Berlitz Premier 2

Berlitz Premier 2 is part of a new collection of language-learning programs. The box contains a DVD full of interactive lessons and activities, four audio CDs so you can practise in the living room or the car, and a set of iPod exercises for when you're out and about.

We rewiewed the Spanish version, but the range also includes French, German, Italian, Japanese and Mandarin.

Berlitz has a reputation for emphasising conversational language rather than purely grammatical structure, and the way lessons are designed in the new version reflects that. Users learn by listening to real-life conversations, following video tutorials and working through over 1,000 flash cards. You can then subject your efforts to the program's speech analysis and see how your pronunciation and accent measures up against the genuine article.

The program is designed to put users in control so they can choose when to go over a particular word or phrase, or if they need to slow down the speed at which lessons are played back to hear what's going on more clearly. We were impressed with both the breadth of material here (there is an enormous amount of it) and the balance between day-to-day conversational exercises and the bookish but important elements of grammar, individual word practice and lesson annotations.

There are 15 new lessons, organised into ‘books' and a fancy progress tracker that keeps tabs on where you are going right (and wrong) records completed lessons and highlights areas where more practice is needed.

The Activities section of the program has also been widened with a selection of new miniature games such as Word Whirl, Fill in the Blank and Concentration.

The program's design is still confusing, though, with far too many fiddly buttons and tabs to work around – it could really have done with a redesign. Elsewhere, although there is a lot of material, the quality of some of it was disappointing, with low video production standards and uneven audio volumes.

But aside from that the package contains a lot of good learning material, handy progress tracking and plenty of lessons and exercises that can take you from beginner through to advanced, all for a measly £30.