How to Choose the Right Teach Yourself Italian Guide

Introduction

When it comes to learning Italian, we all have distinct aims, preferences, priorities, flexibility, availability and budgets. That's a lot of factors, but luckily however, there is a plethora of resources out there to cover almost every conceivable language learner profile. Whether  you simply want the basics for a holiday or are looking to start a new life in Italy, some prefer interactivity and a personal touch whilst others are more comfortable studying grammatical rules and syntax; no one product will cover every preference. 

In this way, it is imperative that rather than simply look for a teach yourself Italian course, you must look for your teach yourself Italian course. Those with language study experience will undoubtedly have a much better idea of their preferred language learning style. For complete beginners however, all the  jargon, options and variation within teach yourself Italian products will certainly be daunting. 

The development of self language learning products has gone hand in hand with the technological revolution of the 21st century. It wasn't long ago that  budding polyglots had little option but to commit themselves to nothing more than text books, dictionaries, grammar tables and the occasional fuzzy cassette tape. Today, however, self language learning programs have fully incorporated recent technological advances into their teaching methods but certainly not in a neat nor linear way. The recent explosion of products has shot out branches in every direction filling every conceivable niche in the market.

We have reviewed a selection that we consider to represent the best of all the various of teach yourself Italian products out there. Here you can find a breakdown of what is most important to look out for when it comes to choosing a teach yourself Italian product that will meet your specific needs as an individual language learner.

With every language there are 6 main aspects that you must consider when choosing the right program for you, these are; reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar and vocabulary. Some consider 'thinking' to be a 7th, however not everyone is agreed upon this and we'll go into this later. Your choice of which, or all, of these aspects you focus on will depend on your commitment, experience, preference and availability of other resources.

Perhaps the most common single focus of products in this category is solely on vocabulary. This is because Italian, when it comes down to it, is made of nothing more than words. With a strong base of vocabulary you will be able to understand instructions and the gist of what is written or being said as well as express yourself simply. Although studying grammar will be necessary to understand more complex ideas and express yourself fully, vocabulary can be a great place to begin as you can start using it immediately. 

In fact, it is proven that students with a strong vocabulary base make quicker progress when picking up the complexities of a language. Flashcards are the tried and tested manner through which vocabulary is learnt and in their electronic format they come integrated with native speaker pronunciations progress trackers and specific algorithms to optimize the memorization process.

Audio only courses claim 'no need for books' and simply focus on listening and speaking skills. As arguably the two most important aspects of any language this represents a very efficient way to learn and, with some effort, should leave you confident in expressing yourself in conversational Italian. However, your reading and writing will invariably be lacking and, although many do come with complementary textbooks, your reading and writing will invariably be lacking. 

Audio courses can also be excellent complements to other sources of Italian learning such as living in Italy, Italian classes or other self-study programs. However, with an audio course as your only resource you will not achieve an advanced level of Italian and will need to consider a comprehensive teach yourself Italian course.

If you are simply preparing for a holiday in Italy and just need a few words and phrases in order to get by then a comprehensive course may not be for you as there would be little point in learning grammatical rules you will never use. This said, as a beginner you may actually prefer to understand the language structure in terms of grammar and even enjoy learning Italian so much that you decide to take it further.

In such a case, a comprehensive course will suit you well but you must be careful to choose a level which is right for you; some courses offer to take you from complete beginner to advanced. Be realistic, achieving an advanced level in Italian is not easy, despite what some products may tell you and it would be an awful waste of up to $500 on a product that may end up simply gathering dust.  Experienced language learners will find it easier to gage their expectations and needs but also must remember to avoid purchasing a complete box set including material which they have already studied.

Teaching style

Before the availability of advanced interactive software, the only immersion style learning that was possible was actually going to Italy and living there. Today however, many programs have reached such a level of sophistication that they claim to simulate this experience, branching off from the more traditional approach to form two main types of teaching methodology within the self-study sector. Individual needs and preferences which become quite clear early on in the learning process will be the key determinants of your choice. Those with some experience of language learning will probably already have a good idea of what they prefer, but beginners should read on as we explain the difference.

• The traditional approach:
  The study of anything requires it to be broken down along with analysis of its constituent parts and how they work together. This reductionist approach has, for a long time, dominated language learning; indecipherable 'babble' is broken down into sentences, words and syllables. Learners link words with meanings and perfect their pronunciation. A framework of grammatical rules is then constructed to enable learners to understand how these words are put together into sentences in order to express increasingly complex concepts and ideas.
  
