Product Description

This exciting new book is designed for courses in which outstanding films from the Spanish speaking world are used as springboards for classroom discussion. In this way, students hear Spanish the way it is spoken and are encouraged to converse about the social and cultural aspects of Spanish-speaking cultures around the world.

Each of the eighteen movies covered in the book have been selected for their high quality, interest, cultural value and easy availability from sources such as Blockbuster Video and Amazon.com.

Each chapter is devoted to one movie, and contains appropriate vocabulary, cultural notes, special terms for conversation and composition, a focus on a specific scene for structured discussion or writing, questions for review and understanding, as well as optional reading sections from directors or critics.

This text is especially useful for courses in Spanish conversation, composition, culture, and film, as well as for non-credit community courses and language refreshers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #791047 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

Customer Reviews

Excelente
I am an intermediate Spanish language student and I bought this book in order to organize some "film nights" with several fellow students. To that end, this book has served as a superb resource. It offers a diverse selection of Spanish language films from Spanish-speaking countries around the globe (most of which I have been able to find in my local library, and definitely at the local "art" video store). This provides a wide range of dialects and accents for listening comprehension. The films selected in the book range from comedies to serious histories and dramas, offering fascinating insights into different cultures, while providing excellent entertainment. (Some films here will be old chestnuts to serious film buffs, but I also found a few new gems!) The book offers film synopses, specialized vocabulary, and then several types of follow-up exercises, ranging from simple matching and fill-in-the-blanks, to more detailed "essay" questions which are a terrific launching pad for group discussions. All-in-all this book is well thouight-out, well designed, intelligent and REALLY interesting, all high selling points for anyone trying to learn a language. I HIGHLY recommend this book for both independent intermediate Spanish students and ALL Spanish instructors (and libraries!!!).

Cinema for Spanish Conversation
I love this book! I am a Spanish major at the university and I used this book in an independent to help me understand some of the issues facing Latin America. Watching the movies helped me improve my Spanish comprehension. The activities in the book helped me understand the movies and social issues in Latin America. This book presents a variety of movies from Spain, the Caribbean, Central and South America, so you get to hear a number of different dialects. I really feel I grew in my knowledge and appreciation of Latin America.

If this is the instructor edition, why sell it to students? Cheating anyone?
I will keep it short and sweet. This is an instructor's edition. Meaning it has the answers to the exercises and lesson plans. Why would you post/sell something that students (not all) would use to cheat? Shame. If you sell it, do as publishers do, request an ID from the buyer certifying s/he is a professor or instructor associated with an institution. That's what responsible sellers do. Then, follow through with a phone call confirming the status of the instructor/professor. Is that too much to ask?