What is the best software for learning Spanish? The answer to this question will vary depending on your reason for learning Spanish. If it’s for conversing with locals or understanding menus or if you’re learning Spanish to go abroad.
“There are four basic skills required for language learning: vocabulary, pronunciation, listening comprehension , and writing. With native-like diction that’s accessible to even beginners, these apps let you focus on any of of these areas while you practice the others. This means you’ll build new vocabulary through every class, learn how to communicate through spoken narration, perfect your accent by changing your accent patterns, and internalize key concepts with comprehensible messages.”
There are a number of resources for learning Spanish, from apps to videos to books, but it is important to note that there are different resources for different types of learners. Additionally, some resources are better suited as supplementary material for those who have already learned Spanish on their own.
Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone remains the best premium software for building a foundation in a foreign language. It’s excellent for beginners, and it has a ton of additional content for more advanced learners, too.
PROS
- Excellent user experience
- Highly intuitive
- Polished interface on desktop and mobile
- Optional online tutoring sessions
- Great bonus content
CONS
- No placement test
- Repetitive at times
Duolingo
Duolingo is the best free app for learning a language. Unique features and a clear structure make it a reliable place to learn new languages or sharpen your skills.
PROS
- Free
- Excellent podcast for Spanish and French
- Clear structure
- Lets you test out of lessons that are too easy
- Offers many languages
CONS
- Quantity of material varies among languages
Fluenz
Fluenz recreates aspects of classroom learning in its foreign language instruction. It’s one of the best in its class, but it only offers a few languages.
PROS
- Excellent core content
- Well suited for beginners and for long-term use
- Thorough
- App design prevents distractions
CONS
- Limited number of languages
- Only basic voice recording
- No live web classes
Lingoda
Speaking and interacting with others is a crucial part of learning a language, and Lingoda offers fantastic hour-long lessons to get you there. Enthusiastic, qualified instructors and solid teaching materials make these classes shine.
PROS
- Affordable
- Small group and one-on-one language classes via Zoom
- Qualified, enthusiastic instructors
- Good learning materials
- Placement test provided
CONS
- Offers instruction in few languages
- Does not include a software-based course
Rype
Rype is an online marketplace where language learners can find tutors for one-on-one video-call sessions. The price is extremely low, although the sessions are only 30 minutes each.
PROS
- Inexpensive one-on-one tutoring
- Good tools for finding instructors
CONS
- Short sessions
- May take time to find the right instructor
Yabla
Yabla strengthens foreign language listening skills with thousands of videos and exercises based on them. It’s excellent for people with prior language experience, but not ideal for novices.
PROS
- Excellent for sharpening language-listening skills
- Provides exposure to new words and expressions
- Uses a variety of speakers and accents
- Videos with conversational pace
CONS
- Lacks structure
- Inconsistent quality
- Few languages offered
Babbel
Babbel has an easy-to-use interface and – crucially – it allows learners to set their own study targets. This means that you can use the platform as you see fit, dipping into it occasionally to brush up on your vocab or committing to hour-long sessions every day so you can perfect your Spanish accent.
It has a good set of tracking tools, so you can map your progress. Getting a subscription will also bag you a handful of learning extras, like stories, podcasts and mini-games. These features are curated to fit your current learning level, so even if you’re a complete beginner you should get some benefit from these tools.
We like the ‘review’ section, which will periodically test you out on vocab and grammar rules you’ve learned, to make sure they don’t slip from your memory. There’s also a live tutoring option available for an extra fee, which allows you to chat with a qualified teacher or native speaker to test out your learning so far.
The only negative we could find with the platform is that occasionally the lesson structure feels repetitive, although this is true of a lot of language platforms.
Mondly
Mondly is a well designed, very modern language app, which is available on both smart devices and web browsers. If you’re in need of some basic phrases, or a broad grasp of the Spanish language for a vacation or business trip, this is a superb option. It has a gentle learning curve, a useful structure that breaks down learning into subject areas, and everything is very visually pleasing and simple to navigate.
We like the mix of visual and audio cues for each lesson, and the fact that there is an attempt to incentivize and gamify learning – there are star ratings per lesson, leaderboards, and daily challenges. It all helps to keep to coming back to learn. You can share your profile across the phone app and the web version, so it doesn’t matter what device you choose to learn on, at any given time.
Pricing is good too, as the cost per month and per year is pretty reasonable – it’s cheaper than many other providers on this list. The downside, though, is that it isn’t as suitable for mid-level and advanced learners, as it focuses mostly on vocabulary and phrases. If you’re looking for context, structure, and grammar then Mondly falls behind some of its competitors.
Overall, though, we really enjoyed using this app, so would heartily recommend it to anyone who just wants a beginner’s knowledge of language.
News In Slow Spanish
We like News In Slow Spanish. What it does, it does very well indeed: it reads you various news reports, in Spanish, only slowed down so you have a better chance of picking out words. It then invites you to pick out phrases or vocab from the news report, and tests you on them. There is an audio transcript of each report, and you can choose to translate certain elements of this if you need help with understanding it.
We recommend this one for intermediate users because the course is all in Spanish, and you need a basic grasp of the language to take part. There is a beginner option, but we found it very challenging, so required a lot of persistence. There is a massive amount of content to choose from with this course so, even though it’s expensive, you do get value for money. It’s effective too, and the fact that the news reports cover real topics means that you learn loads about modern Spanish culture too.
If you’re worried this is too advanced for you, we suggest pairing it with Duolingo to help you get a better grasp of the language first, for free, before launching into News In Slow.
