Turtleboy:
The answer is no. I'm a researcher in applied linguistics, and a
former high school and university language teacher (Spanish), and I
can tell you that few if any commercial courses have independent
verification of their efficacy. Most are just plain dreadful.
The Rosetta Stone program, which is mentioned above, is not the worse
thing out there, but it's a long way from what you'd need. It's
essentially an electronic set of flash cards. Pimsleur's courses use
lots of repeat-after-me, which has not been found to be an effective
means of language acquisition, either. (Ironically, Pimsleur was
himself a language professor back in the'60s.)
Sorry for the bad news. Although you say that you want to increase
your speaking and understanding, you should start with the easiest
path, which is reading some simple Spanish texts (comic books,
low-level texts, etc.). Don't worry that it isn't aural/oral; it will
get you acquiring vocabulary and syntax again. There are some very
easy books that have CD's that go along with them so you can listen
along that you might try. They're sold by an independent publisher,
found at www.BlaineRayTPRS.com (I have no connection to this site,
btw). Look for the Pobre Ana series. Buy the book and the CD audio
and start listening. It assumes some basic knowledge, but if you had,
say, an intermediate level of exposure 20 years ago, you'll probably
be able to make most of it out. Once you listen enough, the speaking
will start coming back to you. Understanding/listening comprehension
comes first; speaking will follow.
Buena suerte.
P.S. Whatever you do, don't go plunking down good money for anything
that says it uses the Foreign Service Institute's methods--these are
literally 1940's-era courses which are nearly worthless for language
acquisition. |
