These notes are part of a longer document written by Gerald Murray, who runs a Berlitz school. We think Mr. Murray will agree that at first he was very reticent about using VOICEbooks, but as you will see, he soon changed his mind:

After lengthy tests carried out using VOICEbooks as an integral part of their in-house training programs, Berlitz and IBM came to the following conclusions:

• Retention: "The effect is that what students learn remains for quite some time. This has been noticed at a distance of three months. Students rarely forget the contexts and much of the vocabulary and structures and phrasal verbs not only remain but are integrated into the student’s mode of expression".

(this is probably one of the nicest things that a teacher or a student can ever say about a language product - if you can think of something even nicer, then please let us know - we just love getting compliments!)

• Reading : "All levels of students learn to appreciate the apparent difference between spoken and written English. This takes some time, however. It may be true only for Italians, though I doubt it, that they believe their eyes (reading) more than their ears (listening). As they proceed through the course they tend to give more credence to their ears followed by an improvement in their reading skills".
• Satisfaction : "Of the approximately 500 students who have used the programme, only one was dissatisfied".

• Motivation : "This programme has been used almost exclusively by students from IBM who, notwithstanding the nature of their work, are not enamoured of computers. The programme is such that it captures their interest to the point that they would like to have the programmes available at home or at the office".

• Source : Gerald Murray, Berlitz,