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make the drill more realistic and to encourage students to think about what they are saying as well
as about the forms they are producing. Substitution drills are most frequently used in Puntos to
practice new verb forms. For example, (p. 85, AIE):
En el salón de clase
1. Yo asisto a clase todos los días. (tú, nosotros, Ud., todos los estudiantes, Carlos, vosotros)
2. Aprendes español en clase, ¿verdad? (nosotros, yo, Ud., la estudiante francesa, Uds.,
vosotros)
These pattern drills practice the present tense of regular -er/-ir verbs in sentences that might
naturally be said in Spanish class, the “umbrella” that serves as the context for the drill items. The
individual items are the base sentence in which substitutions are to be made: Yo asisto a clase
todos los días. The cues are given in parentheses:
ii. Rapid Response Drills (AIE)
As its names suggests, the primary purpose of this type of drill is to give students practice in
responding very quickly to a stimulus. The drill can be very mechanical in nature, or it can stimulate
a conversational situation.
As a preliminary exercise prior to pattern practice in a context, the rapid-response drill can help
reinforce the verb stem/personal ending, as in the following drill (p. 141):
Have students give corresponding subject pronouns: hago, oímos, hacemos….
and so on.
Here, in a very focused drill situation (one person at a time), students give answers as quickly as
possible. Speedy response is important, since students need to learn to respond quickly in common
conversational situations. This same technique also works in conversation-oriented drills. For
example, Comunicación A (p. 6):
A. Expresiones de cortesía. How many different ways can you respond to the following
greetings and phrases?
iii. Chain Drills
This type of drill provides very focused question-answer practice. It has the additional advantage of
increasing student practice and minimizing the amount of speaking the instructor does. To begin,
the instructor indicates the question to be asked and has a student initiate the drill sequence. This
student asks the question of another student, who answers it. That student then asks the same
question of another student, and so on. The chain continues for as long as seems appropriate. The
instructor then provides a second question, and the chain continues. Examples of questions that
might work well in this framework include: ¿De dónde eres tú?, ¿Cuántos hermanos (tíos,
primos, etcétera) tienes?, and so on.
iv. The First (or Second) Activity in all Práctica y comunicación sections
The ¡Anticipemos! activities of previous editions have been replaced in this edition by carefully
crafted three-paso activities that allow students to start communicating from the beginning of the
practice sequence. These activities, which start in Gramática 3 (Capítulo 2) are generally the first
activity in the Práctica y comunicación sequence. They are second only when an Asociaciones
activity (to practice the meaning of new vocabulary precedes them.
The first example of such activities in the text is activity B. Mi compañero/a y yo (p. 44), in the –ar
verbs grammar section. Paso 1 of the sequence is always Autoprueba, a brief self-test that allows
students to quickly check whether they have understood the main focus of the grammar section.
Answers to the Autoprueba are given at the bottom of the page. The Autoprueba in this activity
focuses on the present-tense endings of regular –ar verbs.
In Paso 2, students complete simple sentences about themselves by providing the –o ending and
adding no if necessary.
Paso 2. ¿Sí o no? Complete las oraciones de forma personal. Use no delante del (in front of
the) verbo si es necesario.
MODELO: 1. Necesit____ un coche. → Necesito un coche. (No necesito un coche.)
In Paso 3, students use the same sentences from Paso 2 to interview a classmate, which
involves using the –as verb ending.
Paso 3. En parejas (pairs), hagan y contesten preguntas (ask and answer questions) basadas
en el Paso 2.
MODELO: Necesito un coche. → ESTUDIANTE 1: ¿Necesitas un coche?
ESTUDIANTE 2: Sí, necesito un coche. (No, no necesito
un coche.)
v. Transformation Drills
In this type of activity, one type of sentence or structure is changed into another— affirmative
sentences into negative sentences, declarations into questions, present tense to past (future,
present perfect, and so on). For example, activity D (p. 218):
D. Extremos. Modifique las siguientes declaraciones para hacerlas negativas.
MODELO: Hay muchas personas antipáticas en mi familia. → No hay ninguna persona
antipática (No hay nadie antipático) en mi familia.
