Software Review

Programs to be Used in the Lab

While reviewing the software we needed to buy for the lab, I communicated with students and lab faculty so we could make the right decisions. The following programs were selected to be used in the fall of 2016:

Project Success

http://www.myenglishlab.com/courses-project-success.html

Intro Level: Sarah Lynn

Level 1: Betsy Lindeman Wong  and MaryAnn Cunningham Florez

Level 2: Howard Pomann and June Pomann

Level 3: Nancy Blodgett Matsunaga and  Sheena M. Macpherson

Level 4: Barry Bakin, Robyn Brinks Lockwood and Jenni Currie Santamaria

Level 5: Steve Gwynne, Ingrid Greenberg, and Jennifer Bixby

Series consultants: Susan Gaer and Sarah Lynn

The six series of this program will be implemented in the lab in the fall semester.

Rosetta Stone

https://miracosta.rosettastoneclassroom.com/en-US/

We will only pilot 10 licenses in the fall of this year and will acquire more licenses in the spring semester.

Top Notch

Top Notch Fundamentals: Joan Saslow and Allen Ascher

Top Notch 1: Joan Saslow and Allen Ascher

We will buy the 10 books of the fundamental level and 10 books for level 1 to start using in the spring of 2017.

Side by Side

These series are great to use in the classroom and provide activities to promote independent practice for our students. Even though I find this book more practical for classroom use rather than a lab setting, I will give it a try since a lot of our students keep requesting it! 

Azar

Since I used Azar’s book to learn English in the USA and had great results, I thought it would be appropriate to review this software to see how I could use it in the lab. I really enjoyed this program; however, it’s more suitable to be used in the classroom, rather than in an open lab. I wanted to use it for my Hybrid Level 5 class, but I found out that other instructors are using this book at the school, so I decided to look for another book/program to expose my students to new content.