Ana Maria Perez-Girones,
Wesleyan University Virginia Adan-Lifante,
University of California, Merced
ISBN: 0072440961 Copyright year: 2007
Feature Summary
Age- and education- appropriate themes represent the reality of traditional college-age and older students.
A solid grammar component stresses the cyclical nature of learning a language, helping students to see linguistic patterns that are not so obvious during the first year. The grammar presentations in A otro nivel outline major points together instead of in small chunks. It can also serve as a grammar reference for students who go on to more advanced content courses.
The in-depth cultural content presents students with information that exposes them to a diversified view of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking countries, including the United States. The cultural information in A otro nivel aims to establish comparisons with students’ own cultures, to allow them to become aware of their particular cultural biases, and to allow for important themes to be better integrated into activities and discussions.
An abundance of authentic readings can be found in A otro nivel, including whole and excerpts of newspaper and magazine articles, essays by important writers or political figures, as well as literary short stories and poetry.
A otro nivel contains a wealth of activities that promote open-ended conversation, several with authentic visual components. Discussion activities designated as tertulias recur throughout each chapter and provide a topic to link the theme with the cultural content.
Attention has been devoted to developing chapters that progress and evolve around a topic. Chapters are intended to cover various aspects of a given topic, creating a variety of interconnected subtopics to explore and resulting in content- and theme-based language learning.
The presentation of historical information in A otro nivel includes a unit on the history of Latin America and Spain, including the pre-Columbian period. The goal is to provide students with some basic exposure to why 21 Spanish-speaking countries, which are so diverse geographically and culturally, also have so much in common.
The abundant information on Hispanics in the United States throughout the book stresses how Hispanics in this country belong to a larger community of Spanish-speaking people, prompting students to reflect on the unique circumstances that this community encounters in an English-dominant society.
The Redacción sections contain writing assignments that are meaningful and sufficiently guided, prompting students to think about their intended readership, the various styles of writing, the elaboration of provisional and final drafts, and other writing techniques.
The optional interactive cultural CD-ROM includes 12 thematic video segments from the Discovery en español collection, part of the Discovery Channel programming. These segments are supported by pre-and post-viewing activities. Additionally, the CD-ROM includes 12 authentic literary readings with accompanying activities.
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2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education