¡Hola a todos!
I wholeheartedly agree and can attest to most of what is written here (even if I have only been learning Spanish for some 2 months). In fact I know someone else who has used a similar approach to learning Dutch (with using a similar 'manual'
) and with very impressive results withing 6 months!
Obviously a lot depends on how much time you have, but I must say I agree with all that gatitoverde wrote here.
I have a few suggestions for sites (as internet is indeed a great tool for this!!!) that might help students of Spanish achieve/ realize or facilitate some of the steps written here. I know they have been very helpful to me and perhaps they will be helpful for others also.
1. Audiomaterial/ podcasts:
-
http://www.audiria.com
Many free podcasts on 5 different levels (absolute beginner to advanced) in different forms such as conversations, bits of paper/news, radio and tv, including full free transcripts and doanloadable mp3's.
-
http://www.spanishnewsbites.com
Many free podcasts on 3 different levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced) including free transcripts, some bits of video as well. These are taken from what has been on the news in Spain (topical).
-
http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-...guages/Spanish
Many free podcasts often with free transcripts as well, ranging from beginner' s level to advanced.
Video & TV:
1.
http://www.lingus.tv
Free Spanish video's inclusing full transcripts in Spanish and English
on three levels (beginner, intermediate and advianced).
2.
http://my.spanishdict.com/learn/browse/1
http://my.spanishdict.com/learn/browse/2
http://my.spanishdict.com/learn/browse/3
Many free educational video' s (beginner/ beginner to intermediate level) with explanations in English. This site also includes flashcards and other exercises.
3. BBC Learning Zone:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/
Regular updates with video' s and podcasts for beginners and intermediate to advanced students.
This interactive videocourse called
'Mi vida loca' offers over 20 free lessons for beginners and is quite good Iand fun think.
4.
http://www.rollingrs.com/
Offers many free educational video's (others can be purchased, so not all is free).
5.
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/
Free online video' s from TVE (Spanish tv network).
6.
http://www.cervantestv.es/
Free video' s and documentaries.
7.
http://www.tusseries.com
Many Spanish versions of American tv series can be downloaded here. You need to register though and you need to have emule. (Subtitles can be easily found online on many sites, e.g.
here. You just need to put that file in the same directory as the avi/ video file and give it the same name).
8.
http://www.celebratelanguages.com/spanish.html
Free video' s (beginner' s level) and a lot of information on learning Spanish and some good resources.
9.
http://multilingualbooks.com/online-tv-spanish.html
Spanish tv (most times live, and local), from many different countries.
10.
This site also offers many free Spanish video's , some educational (not all!!).
Music, Radio and Lyics:
1.
http://multilingualbooks.com/online-radio-spanish.html
Spanish radio, many stations via livestream
2.
http://www.espana.fm/
Spanish radio, many stations via livestream
3.
http://www.spanicity.com/musica/index.php
Many Spanish songs with sontext in Spanish and English translations.
Verbs/ grammar/vocabulary:
1. http://www.verbix.com/languages/spanish.shtml
Very good conjugator of verbs, also for many other languages.
2.
http://www.helloworld.com.es/English.../spanishvm.htm
Free software to train verbs and conjugations.
3.
http://www.ver-taal.com/telediario.htm
Site containing many different kinds of exercises, also some good listening exercises.
4.
http://www.wartoft.nu/software/selingua/
Free software to learn about 2000 words in Spanish (you can probably add some yourself as well, haven' t done that myself yet), gives several different exercises, such as velocity, the odd one out, active recognition and filling out, cosswords.
Books (ebooks, audiobooks, literature, reading in general):
1.
http://www.eldigoras.com/
A lot of information online about literature in Spanish.
2.
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/
Biblioteca Virtual Miguel Cervantes (containing many free ebooks/ documents).
3.
http://www.albalearning.com
Many free audiobooks in Spanish to listen to online, also downloadable.
4.
http://www.leerescuchando.net/audiobks.php
Many free audiobooks in Spanish, downloadable after registration (free).
5.
Librivox
This site is run by volunteers. About 30 Spanish audiobooks can be downloaded free of charge (most are in English).
6.
http://www.greylib.net/?category=spanish
Free ebooks and audiobooks, downloadable after registering.
7.
http://www.wordchamp.com/lingua2/Reader.do
Very handy ' reader' (can also be used for Spanish to English!).
You can read texts of e.g. 'El Mundo' , 'El País' or in fact load any url of any Spanish text/ website. Just hover over the word and it will give you possible translations including the pronuncation in Spanish and English.
Pronunciation:
The following sites are also good resources for students of English or other languages:
1.
http://www.forvo.com/languages/es/
Large database with many Spanish words pronounced. You can download it into mp3's. You can also request pronunciations (in that case you need to register).
2.
http://swac-collections.org/?lang=spa
Similarly, a large database of pronunciations of Spanish words, downloadable.
3.
http://www.internetpolyglot.com/lessons-es-en
47 free lessons (topic based) of vocabulary including pronunciations. Also exercises included with every lesson.
Language exchange/community/tandems/penpals:
The first 2 also contain exercises.
1.
http://www.babbel.com
2.
http://www.livemocha.com
3.
http://www.linguanet-europa.org/plus/welcome.htm
3.
http://www.interpals.com
Hope you will find these sites as helpful as I found them!
¡ Buena suerte!