Product Description

Based on the Natural Approach, Dos mundos stresses the use of engaging activities and interesting readings in a natural and spontaneous classroom atmosphere. In this comprehension-based approach to learning language, the development of communicative language skills is the central goal, with formal grammar presentation and grammar practice at the service of communication. The text is designed so that class time can be devoted to exposing students to Spanish through creative activities and readings, allowing grammar explanations and exercises to be studied outside the classroom.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38168 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-28
• Original language: Spanish
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 640 pages

About the Author
Tracy D. Terrell (late) received his Ph.D. in Spanish Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin and published extensively in the area of Spanish dialectology. Professor Terrell’s publications on second-language acquisition are widely known in the United States and abroad.

Magdalena Andrade Received her first B.A. in Spanish/French and a second B.A. in English from San Diego University. After teaching in the Calexico Unified School District Bilingual Program for several years, she taught elementary and intermediate Spanish at both San Diego State and the University of California, Irvine, where she also taught Spanish for Heritage Speakers and Humanities Core Courses. Upon receiving her Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine, she continued to teach there for several years and also at California State University, Long Beach. Currently an instructor at Irvine Valley College, Professor Andrade has co-authored Mundos de fantasía: Fábulas, cuentos de hadas y leyendas and Cocina y comidas hispanas (McGraw-Hill).

Jeanne Egasse Received her B.A. and M.A. in Spanish linguistics from the University of California, Irvine. She has taught foreign language methodology courses and supervised foreign language and ESL teachers in training for the Department of Education at the University of California, Irvine. Currently, she is an instructor of Spanish and coordinates the Spanish language Program at Irvine Valley College. In addition, Professor Egasse serves as a consultant for local schools and universities on implementing Natural aApproach in the language classroom. Professor Egasse is co-author of Cocina y comidas hispanas and Mundos de fantasia: Fabulas, cuentos de hadas y leyendas (McGraw-Hill).

Elías Miguel Muñoz is a Cuban American poet and prose writer. He has a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of California, Irvine, and he has taught language and literature at the university level. Dr. Muñoz is the author of Viajes fantásticos, Ladrón de la mente, and Isla de luz, titles in the Storyteller's Series by McGraw-Hill. He has published five other novels, two books of literary criticsm, and two poetry collections. His creative work has been featured in numerous anthologies and sourcebooks, including Herencia: The Anthology of Hispanic Literature of the United States, The Encyclopedia of American Literature, and The Scribner Writers Series:Latino and Latina Writers.

Customer Reviews

Best text on the market for Spanish Instruction
I teach college Spanish and I love this text. It is thoughtfully constructed and provides numerous activities for communication in the target language. Dos mundos also provides very useful ideas for instructors. The pages are colorful and the content engaging. My students love all the activities I use from this text. I wish more Spanish instructors would embrace the methodology presented in Dos mundos. My level one Spanish students actually speak Spanish (albeit low-level Spanish). I don't know if I would recommend this text for independent study, however. I believe it would be most effective if used in conjunction with a dynamic instructor. I do agree that the authors should include a separate English-Spanish dictionary section. I also find the video segments to be very poor (and why are they exactly the same as the ones for Puntos de partida when they both have such different approaches to language acquisition?)

pretty good
this is not a bad spanish book. i don't know if i would say it is great. lots of group activities that are helpful, but they are pretty simple and repetitive. they need to be a little more thoughtful and put in lots of DIFFERENT activities. one last, quite frustrating thing, there is only a spanish-english dictionary in the back. extremely irritating because this is a spanish 1-2 book, and anytime you want to look up a word, you'll need to consult another dictionary.

Thumbs up!
I've been using Dos Mundos in my Spanish III class this fall and it's been a quite positive experience. I'm a former English teacher, and a long time psychologist, so I have some feel for the teaching/learning dynamic of a text. I'm finding DM to be intelligently written and organized, with many different kinds of activities that build on and integrate what you're learning. I like the way history, art, pop culture, geography, politics, music, literature, etc. are interspersed throughout DM. There's cartoons, color, and a reasonably unstilted, good-hearted consciousness in the book. For those of us used to American textbooks which have been reduced to squirmy blandness by pressure groups leaning on state textbook purchasing agencies, it's a bit refreshing to encounter occasional perspectives on economic and political injustice, environmental exploitation, etc. Not that this is a particularly political book, it's just that these things are usually soooooo sanitized. Some people have complained about the lack of an English to Spanish dictionary in this book. Face it---you need to buy a little dictionary to have when you're reading DM and learning Spanish. No added-on dictionary section is going to be complete enough to meet your needs. You'll only be wasting time using it, since half the time the word you're looking for won't be there anyway. You might as well go to the dictionary in the first place. To sum it up: I like this book and I'm in the process of reading the seven chapters which were previously covered in Spanish I and II, which I didn't take in this sequence.