Product Description

As the best-selling introductory Spanish textbook in the United States, Puntos de partida has long been a favorite of instructors across the country. For this new edition, the authors and editors of Puntos have turned to those very instructors to help formulate a plan that would respond to the needs of a changing discipline. We reached out to more than 160 students and instructors across the country, and the result is a thoroughly revised edition both in appearance and content. Puntos continues to provide the solid foundation in communicative language development that has become its hallmark. At the same time, instructor and student feedback have guided the development of the seventh edition in ways that enrich this foundation even more, and also bring to the materials a number of other important and exciting changes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19343 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 688 pages

About the Author
Marty Knorre was formerly Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Coordinator of basic Spanish courses at the University of Cincinnati, where she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in language, linguistics, and methodology. She received her Ph.D. in foreign language education from The Ohio State University in 1975. Dr. Knorre is coauthor of Cara a cara and Reflejos and has taught at several NEH Institutes for Language Instructors. She received a Master of Divinity at McCormick Theological Seminary in 1991.

Thalia Dorwick retired as McGraw-Hill's Editor-in-Chief for Humanities, Social Sciences, and Languages. For many years she was also in charge of McGraw-Hill's World Languages college list in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese, and Russian. She has taught at Allegheny College, California State University (Sacramento), and Case Western Reserve University, where she received her Ph.D. in Spanish in 1973. She was recognized as an Outstanding Foreign Language Teacher by the California Foreign Language Teachers Association in 1978. Dr. Dorwick is the coauthor of several textbooks and the author of several articles on language teaching issues. She is a frequent guest speaker on topics related to language learning and she was also an invited speaker at the II Congreso Internacional de la Lengua Española, in Valladolid, Spain, in October 2001. In retirement, she consults for McGraw-Hill, especially in the area of world languages, which is of personal interest to her. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of Case Western Reserve University and on the Board of Directors of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Ana M. Pérez-Gironés received her M.A. in General Linguistics from Cornell University and is currently Adjunct Professor of Spanish at Wesleyan University where she coordinates the Spanish language program. She is co-author of Puntos de partida and ¿Qué tal?, and has published pedagogical materials for several other Spanish language programs. She has worked extensively in the development and implementation of computer-assisted materials for learning language and culture, such as Nuevos Destinos and most recently, En una palabra.

William R. Glass is the Publisher for World Languages at McGraw-Hill Higher Education. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Spanish Applied Linguistics with a concentration in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE). He was previously Assistant Professor of Spanish at The Pennsylvania State University where he was also Director of the Language Program in Spanish. He has published numerous articles and edited books on issues related to second language instruction and acquisition.

Customer Reviews

creates a context for learning the language
I'm only on chapter 4 at this point, but it seems like a good textbook. It is very colorful and entertaining. The topics in each chapter are repeated in many exercises from different contextual angles, which keeps it fresh and makes it more effective. Additionally, you can register your book online and access even more practice material. I think this is a good book for a serious student who wants to learn to speak spanish.

Beginners Beware
I'm finishing up my second quarter of college-level study with this book after taking four years of high school French and, I have to say, the book is designed more for those with some background in the language.

You're not going to be able to pick this book up and teach yourself effectively; you need a professor/teacher filling in the gaps that the book assumes you'd know from past language study.

I found this aspect frustrating because I've had some mediocre professors and found that I can't just look to the book for answers.

Otherwise, the book is interesting and relatively entertaining with cultural highlights, recipes and scripts to go along with videos. Though it did seem overwhelming sometimes, to look at a page of text, vocabulary and grammar that (sometimes) seemed to have nothing to do with each other.

[...]

For the serious student only
If you really want to learn Spanish, and if you are willing to work hard, this series of books is an excellent choice. It starts with the assumption that you have a brain and moves quickly on. I had four college courses plus three weeks of intensive one-on-one tutoring in Central America, but it wasn't until I completed this course that I learned the language. I now teach Spanish in a local school and recommend this program to all my students.