1. Tengo muchos planes interesantes este fin de semana.
2. Todas mis clases este semestre/trimestre son maravillosas (wonderful).
and so on.
As students perform the indicated transformation, their attention is focused mainly on the
grammar point at hand— in this case, the formation of the negative. However, notice how the
sentences are actually meaningful and might be used as personal statements by students. This kind
of drill, along with pattern drills, is an excellent type to use in the initial stages of practice with new
material.
vi. Sentence Builders
In this type of activity, students create original sentences by selecting one word or phrase from
each of the columns provided. Since the verb is usually given in the infinitive form, students must
produce the required form according to the subject (noun or pronoun) they select. Semantic
(vocabulary) and syntactic (structural) decisions are also needed to produce logical, grammatically
sound sentences. For example, see the sentence builder in activity C, on p. 148 of the student text.
In this activity, students demonstrate a knowledge of subject-verb correspondence, the meaning of
the infinitives (since not all of the verbs can be combined with all of the suggested predicates), and
the conjugated verb/infinitive structure.
In some activities of this type, there will be question marks (¿ ?) at the bottom of one or more of
the columns. This indicates that students should be creative, supplying words and phrases that are
not used in the sentence builder in the text. In this way, what is basically a mechanical activity can
be personalized, as time and needs permit.
vii. Dehydrated Sentences
This type of exercise provides the main elements of a sentence and gives them in the proper order,
but the verb is given in the infinitive form or omitted, articles and prepositions are usually omitted,
and adjectives are given in their base (masculine singular) form, for example, activity C (p. 82):
C. David y su familia
and so on.
To do this type of activity, students must consider the grammatical and semantic relationships
among the words given, add any missing words, and make any necessary changes to supply
appropriate verb forms and grammatical agreement. In later chapters, other variables are added,
such as giving an adverb based on italicized adjectives, the superlative of italicized adjectives, and
so on. Some activities of this type are found in the Un poco de todo sections as well. Overall,
however, the number of dehydrated sentence activities is minimal.
viii. Phrase Cues
This type of activity is similar to dehydrated sentences in that only the base for the sentence or
question is given, and students must “flesh out” the item. For example, activity B (p. 221):
B. El mundo al revés (The world upside down)
Paso 1. Hoy, los estudiantes son los « jefes » ( bosses )… pero ¡solo por un día! Cambie las
siguientes acciones en mandatos « lógicos » para todos sus profesores, no solo para su
profesor(a) de español. ¡OJO! Hagan mandatos afirmativos y negativos.
1. llegar a tiempo
2. venir a la universidad
and so on. Here, students act as the teacher based on the infinitive phrases that are offered as a
guide.
ix. Patterned Conversations
In this type of activity, students work in pairs to simulate a typical conversation. A model dialogue
is given, and substitutions to be made in it are indicated in the activity items, for example, in
activity D (p. 78), students must make logical matches between the items listed and the persons
suggested.
D. ¿De quién es? Las siguientes cosas (things), son de la rica actriz Jennifer Sánchez o de
Martín Osborne, el estudiante (pobre, naturalmente)? En parejas, hagan y contesten
preguntas. Las respuestas pueden (can) variar.
MODELO: la mochila →
x. Story Sequences
Activities in which the items form a logical sequence or tell a story appear often in Puntos. At times
they are quite simple in format, for example, activity D (p. 73):
D. ¡Dolores es igual! Cambie (Exchange) Diego por Dolores.
Diego es un buen estudiante. Es listo y trabajador y estudia mucho. Es estadounidense de
origen mexicano, y por eso habla español...
And so on.
When students make the indicated transformation from Diego to Dolores, they will practice
adjective agreement. The exercise, however, has its own content: on a simple level, it tells a story
that can be discussed, continued, expanded, and so on. Note the follow-up comprehension activity
in the IE.
Story sequences are generally more complex in format, for example, activity C (p. 255):
C. El día de ayer de dos compañeras
Paso 1. Teresa y Liliana son compañeras de apartamento en la universidad. Haga oraciones
completas según el modelo para describir su día.
