The Vocab Tester is the obvious solution to the restrictions placed on the user of a language program designed around a specific language. The tester comes with a starting vocabulary of 300 words in French, German, Spanish, Italian and English but the number of entries in any language is restricted only by your ability to type in entries from the dictionary.

Setting up new vocabularies is merely a typing exercise and once the files have been created, they can be saved to tape and loaded back by answering a couple of simple prompts and typing in a filename. The vocabulary at present in memory and be searched, listed and changed by straightforward selection from the menus. When setting up tape files, don't forget to make accurate records of where the date is being recorded.

The function keys are set up to produce some of the European characters (mainly accents) which will be required, but if your interest is Russian or Greek, you may need a more specialist program. The Tester however is not protected and some minor modifications might allow its use with less conventional languages.

In all, the Vocab Tester does its job efficiently with clear displays and sensible prompts. Its all-purpose nature does not allow for any human weakness in the actual language being tested and this could be discouraging for children. Testing is allowed in either of the two languages current in memory or in combination. This it offers just the sort of facilities you might need for learning this year's holiday vocabulary.