POWER-GLIDE LANGUAGE SERIES

REVIEW for Power Glide Language Courses  
Towards Fluency in …Spanish & French
1998 updated version
By Robert W. Blair Ph.D.
158 Lessons
Cost: $89.95 per set
Power Glide Language Courses
1682 West 820 North
Provo, Utah 84601
Phone (801)-373-3973
Fax (801)-343-3912
Toll-free 1-800-596-0910
Online Catalogue at: www.power-glide.com

Available courses in: Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and others to come shortly.

Each set comes with 6 double-sided cassette tapes that take you through the whole course and 1 large textbook. There are approximately 158 lessons. They have available additional student textbooks if needed. However, I believe that a group or a homeschooling family could easily write out the lessons on the chalkboard. Now available for some of the languages studied are supplemental CD-ROM's that correlate with the student textbook. The CD, which I have not yet reviewed, is suppose to contain three levels of difficulty and includes an electronic dictionary.

Author background as taken from text:
Robert W. Blair is a Ph.D. in Linguistics and has taught foreign languages for over 30 years. Having seriously studied over four-dozen languages, Dr. Blair understands the fascination behind language learning and his enthusiasm permeates his courses. He has prepared materials for the U.S. military, the Peace Corps, and thousands of students -- from preschool age to senior citizen. Robert Blair's classic book Innovative Approaches to Language Teaching has informed foreign language instructors internationally.

Well now, that sounds awfully impressive but it also made me think that this course could not be very easy to work with until I reviewed it myself. I was really shocked to see how well the content is laid out. I have used it with my kids through the first few lessons and they really like it and are learning at rapid pace.

Amazingly, it was quite easy to start the program compared to some others I have seen. You, as the independent learner, missionary leader, or homeschool teacher/parent do not need to have a previous background in order to use the materials. The book tells you when you need to use the tape and when to turn it off. The method is simple and I will demonstrate Spanish as an example here: a) Read the English and Spanish text outloud b) Compare the English to the Spanish c) Listen to the tape while following the written text d) Read outloud with the tape e) Listen to the tape without the text f) Read each Spanish sentence outloud, then look away and repeat it g) Think of the meaning while saying it h) Cover up the Spanish, look at the English and try to say it in Spanish i) Play the tape pausing after each English sentence trying to say the Spanish part j) Using notes of keywords, try to say the Spanish the best you can k) Then write your new words out on paper using the above method

Now Dr. Blair suggests, and I agree, that 10 minutes a day is far more important than one hour crammed only once a week. Each lesson does not take that long to do and should be repeated until it is mastered.

This is a real foreign language course, not a learn '1,000 words' so you can be a tourist program. Many of the other courses I have seen tend to reflect towards that choppy, visitor only teaching method.

The story line is this: you and your friend have landed on a foreign island and have 10 days to find out what is so important about it and why it has been taken captured. While the story is secular, I have not yet found anything that would be offensive to Christian parents and students. Realize that the story is not the course but only a part of it. It is interesting enough though to keep an adult's interest as well as a child's. Throughout the book you will come across many other activities that pulls the language lessons together.

Power Glide language series can be used with just about anyone of any age. I believe they have done a good job of teaching to the different learning styles. The use visual pictographs, music, stories, numbers, geography, and Diglot weave stories. A Diglot (two languages) weave story start by replacing only a few words in the story with ones from the new language you are studying. As the lessons progress, more and more of the English is replaced with the foreign language. This I think is really good because it helps to incorporate the new language firmly into your brain.

The pictographs are used to assist with learning the grammar structure. You will also find recipes, and culture facts spread throughout the text, which I really liked. The culture facts will focus in on different cultures that use that particular language. For Spanish as an example, you will learn about Hispanic, Mexican, Bolivian, Nicaraguan, Paraguayan, etc. This really helps tie you into the language and makes it even more interesting to keep learning your new skill.

Just as there are many dialects in English, so are there for other languages. Take for example the difference in a New York accent versus someone from Alabama! Or how 'Cheerio' means 'good day' in London but here it means my daughter's breakfast cereal. Power Glide has taken the effort to include the many different accents and dialects for each language studied. This means that you will hear many different voices on the tapes to expose you to the differences.

With Power Glide Language courses you can use this curriculum:

• ¨ With or without a teacher
• ¨ In groups or independently
• ¨ As fast or as slow as needed
• ¨ With several children in a family
• ¨ With or without the supplemental materials
• ¨ Teach using many learning styles

I would recommend this language course to anyone, especially those adults desiring to learn on their own, homeschooling families, and missionaries. I would also suggest the following to also be added to keep your new language in use and to help it sink deeper. I would buy some books that you are very familiar with in your new language. Some possibilities would be like the Magic School Bus series that Scholastic Books sells. They sell that entire series in many foreign languages. Another suggestion is to learn a new language with a friend so that you can use it together by speaking, writing etc. (for kids or spouses, it would be their own secret code…) Another idea for children is to buy some games in the new language. I know of one particular store in Michigan that carries items like Scrabble and Monopoly in several foreign languages. Try to use the language on a daily basis, making your own Diglot in your speech with others. A foreign pen pal that is learning English would make the ideal friend to assist with your learning.

WHY LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE?

There are many reasons that come to my mind for taking the time needed to acquire a foreign language skill. One reason would be to study the Bible on a deeper level in the original Greek or Hebrew. Another reason would be to communicate God's word to others. Still another would be to gain understanding of language roots such as by learning Latin. The reason my 9-year-old gives is to have a secret code with her sisters.

Now many of you will have college bound students and for that reason alone, they will need to have at least two years of foreign language behind them. It is a requirement in college for many degrees and not just the ones in law and medicine. Learning a new language may open some doors to other learning areas as well. For a child who has an interest in Japan, learning Japanese would bring that desire one step closer. You could really study that whole country and build history, geography and much more from it. Perhaps that child could even save away for a trip to that foreign country upon college graduation! (Teaching that valuable skill of saving your money and budgeting!)