MODELO: 7:30 levantarse → Se levantó a las siete y media.
and so on.
When students have completed all items they will have created a brief narration about a typical
day in the roommates’ lives. The story has enough content to be accompanied by a conversational
follow-up (Paso 2): students use the cues to tell about their own day and compare it to that of
Teresa and Liliana.
xi. Culture-based Activities
In addition to the many sections in the Puntos program that have a clear cultural focus, culture also
appears in many activities. For example, consider activity C (p. 276), Una Nochebuena en
Santiago de Cuba. Within a 3-paso structure, the activity uses the description of a traditional
family gathering on Christmas Eve as the basis for form-focused practice of the preterite. Paso 2 is
a comprehension follow-up, and Paso 3 asks students to talk about a recent family celebration
comparable to la Nochebuena. This final paso leads students to personal reflections about their
c. Types of More Open-ended Activities
With the more open-ended activities of the Práctica y comunicación sections, as with many
vocabulary-building exercises, students should be encouraged to stay within the structures and
vocabulary they have already studied and mastered. Clearly, however, as students try to become
more creative in their responses and seek to express themselves, they are more likely to make
mistakes.
i. Questions
Generally called Intercambios, questions relate to common knowledge (the weather, geography,
history, and so on) or to students’ personal experiences and opinions. You can use these questions
as a guide to asking questions of individual students in the class; you can have one student ask a
question of another student; or you can have students work in pairs or small groups, asking each
other questions. For more ideas along these lines, see “Question/Answer (Personalized Questions)”
in the Vocabulario: Preparación section in this section of the IM.
ii. Games
Guessing games of all kinds work quite well in beginning language classes. They can be used from
quite early on, as demonstrated in D (p. 118):
B. Circunstancias personales
Paso 1. Choose a partner, but before working with him or her, try to predict the choices he
or she will make in each of the following cases.
and so on.
Paso 2 has students work with the partner they chose to see if their guesses were correct.
The same activity can be repeated throughout the course. If done later in the term, students’
questions will be more complex and interesting.
iii. Situation Activities
These activities simply set up a situation or situations to be discussed. For example, this one (p.
364):
F. Mandatos y preguntas
Paso 1. Imagine que estas personas son sus amigos. Deles consejos en forma de mandatos
informales.
1. Su amiga Mariana trabaja demasiado. Duerme poco y bebe muchísimo café. Jamás hace
ejercicio. Siempre está mirando su iPhone.
and so on.
The activity can be done by asking individuals to supply commands orally or in writing, by
students working in pairs or groups to come up with as many commands as possible, and so on.
Frequently occurring, open-ended activities previously discussed in this IM include the
following types:
• Entrevistas and Intercambios, frequently containing the suggestion that students report to
the class what they have learned during the interview
• Visual-based exercises, with IE suggestions that encourage students to expand the focus of the
activity by telling stories based on the images, inventing histories for the persons depicted, and
so on
6. Un poco de todo
The exercises in this section combine and review the grammatical topics of the chapter as well as
much of the vocabulary, thus providing a chapter review. This section, then, forms part of the
synthesis-application cycle.
Some of the Un poco de todo exercises are best done orally in class; others are more suited to
writing practice; and many can be done either way, depending on course goals, time limitations,
and so on.
Activity types from the Vocabulario: Preparación and Práctica y comunicación sections
occur here as well. Other formats that are used frequently include the following.
a. Cloze Exercises
The Un poco de todo section always opens with a cloze based on a cultural passage called Lengua
y cultura. Deletions have been made to focus student attention on current chapter and previous
chapter grammar points. A choice is generally offered (el/la, algo/nada, and so on), or a base word
is given which the student must then supply in the appropriate form to fit the context (an infinitive,
an adjective, and so on).
The topic of these cloze activities is cultural, related to the chapter’s cultural theme. Thus when
completed, the paragraphs not only demonstrate the language proficiency of the student but also
form a complete discussion that adds to students’ information about the cultural topic. Conversely,
the cultural information in the paragraph provides the context within which students process
language. Care has been taken to ensure that no previously un-presented cultural information is
needed for students to be able to complete the exercise.
