Exploring Immersion Spanish with Excelerate SPANISH {Curriculum Review}

For the last several weeks we have been reviewing an immersion online Spanish curriculum from Excelerate SPANISH. The Excelerate SPANISH Streaming program offers Spanish 1 and Spanish 2. We aren't currently including a foreign language in our studies, so we decided to give Spanish 1 a try. Join me today as I share our review of the program designed to be a multi-sensory experience of learning a new language.

About the Program

Excelerate SPANISH offers engaging video lessons using skits, action sequences, hand gestures, and more to teach students of all ages! Designed to create a program that increases fluency and engages on multiple sensory levels, the program is created to teach Spanish in the form of a story. The video lessons do all the work allowing the parents to learn right along with the students. The program is designed to be used for families, co-ops, and classrooms--making it the perfect choice for any need. 
With their 90 days, 100% guarantee, the program Excelerate SPANISH works because it duplicates the conditions that foster language acquisition.  Any new words and phrases are clarified by English, leaving no room for misunderstanding. By connecting gestures and motions with the new vocabulary, it helps students to internalize the Spanish vocabulary and structures.

Excelerate SPANISH is available as a complete DVD curriculum or with Excelerate SPANISH Streaming option. 
We were given a one-year subscription to access both Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 of the Excelerate SPANISH Streaming program. 

Our Thoughts on the Program

We received our access to the program, and it was easy to get an account set up. All the lessons are listed on the sidebar, so it is easy to navigate through them. One thing I noticed right away is that there are workbooks that go with the lessons; however, we were told they were optional and not a requirement for using the program. Other online materials can be used for free to assist with the video lessons. I was curious to see if this was the case.
We set up the program on my computer and hooked it up to the TV. This allowed us to see the video more clearly. I was glad we did this when the teacher extensively used the whiteboard in her classroom. The lessons are very simple in premise--you the viewer are part of the classroom. You are sitting in a lesson presented to actual students. This allows you to be a part of the classroom. You can copy their movements and speak the answers to the teacher's questions as if you are there with them. 

Your view is the same as the students

You can see what the students are doing during the lesson

The teacher introduces new vocabulary and writes the words in Spanish on the whiteboard. She will translate immediately what they mean as well as give an action movement to coordinate with the word. For instance, for the word "impaciencia" she smacks her hands together repeatedly to show impatience, or she makes the driving motions for the word "autobus". 
90% of the lesson is done in the Spanish language. By adding the motions with the Spanish words, the students are more easily able to translate in their minds what is being said, even without the English words to match. 
Each lesson has a theme. For instance, Lesson 1 of Spanish 1 is the story of a girl who is wanting to catch the bus. Lesson 1 for Spanish 2 the theme is related to animals at a zoo. All of the words of the story are taught in pieces in advance. Then they are put together with the actions in the form of sentences that teaches the story. This allows the students to understand what is being said AND see how the words go together. By doing this, the students can start working on their understanding even if they can't pronounce everything or understand every word. It is definitely done more as an immersion class.

At the end of the lesson, the children act out the entire story following along with the Spanish words saying the ones they can. Once this is completed, the teacher has them pull out their workbooks to answer some yes/no, or multiple choice questions which are given in Spanish. 
The vocabulary is only written on the whiteboard, and at times it is hard to read. The video quality of the Spanish 1 lessons is a bit grainy and dark. I looked ahead to Spanish 2 and the quality is much improved and I can read the board much more easily. 

Spanish 2 is more straight on with better lighting

We worked through lesson 1 and lesson 2 of the Spanish 1. But we stopped there. The boys BARELY understood the vocabulary from lesson 1, so we ended up spending quite a bit of time just going over lesson 1. I want mastery vs exposure when it comes to foreign language--and since we only had the videos sans workbooks, we needed to go over them several times. The boys asked that we not go any further, because they couldn't really remember from one day to another much of what was learned. 

I took the advice of the program and explored the flashcards and lesson reviews on the free site quizlet. If you type in Excelerate Spanish you can find the items that have been created to go with the program. We used our tablet and my phone to practice and WOW. That helped sooooo much! It allowed them to master the vocabulary both directions--as the learning quiz incorporates translation from Spanish to English AND from English to Spanish--including WRITING the words or phrases out. It doesn't allow you to move on until you get answers correct multiple times consistently. 
I was concerned about not having the workbooks after watching the first two lessons, but now that I know we have the quizlet flashcards and learning practice, I can see that the workbooks while very beneficial, really aren't a requirement for success. If you can afford to get them--do it. If you can't, make sure your favorite quizlet. LOL. 

There are flashcards to review before you do the additional mastery quiz. On the tablet or phone, you can tap the screen and it will change it back and forth from the Spanish to the English. 

After you work through the flashcards, you can take the learning quiz. This helps you really master the vocabulary.

The learning gives you phrases and has you translate them.

 If you mess up, it gives you the correct answer so you can study, and then adds it back into the quiz until you get it mastered.

Once you have successfully mastered all the vocabulary and phrases going back and forth from English to Spanish, it gives you a "trophy" announcing that you have mastered the lesson. The quizlet material EXACTLY matches each level and lesson number, making it easy to find the one that goes with whatever you are working on.

Spanish 1 and 2 each have 24 lessons--each from about 30-45 minutes in length. Because they were on streaming, we can watch them over and over anywhere we are that has internet access. According to the program, they take 2 weeks to go over the lessons if in a LIVE class--providing you with over 40 of material at that rate. After working through just two of the lessons, it is easy to see why. Immersion style classes definitely require more time to lead to mastery.

So what's our final take on it? It is an excellent program and completely different than anything we've ever done before. The material is taught in a conversational manner using real-life discussions or conversations. By being an immersion technique, your child has to use cues from the actions and movements to remember the meaning. But this also means that they will translate it in their heads LONG before they can speak it correctly. I don't think there is anything wrong with this technique. Immersion learning for language has always been the #1 recommended method for long term retention.
Our challenge was the lack of workbooks. Honestly, I was really questioning how this program could be used without them UNTIL we discovered the way quizlet is set up. I plan on having the boys CONTINUE to use the quizlet as their primary practice with the lessons. I plan on using quizlet. LOL. The boys enjoyed the stories. They loved "estampa" their feet and yelling "stupido!" while smacking their hands "impaciencia". They raced to see who could translate the material first and replicated what the video classroom was doing.
I do not know Spanish, but with the method of the videos, I was able to guide the boys through the material learning right along with them! I've never really had that pleasure before.
I also feel a lot better about it taking us awhile, knowing that the teacher of the program states online that she allows two weeks per lesson. The lesson videos are long enough that you could split them up over the week. Review the next week and do the quizlet material--and any of the other link suggestions provided by the company on their *links* page.

Some great links to help you learn Spanish even better.

So will we keep doing it? I don't know. Of the programs we've done, I do like this one the best--mainly because I don't have to do the teaching and the videos are very interactive oriented. I think that this program would be GREAT for a family with multiple children desiring to learn together. Same as if you needed a co-op language program. If you are more hands-on you will probably want to get yourself the workbooks. Also, you will need to have reliable internet for streaming. Unless you want to invest in their DVD course version.

Want to Know More?

For the last several weeks, we have been reviewing the Excelerate SPANISH Streaming program from Excelerate SPANISH. You have read our thoughts on the program, but I encourage you to visit other members of the crew so you can learn more--especially for those who really explored Spanish 2.

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