Synopses & Reviews
Nuestras culturas targets a broad spectrum of student interests in order to foster linguistic competence at the intermediate level of Spanish. The program's title points both to the contrast between the Hispanic and American cultures as well as to the diversity within the Hispanic world. More than expanding students' vocabulary, grammar, and cultural awareness beyond the basic survival level, the text offers the meaningful input, structured output, and communicative activities that are essential to the development of solid language skills. Conforming to the National Foreign Language Standards, Nuestras culturas takes into account the three communicative modes--interpretive, interactive, and presentational--as well as the 3Ps of culture--perspectives, practices, and products. Cultural themes are incorporated throughout each chapter, treating culture from both a social science as well as humanistic perspective.
About the Author
Born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay, Brenda Barcelo has lived in California for almost 20 years, during which time she has taught Spanish at the elementary, secondary, and college levels. She has worked as Spanish Coordinator at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she has been a Spanish Lecturer since 1995. She is also an artist (a wood carver) and an avid reader and traveler.As a teacher, she experiences great satisfaction seeing her students engaged in the learning process, working hard and having fun at the same time. She enjoys sharing with her students not only her native language, but also the culture and traditions of Uruguay and other Hispanic countries. Having been a foreign language learner herself for many years, she can easily identify with her students' difficulties and frustrations and attempt to make their learning experience a positive and rewarding one.
Table of Contents
Lección 1. Entre la gente Lección 2. Un encuentro Lección 3. Las generaciones Lección 4. Nuestras horas Lección 5. Un gesto Lección 6. Sales conmigo? Lección 7. Un legado histórico Lección 8. El hospedaje