How Pearson Publisher's MySpanishLab Can Help Spanish-Learning College Students

**Note: the following information comes from the writer's personal experience as a college senior, having taken a Spanish 1 course at the university level, which involved the daily use of MySpanishLab for homework assignments and pre-exam practice tests.

For many college students across the country, a 2-semester foreign language requirement is an expected part of their degree. Whether you'll be repeating a language learned during your high school years or diving headfirst into something new, online study programs and CD-ROM software are a great way to study.

And for many students who will be taking Spanish, Pearson Publisher's MySpanishLab.com® (part of Pearson's MyLanguageLabs) offers unique and interactive tools to help students better grasp the language. This is why many Spanish professors are now integrating it into the classroom via Person's accompanying textbook "Anda!"

After registering your account number (which will be included inside of your textbook), enrolling in your professor's specific course, and creating a username and password, you will be able to access MySpanishLab.com anytime, day or night. Not to mention, you will likely be completing graded homework assignments for your professor as well, as part of your final class average. Here's how MySpanishLab can help you:

1. Repetition through Interactive Homework Assignments

If there is one key factor in learning a foreign language, it is repetition. And with MySpanishLab's homework assignments (which include audio and video exercises), students are able to repeat an exercise as many times as necessary in order to score a perfect 100%. This option not only allows course content and material to better soak in, but will additionally keep your homework average high for the duration of the course. If a student continues to miss a question(s), MySpanishLab will eventually give him/her the correct answer. The student can then repeat the assignment and plug in the correct answer(s).

2. E-Book Tool: View Your "Anda!" Textbook Online

What could be better than an open-book assignment? With MySpanishLab.com, students are able to access their "Anda!" textbook online during homework exercises. No need to flip pages, trying to find the correct answer. Just access the E-book, select the chapter you would like to view from the drop down box and search away. This feature even includes a "Connect to Your Instructor" option, which will allow students to search the MySpanishLab database for their professor via last name and university.

3. Alphabetical Glossary

Also included in MySpanishLab is an English-Spanish and Spanish-English glossary, complete with audio features which allow the student to hear a native speaker say each word, letter or phrase. Students may search the glossary for a word, letter or phrase they are unfamiliar with (searchable by English or Spanish) and be better equipped to complete homework assignments accurately.

4. Verb Chart: Infinitive, Tense, Mood and Participle

Many Spanish 1 students find verb conjugations to be one of the more difficult tasks. And while you will certainly need to know your regular and irregular verb conjugation rules for in-class quizzes and exams, your MySpanishLab toolbar includes a Verb Chart to help complete homework exercises, as well as reinforce material learned in-class. Much like the glossary, this Verb Chart allows the student to manually search for a particular verb, or to choose from a lengthy list. The student may then choose the tense (present indicative, past perfect, future, etc.), the mood (conditional, imperative, etc.) and finally the participle (present, past) of that verb. The box at the bottom of the chart will provide the various forms of the verb (yo, tu, el, ella, Ud., nosotros, vosotros, etc.)

5. Practice Tests and Interactive Flashcards

What if you could take a version of the exam you were going to have in class? With MySpanishLab, you can. Near the end of each chapter you are learning in class, a homework assignment will include a practice test (complete with multiple choice questions, short answer, audio and listening comprehension, culture questions, etc.) and Interactive Flashcards to help reinforce material you will need to know for your in-class exam.

6. Easy-to-Use and Convenient Accessibility

Although your professor (who has master account control over all the students) will likely set your MySpanishLab homework assignments to expire after a certain time of the day or evening (for which you will receive a 0%), the convenient accessibility of the software cannot be overlooked. The ability to work from your home computer or even a laptop, anytime, anywhere, is unparalleled in comparison to other language-learning software. The tutorials, e-book, glossary and verb chart features will keep you from having to lug your textbook and notes around with you and doing homework online around your schedule will be more convenient in the long-run.

So if your college-level Spanish 1 or 2 class will be utilizing Pearson Publisher's MySpanishLab.com®, have no fear! Countless students have come to enjoy the program and even say it has helped them better prepare for exams and class assignments. You can read student reviews and learn more about MySpanishLab at: www.myspanishlab.com. Learn to use many of the aforementioned features and you will be on your way to becoming a fluent Spanish speaker. Buena suerte con tu tarea de español! (Good luck with your Spanish homework!)