Common Sense Media Review
By Christy Matte
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Interactive language lessons with purchases, some crashing.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 11+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Spanish SOLO: Learn Spanish
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's It About?
SPANISH SOLO: LEARN SPANISH is an interactive language course that revolves around the story of John Daniels, a film school graduate, who moves to Buenos Aires for a work opportunity. The course is bundled into lessons, each of which typically take 25-35 minutes to complete. They include instructional videos, vocab lessons, multiple choice quizzes, conversation practice, fill-in-the-blanks, cultural information, and new elements to John's story. The course covers Spanish from both Spain and parts of Latin America. For each activity completed, kids earn stars based on how well they performed on the exercises. These translate to the in-game currency SOLOs, which can be used to purchase new lessons. The lessons are highly interactive and often offer the chance to use voice recognition to submit answers.
Is It Any Good?
The practice, storyline, and conversation exercises are great tools for practicing comprehension as well as vocabulary and pronunciation, but purchases and crashing damage the experience. Spanish SOLO: Learn Spanish has a lot of interactive elements, so you're not doing the same activities all the time. The addition of the voice recognition is fun, and a great way to push kids to practice speaking, but it's hit or miss, and they risk losing stars (and SOLOs) if it mishears what they say. The content is definitely geared toward tweens, both in terms of vocabulary and the topics being discussed. Several of the conversations revolve around dating, which younger kids may not find appealing. The SOLO currency seems like an opportunity to save some money on additional lessons, but grinding to get enough SOLOs for the next lesson may turn some kids off entirely. The app also has a habit of crashing on certain lessons. But, for those who are of the target age and who don't mind paying a bit for their Spanish lessons, it will likely be an engaging way to get started on a new language.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about learning a new language using Spanish SOLO: Learn Spanish. Why would you want to learn another language? How might you use it in your future?
Discuss in-app purchases and how/if kids can request purchases from an adult. What are the family rules?
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad
- Subjects : Language & Reading : letter or word recognition , reading , speaking , Social Studies : cultural understanding
- Skills : Self-Direction : work to achieve goals , Communication : listening , speaking
- Pricing structure : Free to try (First few lessons are free. Additional lessons can be purchased with "SOLOs." These are earned for completing lessons and are also available via in-app purchases $4.99-$19.99)
- Release date : December 12, 2017
- Genre : Education
- Publisher : Distant Tribe LLC
- Version : 2.7
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 10.0 or later
- Last updated : February 4, 2019
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