The advantages to the format as a synthetic activity are as follows:
• Systematic review/reentry of particularly troublesome grammatical material is made possible,
with relatively little class time spent for the benefits involved. Topics systematically reentered
in this way in the Un poco de todo cloze paragraphs include ser/estar, preterite/imperfect/
subjunctive/ indicative, gender and gender agreement, and so on.
Although “correct” answers are offered for these cloze activities on Connect, instructors are
encouraged to accept as correct any response that is grammatically and contextually accurate.
An example of this type of activity is found on p. 257 of the student text, Mi abuela
dominicana. It provides contextual practice with the following grammar topics while conveying
information about a Dominican grandmother visiting her family in the United States.
• Current chapter material: indirect object pronouns, gustar, preterite tense
REVIEW/SYNTHESIS MATERIAL: FAMILY VOCABULARY, GENDER, DEMONSTRATIVES, DIRECT
OBJECT PRONOUNS, POSSESSIVES, OBJECTS OF PREPOSITIONS, PREPOSITION USE WITH IR, TIME
PREPOSITIONS, SER VERSUS ESTAR, SABER VERSUS CONOCER, PRESENT TENSE (REGULAR,
IRREGULAR, STEM-CHANGING VERBS) The cloze activity is always Paso 1, and is followed by two
more pasos. Paso 2: Comprensión includes a series of questions to test the understanding of the
cloze passage. Paso 3 is a culminating activity aimed to personalize the cultural information of the
activity in pair work. For example, in Mi abuela dominicana, Paso 3 engages students in a
discussion about the likely immigrant past of their families.
1. ¿Tienes un pariente cercano (close) que nació (was born) en otro país. ¿Quién es?
and so on.
b. Dehydrated Sentences
The second activity in Un poco de todo continues to offer a reviewof vocabulary and grammar of
the chapter. It often uses the dehydrated sentenceformat, especiallyin later chapters. Although this
type of activity that has already been discussed (see “Types of Form-Focused Activities”), it bears
mentioning again since it has a somewhat different format and purpose in the Un poco de todo.
Here, these activities are more complex, requiring decision-making not only about correct
vocabulary and forms but also about tenses and moods, for example, activity B (p. 436):
B. A la profesora Ortega le duele la cabeza.
Paso 1. Haga oraciones completas con las siguientes ideas. Los verbos pueden estar en el
presente de indicativo, el presente de subjuntivo o el pretérito. Añada (Add) pronombres y
las palabras que y se cuando sea necesario y use por o para, según el contexto.
DOCTORA BENÍTEZ: ¿Cuánto tiempo hace / doler1 la cabeza?
PROFESORA ORTEGA: Hace una semana /doler2.
and so on. Here students must make decisions about tense and mood usage, remember that
doler is used with indirect object pronouns, and so on.
c. En su comunidad
The third feature of Un poco de todo encourages students to use Spanish outside of the classroom
by interviewing a Spanish-speaker in their community. For each chapter, students are given a series
of suggestions in English (Capítulo 2)4 or questions in Spanish (subsequent chapters) related to the
chapter topic that can serve as the basis for their interview. Of course, the interviews need not be
done exactly as they are presented in the text.
Because these interviews are interactive and community-oriented, they are natural capstone
assignments. This feature has great flexibility in the ways in which it can be assigned.
• every chapter or less often (every other chapter, for example, or even less frequently)
• to be researched on-line
It is critical that instructors establish clear guidelines for the En su comunidad activities.
Topics to consider include the following:
• Native consultants: Can students work with someone on your campus (instructors or TAs in
your department)? Can they work with native speaking students on campus? Must they
interview someone who is off-campus? Must the native consultant be someone who was born
and lived for a substantial amount of time in another country? And so on.
• Number of consultants: Should students work with the same native consultant for each
interview? Doing so will help students establish a long-term connection with a native speaker of
Spanish. On the other hand, if you require students to work with a different person each time,
they will meet more people in the Spanish-speaking community in your area.
