Smart Start Series
© 1997 Syracuse Language Systems (Vivendi)
Twenty games and comic strips help the learner read, speak and understand words and phrases in eight languages (one CD for each language). Vocabulary and conversation are both presented. The program comes with a microphone for use with the software's automatic voice recognition technology. When you speak into the microphone, the program is supposed to evaluate the accuracy of your pronunciation. (Either ours was inaccurate, or the program had trouble recognizing our voices— we never did get it right!) To use the program, you first you pick a mode (Listening or Speaking) and then a topic (food, numbers, people, etc.) For each subject, between five and seven non-glitzy games are offered, spread among three difficulty levels. Examples of activities include Concentration, Bingo and matching words to objects. The activities are relatively unexciting when compared to other programs for kids, but are effective at introducing vocabulary and conversation. Beware. While the program ran just fine on our Gateway an incompatibility of IBM ViaVoice prevented it from running on our Packard Bell.
$49.95, Win 95, Win 3.1 (CD-ROM, with Microphone)
Teaches: foreign language, French, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Japanese, Eng, Italian, Chinese