I cannot tell you how many countless hours I have spent reviewing Spanish courses. The only one I would sincerely recommend is called Spanish Power. Of course, I wrote that course and teach it.

I know this sounds self-serving but I do not honestly believe that there is a better Spanish training course anywhere in the country. With that fairly heady introduction to this chapter, allow me to explain to you what I believe makes for great training materials.

Let's start off with a premise. The premise is that you should develop the majority of your knowledge of the Spanish language through your course materials. I touched on this in the last chapter when I spoke about the tutoring process. I said then that the primary purpose of tutoring is to apply the knowledge you develop through the use of the right kind of course materials.

The purpose of this chapter is to give you a foundation as it relates to what you should expect from course materials you use to learn Spanish. As always, I will tell you what to expect and why.

Ready? Let's get started.

Here are the top eight things you should expect from outstanding course materials:

#1 - Great course materials contain great memory systems.

Memory Systems are built around the twin towers of repetition and retroactivity. Of course, really great memory systems also incorporate elements of relaxation and the ridiculous as I mentioned in an earlier chapter.

Any excellent course will contain a built-in memory system that will virtually insure that everything you study will be retained in long-term memory. I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter that I review a lot of Spanish courses. I do this for two reasons; first, to see if they are doing anything really well that we should implement, second, to see what they are doing poorly so that we can seize an opportunity.

I have not reviewed any courses available on the common market that contain strong long-term memory systems. Well-structured course materials will contain a built-in memory system. That system will tell you exactly what to do and how to do it. It will even tell you how many times you need to process information in order to store information into long-term memory. These memory systems will function for both vocabulary learning and verb structural mastery.

#2 - Great course materials will teach you how to master the language structurally without bogging you down into traditional views of "tense" and "conjugation."

In two earlier chapters we discussed "the fruit and the root" and "the power of patterns." All of what I said in those two chapters applies here. If you properly learn the use of patterns in the language, and if you properly learn how to plug vocabulary into these patterns, you are way ahead of almost all Spanish learners.

Really great course materials are able to teach you structure in innovative and effective ways that allow you to actually put the language together for yourself. Some people say, "Well, I just want to learn to converse. I do not want to learn structure and grammar.” Please understand that if you do not learn structure correctly, you will always sound like a four-year-old when you speak in Spanish. Structure is your friend. The key is learning it in a way that keeps you out of all the technical jargon, yet is truly effective.

I mentioned a tool I developed several years ago called, "The Real Spanish Path." It teaches 12 of the 15 patterns in one fell swoop. We then take about eight lessons of our Basic Level to solidify these patterns. It is great because by the end of the Basic Level you have learned to use around 70 percent of the structure of the language you will ever use no matter how proficient you become.

#3 - Great course materials are ordered and systematic.

Really well-structured course materials are not "self-study." They are ordered and systematic. They lay out clear and objective steps you should complete within certain time limits. They tell you what to do, when, how, and how many times to do something.

You should use course materials containing the following elements in each lesson plan:

1. Pronunciation
2. Vocabulary and Structural Memory Systems
3. Structural Development Teaching
4. Writing and Revision Exercises
5. Speech Flow Development

#4 - Great course materials are accompanied by professional tutoring and support services.

This pretty much eliminates every program in the bookstores and catalogues. I do not know of one "off the shelf" program that offers you professional tutoring and support that directly correlates with the learning materials.

#5 - Great course materials are balanced. They teach you how to read, write, speak and understand Spanish.

Some people say that they only want to speak and do not care about reading and writing. First of all, writing is absolutely the best thing you can do to retain information and should be used extensively in any quality learning program. Secondly, once you learn the language there is no question that you will want to be able to read and write well. You simply cannot say that you "communicate well in Spanish" if you cannot read, write, speak, and understand.

Permit me to say something else about the importance of the writing process in learning a language. In our Spanish Power course materials, we will teach you a way to do writing exercises so you are properly combining the senses of seeing, touching, hearing and saying. By doing this you will achieve up to 90 percent retention on all information processed.

The popular marketing slogan used for many language courses, "just 30 minutes a day in your car for 30 days and you'll be conversing in Spanish" is marketing propoganda. It is simply not true and you should not be taken in by it. Quality courses optimize the writing process because writing information in the correct ways allows for the highest retention rate of material of any other learning technique.

#6 - Great course materials teach you how to put the language together for yourself.

With excellent course materials you will learn to put sentences together for yourself rather than memorizing pre-written conversations and dialogues. So many programs make the terrible mistake of including a lot of dialogues of things like "Pedro and María in a restaurant" or "The Ramírez family in Guadalajara." Well, if all you can do is "parrot" a bunch of memorized conversations and dialogues you will be in big trouble in real life conversations.

As I mentioned earlier in this booklet, you need to learn to paint your own pictures, not make a cheap copy. When you complete a quality course, you will be able to effectively form BILLIONS of sentences for yourself through the power of combining words with patterns.

#7 - Great course materials teach you to develop "speech flow" and "comprehension" in a graduated fashion.

What I mean by this is that excellent course materials do not expect you to hear and speak at "native" rates of speed from the very beginning. Very, very few adult learners can handle native rate of speed at the beginning of a program.

Speech flow can developed through a technique called "Paced Reading." This is a drama technique that is used by actors and actresses who want to learn to speak like people from other cultures. Paced Reading should be graduated. In other words, Basic Level instruction at 50 percent of a native, Intermediate at 70 percent, Advanced at 90 percent, and Expert at 100 percent.

Paced Reading allows you to develop strong language infrastructure without the pressure of having to "talk like a native." It allows you to put your focus where it needs to be initially, rather than on speed and movement. You have heard the saying, "speed kills." If you get too much speed, too quickly, it will not kill you, but it may kill your desire to learn Spanish. Speed, comprehension, and speech flow should be introduced in a graduated fashion.

#8 - Great course materials are taught by an expert teacher.

Many courses are taught by "native speakers" who are simply employed by the company marketing the courses. Very, very few courses are actually taught by the course designer and program creator.

For what it is worth, I personally do all of the teaching on the audio portions of the Spanish Power Course Materials. This is the best way that I can assure each Bilingual America student will receive the very best instruction no matter who you are or where you are.

Several people have even called me, "America's Best Spanish Teacher." To have me teach you in person would cost you more than it would cost to get an expert lawyer! In Spanish Power you get over 200 hours of learning processes that I personally teach you. Of course, you will also have the benefit of having a skilled and certified tutor who will guide you in direct correlation with your course materials.

I can promise you that the teaching is to-the-point, no-nonsense, and highly effective. In short, you will learn and you will not be “stressed out” or “bored” by doing it.

That is what great course materials are all about. If you begin a course in Bilingual America's Spanish Power Training Materials, you will get all eight of these things and more. In fact, Spanish Power comes with a 45-day unconditional learning satisfaction guarantee. If you are not getting the results you expect, we will refund your money…no questions…no hassles!