skills from the start. Throughout most of the book, the native speakers talk at a speed just slightly slower than that of everyday speech, but this shouldn't discourage perspective buyers from purchasing this course -- the audio is clear and instructional, and the listening skills a person can gain from this course are without a doubt essential. After completing the course, learners won't be fluent by any means, but the main objective -- improving your Spanish -- will definitely have been reached if the course was used correctly. Moving on to a more advanced course (Living Language Ultimate Spanish : Advanced is an ideal choice) is the next step toward continuing self-study in the language.