This paper describes the development and evaluation of self-instructional Spanish course designed to produce an elementary communication skill sufficient to meet conversational and travel requirements. Some 106 lessons, known as AUTOSPAN and organized in seven major sections are described. Two novel pedagogic techniques which simulate live tutoring and live conversation are used in the course. Normally, the average time required to complete the course is 80 hours. Student achievement has established the feasibility of designing self-instructional language courses to teach useful, elementary communication skills. For a more detailed report, see ED 044 996. (RL)