Linkword Italian

Your Spectrum

Peter Shaw

JE PARLE SPECCY Silversoft Ltd has announced the release of Dr Michael Gruneberg's Linkword System for the 48K Spectrum. Designed by Gruneberg, the language learning system was first released in 1982 and received wide media acclaim the following year when Thomson Holidays - Gruneberg's first client - published figures that showed 98 per cent recall had been achieved during management training. This impressive figure led the company to implement Linkword in parallel with its own in-house language courses. Silversoft claims that in little over 10 hours you will be taught a vocabulary of more than 350 words, plus a basic knowledge of grammar. The words the system teaches are obviously aimed towards the holidaymaker, although it could quite possibly be of some help to the reluctant pupil - or just about anybody who wants to learn a language without too much fuss. The package includes two cassettes, one audio and the other containing the program itself. The audio tape is there to help you pronounce the words correctly. When the YS team was let loose on the Linkword Spanish system, it did seem that we picked up some words a lot easier than we expected. So we asked Andre Posumentov of Silversoft why he thought the Linkword system was so good. With great enthusiasm he replied "In Linkword we have a properly structured and field tested course which gives someone a grasp of the language very quickly. Linkword doesn't just present the information, it teaches you." As with most of the other educational packages, it's hard to say whether the computer is really necessary. Wouldn't it be just as good if you were reading it all out of a book? But the main idea behind the Gruneberg system is vivid images which you create in your own mind. There are no pictures or graphics included in the programs. Of all the language programs currently available for the Spectrum, this one seems to come out on top. It's available in three different versions at the moment - French. Spanish and German - and Italian. Greek and Portugese are on the way. Each course costs £12.95 and should be widely available from most software shops.