  This often involves memorization using tools such as flashcards, activities and tests to cement what you have learned. Don't be put off by this 'classroom' approach; increasingly powerful technology gives traditional methods a 21st century twist making them varied and engaging. A variety of activities - multi media to contextualize your learning and Interactive games ensure that the learning experience becomes neither dry nor boring.
  
  

• The immersion approach: 
  Perhaps due to the greater international mobility we enjoy today, it has become increasingly clear that some kind of 'immersion' is necessary in order to achieve fluency. Children, for example, pick up a language naturally and quickly without recourse to vocab lists or grammar books. This is because, experts argue, language acquisition is a natural process for us when we are 'immersed'. Our brains, apparently, will naturally pick out and internalize patterns and make associations between words and their meanings.
  
  Furthermore, this natural process results in far more profound learning, allowing us to actually 'think' in another language rather than constantly translating. Within this holistic approach to language acquisition, users are simply exposed to new words and increasingly complex sentences along with pictures, audio and video with neither translations nor grammar.

Format

From the humble textbook to multi CD box sets and everything in between, teach yourself Italian products come in all shapes and sizes. Most textbooks are accompanied by audio CDs which should consist of high quality native speaker audio with instructions in English or occasionally other languages. Most of the time, users can rip this audio to their computer and transfer it to their Mp3 player or iPod. Film clips, role plays, interactive lessons and language games enable you to enjoy a varied and engaging language learning experience from the comfort of your own home at times that suit you.

Lesson plans and flashcards are generally printable in order to accompany your audio lessons and keep you learning on the go. Furthermore, along with podcasts, CDs and Mp3s being fully portable, with the advent of iPhones and similar devises, more and more sophisticated features are becoming portable. In order to keep you motivated, progress trackers are becoming increasingly popular. Varying in sophistication these tools allow you to actually visualize your progress and identify areas in which you need extra study .

More and more products offer sophisticated speech recognition software for use in your own home. Enabled by increasingly powerful personal computers, this has been one of the most crucial developments for independent language learners as technology previously reserved for academia and industry are now available on the mass market. The standard technology allows learners to listen to a native speaker pronounce a word, repeat it into their microphone and then compare their audio playback and a sound graphic to that of the native speaker.

Pronunciation can also be analyzed and users given a score depending on their accuracy which can be stored and improved on. Interactive activities sometimes include this technology allowing learners to act out roles and even have a conversation with their computers! These developments are bringing self language learning closer than ever to the experience of actually living abroad as well as improving flexibility of software to individual needs and priorities.

To make the most of this technology, users must have an adequate set-up; a slow internet connection or dated hardware may very well prevent you from using some more advanced features. In this case, make sure you check the system requirements against what you own before making any purchase. While most laptops these days have microphones built in, external ones are almost always better. 

Users must ensure that whatever microphone they use is of good enough quality, or else you'll never get that perfect accent!  Self language learning programs are generally sold as CDs and DVDs in box sets. However, with ever increasing connection speeds many are now available to download or are completely online. Downloading the product will save on postage and production costs while online products are accessible anywhere you have a computer. As people become more accustomed to downloading software, this method of purchase is sure to increase in popularity.

Support and Community

By law, all multimedia software must offer some kind of customer support. However, as we all know, accessing this can be more trouble than it's worth. Some products in this category offer nothing more than some lousy forms dispatched at the customer's request, while others offer a personalized concierge service. Generally, most of our top ten products have money back guarantees and you can expect adequate support in terms of troubleshooting technology. 

Some products towards the higher end of the price scale even provide language-learning customer support. Users are able to contact professional language teachers with language queries and in some cases they will check up on you to ensure you are making progress and getting the most out of the product. This personal touch is the next best thing to having your own personal language tutor whilst generally being cheaper and more flexible.

Online communities also offer an, if not expert, personal touch to your language learning. Based on social networking sites such as Facebook, these spaces bring together language learners and teachers from all over the world to share knowledge, discuss the language and even make friends along the way. Users can also share additional resources such as useful links, articles and videos on these sites and many do so with enthusiasm.

The Bottom Line

Due to the sheer variety on offer, making a well thought out purchase will be of real benefit when investing in a teach yourself Italian product. The range of quality and style may seem slightly daunting but take your time, read our reviews carefully and make the most of all the free-trails out there, you will even learn something from these! A little time invested into researching your purchase will save you a lot of money and effort when learning this beautiful language and, however you choose to do so, we wish you the best of luck!