Learn Italian Now! Version 6.0 is an activity‐based language program that allows users to learn a new language by interacting with authentic native material. It follows an immersion approach to learning a foreign language that differs from most other programs. As not everyone learns the same way, students have the flexibility to jump right into the language or to follow a step‐by‐step approach if they prefer more structured lessons.
Students can select to begin with either of four titles: a cultural title (Guide to three Italian cities), a travel title (Around Italy with Gabriella and Piero), most common words, and survival phrases. These titles form the core of the work and have games, conversation practice, and Listen & Speak activities associated with them to supplement and reinforce the lessons and to build reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills.
After selecting a title, the student sees a screen that seems very busy, with eight windows open and laid out across the screen. However, one can minimize six of these windows, as desired, to get more working space. The main window appears on the left, under the bar indicating the open title. This contains the text of the dialog in Italian. The sentence or segment appears in blue and the word under the cursor is red. The media window appears to the right. Students can also opt to close this window to enlarge the text area, if so desired.
Both the text and media windows have two sets of controls: one to play the dialog or the video in its entirety and another to play it segment by segment. Playing the dialog in its entirety lets the student see the whole lesson; but it will be too fast and overwhelming for the beginning student. That’s where the second set of controls prove valuable. With these, the student can slow the dialog to examine sentences word‐by‐word or in segments. The translation of the segment appears in the window beneath the text There are other windows for word meaning, root word, and phrase meaning.
As the student moves the cursor over the words and phrases, the text color changes and the meaning appears in the appropriate windows. Also, grammatical notes appear in the window in the lower right explaining the grammatical rules that apply to the particular word or phrase. All of these elements operate in sync with the text and video.
Another window appears just above the grammatical notes and below the media window. This is for recording personal notes about the grammar or other elements of the lesson or for adding or removing vocabulary words that need more attention. As students get more familiar with the language and need less prompting and assistance, they can close any unneeded windows except for the main text and notes/vocabulary windows.
The supplementary games consist of fill‐in‐the‐blanks and unscrambling (arranging the words in proper order) activities, vocabulous (fill‐in‐the‐blanks vocabulary builder), and crossword puzzles. For these last two, students can select a part of speech to focus on. Most of the games have time limits and some have prompts available. They can challenge even people familiar with the language.
Learn Italian Now! Version 6.0 lets users record their own pronunciation and compare it both aurally and visually to the native speaker’s pronunciation. Students can practice pronunciation or take dictation of words and sentences. In the pronunciation segments, they can compare the graphs of their speech with that of the native speakers, examining articulation, loudness, pitch, timing, and voicing (whether sounds are produced from the vocal chords or by air forced around the teeth, tongue, or lips). These graphs are a unique aspect of this program. Other programs include a feature to record and view one’s pronunciation; but none have such a variety of options to do so. This feature is based on advanced speech analysis technology originally designed as a tool for the hearing impaired. It lets users see how closely they approach the model of the native speaker. These graphs allow users to hone their pronunciation skills while realizing that no comparison will ever be perfect due to differences in voices and recording qualities.
Learn Italian Now! Version 6.0 comes on 2 CDs that contain both the Windows (95 and 3.1) and Macintosh versions. A bonus CD includes seven more conversations and videos; a detailed grammar with quizzes for the different parts of speech; Accent, a multilingual word processor that includes foreign language keyboards, a multilingual spell checker, and online thesauri; and Berlitz Interpreter which lets students translate over 50,000 words to or from English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.
Geared to the adult learner, Learn Italian Now! is a well‐integrated product and should be commended for the way it keeps media, text, and explanations synchronized with each other. It is an excellent product that combines both total immersion and translation techniques, thereby accommodating different learning styles. The series is also available in Spanish, French, German, Russian, Latin, English (for Spanish speakers), Swedish, Dutch, and Portuguese. Students can sample each of these editions, as there is a sample page available from the main menu. The Product Catalog, also contained on the disc, provides further information about each title as well as the several Transparent Language, Inc. complementary titles that reinforce the acquisition of grammar and vocabulary skills. Highly recommended.