Features to Look Out for
This list can help to be your “checklist” when it comes to finding the perfect Spanish language learning software.
- It’s a structured Spanish course
- It keeps you motivated to learn Spanish
- It’s goal-oriented
- It’s an interactive Spanish course
- It’s personalized and adaptable to your needs
- It’s a well-balanced course
- It’s very comprehensive
- It teaches you practical Spanish
- It goes from beginner to advanced Spanish
- It’s easy for you to access and use
- The cost structure suits you
Let’s take a look at them.
1. It’s a structured Spanish course:
No great achievement ever happens overnight, and learning Spanish is no different. In order to learn Spanish fast, you first need to make smart, realistic goals to help yourself organize your time and plan your studies. Your Spanish language learning software should help you do this by allowing you to 0l(Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals.
2. It keeps you motivated to learn Spanish:
The more motivated you are to learn Spanish, the easier, more fun, and faster it will be to learn it. Your language learning software should help you to stay motivated. The best language learning software should be interactive, fun, engaging, and maybe even a little competitive to help keep you motivated. Ideally, it should include a way to connect with other learners (like a forum) to share in your language learning adventure.
Connecting and communicating with others is a great way to keep us motivated and accountable for our language learning progress. It’s also very important that your software tracks your progress so you can see your progress and feel good about yourself, which will help to keep you motivated, dedicated, and on the right track.
3. It’s goal-oriented:
Learning Spanish is a never-ending task, so it’s essential to set goals from the very beginning so you don’t get frustrated and you can better measure your achievements. The ideal software should break down the process of studying Spanish into different levels so you always know where you’re at.
4. It’s an interactive Spanish course
One of the greatest contributions of computer-based learning is that you no longer need be in a classroom to interact and listen to other people speaking Spanish. The ideal Spanish learning software should provide you with a variety of engaging, interactive activities that help you improve your listening and speaking skills. A language-oriented forum or chat is also a great idea when it comes to encouraging students to interact and put what they’ve learned into practice.
Our online Spanish course Rocket Spanish, for example, has interactive audio lessons, a pronunciation tool, and a forum for you to connect with other Spanish learners.
5. It’s personalized and adaptable to your needs
Every student is different. Learning Spanish is not the same for a native Italian speaker with other experience learning foreign languages as it is for a native English speaker who’s new to the language learning scene. Also, a student whose goal is to travel to Mexico with her family won’t need to study in the same way as a student who needs to focus on business-oriented Spanish.
Language learning software should adapt to any situation and give learners the possibility to manage their own learning process according to their needs and learning styles. It should provide a wide variety of activities and promote flexibility to suit students’ goals, moods, and energy levels as they study.
6. It’s a well-balanced course:
The best Spanish learning software should help you to learn vocabulary, grammar, and culture while listening, speaking, reading, and writing. None of these elements should be neglected, and there should be a balanced amount of each in your study program.
Ideally, there should be voice recognition technology to help you practice speaking and your program should include interactive listening, reading, and writing lessons. Vocabulary should be presented in context and you should be able to study it with tools that allow for its repetition, such as flashcards or your own personalized online notebook.
It’s amazing how many language learning programs avoid explaining grammar topics and neglect teaching culture, and we can’t emphasize the importance of these two topics enough. The majority of language learners don’t just want to memorize words and sentences but want (and need) to know the grammatical rules to be able to form their own sentences.
Similarly, culture and language go hand-in-hand, and understanding the culture of a people can help you to better understand and appreciate their language. Make sure that your language learning software explains the grammar and teaches culture.
7. It’s very comprehensive:
Quality is not an option when it comes to learning Spanish. Studying a language is a time-consuming and tricky process, and you should be able to take advantage of the best possible tools. That’s why language learning software isn’t something you want to buy at the dollar store during your lunch break.
Make sure the program you choose is filled with audiovisual and written content and gives you all the necessary tools to succeed. When it comes to learning languages, it’s worth investing a little extra to have high-quality materials that you can use for every aspect of the learning process.
8. It teaches you practical Spanish:
Who wants to learn how to say “my tailor is rich” in Spanish? If we hardly ever say that in our native language, why should those be my first words in Spanish? Unfortunately, a lot of language learning software doesn’t take into account the practicality of the vocabulary you’re learning.
The best language learning software should teach the most practical words and structures first. Believe it or not, we only need about 5% of the words present in a language to be able to interact in 95% of all situations, and the ideal language learning software would take advantage of this by helping you to reach fluency the practical way by learning the most practical and frequently used words, phrases and grammar first.
9. It goes from beginner to advanced Spanish:
You won’t be a Spanish beginner forever, and the ideal language learning software should include all levels according to a measurable scale, from beginner to advanced.
It should also keep in mind that we all learn differently, and should cater to as many different learning styles as possible in order to accommodate every learning style. That means that lessons in all topics should include a variety of visual, audio, verbal, logical, and even physical activities to help everyone to learn.
10. It’s easy for you to access and use:
Since the biggest advantage of Spanish learning software is the flexibility that it offers to the students regarding time and place, why not make the most of this fantastic benefit?
The perfect language learning program is one that you can access online from any computer, without the inconvenience of having to carry books or CDs. Also, the possibility of accessing some features from anywhere through a cell phone app is a really interesting and useful characteristic to look for in software. That way, you can study anywhere and anytime you have a free moment.
Conclusion
We all love learning new languages! But the best way to learn is to be immersed in it. You cannot make strides in learning a language when you are not able to communicate with the people you are trying to communicate with. That’s why it’s very important that you are able to Skype with your family members back home within the first few weeks of starting your Spanish course or language course.