• Basic information about the consultant: What information do you want students to include
about the person they interview? Examples include: country of origin, how long he/she has
been in this country, if he/she visits his or her country or origin frequently, his/her occupation,
basic information about his/her family, and so on.
• Guidelines about the interviews: Should students address the consultant as tú or Ud.?
The first few times you assign En su comunidad, it is a good idea to work through the
questions with students. This is particularly important from Capítulo 3 on, where the questions are
in Spanish. Note that the suggested interview questions are not always given as they would be
asked. Example: ¿Tiene esta persona una familia grande o pequeña? You will want to show
students how to convert the suggestion into a question: ¿Tiene Ud. una familia grande o
pequeña?
4Interview questions are given in English for the first En su comunidad activity (Capítulo 2), as the authors think that it is
unreasonable to ask students at that stage of the text to get intelligent information about the educational system of the native
informant in Spanish. You may prefer to have students conduct other interviews for the first few chapters of the text in English
as well.
7. SALU2
Salu2 (Saludos) is the video program that accompanies the Tenth Edition of Puntos.5 As its
organizing principle, it takes the familiar format of a morning news program (based in Los Angeles).
Within that umbrella concept, students meet two anchors (Víctor and Ana) and a roving reporter
(Laura) who, throughout the text’s eighteen chapters, introduce students to aspects of Hispanic
cultures around the world. Videos submitted by the imaginary telespectadores of Salu2 are also
featured in several chapters. In addition, students will get to know the anchors as individuals as
they watch the banter typical of co-hosts on television shows of this kind.
a. Philosophy and Pedagogical Approach of the Salu2 Programs
Salu2 was carefully conceived with beginning Spanish students in mind. That means that the
authors want students to enjoy the videos and be able to understand them. That said, the program
does not present students with unnaturally slowed-down speech, nor is its language merely
repetitive of the text’s active vocabulary and grammar. Instead, Salu2 is a linguistically “adult”
program that encourages students to “stretch.” For this to happen, instructors need to understand
why the program does what it does, encourage students to work with the Salu2sections in the text,
and make sure that students watch the segments more than once (whether in the classroom, media
center, or language laboratory). This section explains the philosophical and pedagogical
assumptions of the program.
i. Two Types of Language
One of the major characteristics of the Salu2 programs is the presence of two types of language
registers in them.
First, there is the scripted language of the in-studio anchors and the roving reporter. While it
will still be challenging for students, this scripted language is relatively clear, precise, and
“standard.” It also mirrors usage in the textbook in general, although unfamiliar vocabulary and
structures are used in it. (See below in this section to understand how unfamiliar material is
handled.)
In addition, however, most of the shows also feature unscripted, natural native speech, which
occurs in the interviews conducted by the roving reporter. This speech will of course be more
challenging for students to understand since, like all native language, it is not always clear and
precise. It will also at times have the other characteristics of native speech in all languages:
redundancy, sentence fragments, hesitations, twisted syntax, lack of subject/verb agreement, and
so on. If you doubt that this is what unedited native speech is like, turn on a radio talk show in any
language (listen not only to the callers but also to the host), watch a morning or evening news show
on a major network, or watch CNN, FOX, and so on, and try to listen analytically to the language of
5You can continue to use the video programs that accompanied previous editions of the text, as needed. Note also that
excerpts from those video programs are included in the Audio portion of this edition’s Workbook/Laboratory Manual. (See
Section IX in this Manual.)
ii. An Immersion Approach
Language students like to watch videos, and there is great value in the motivational aspect of
showing videos in class or having students watch them in your campus media center, language lab,
or on their own. The desire to entertain students with video is one of the reasons for the television
format of Salu2— almost all of us were raised with television.
That said, the purpose of the Salu2 shows is not only to entertain but also to promote language
acquisition. Pedagogically, the shows fit within an immersion approach— to acquire language from
context when not everything is understood. For skill development of this kind to occur, the authors
believe that students need to “stretch” their listening muscles with challenging materials, not just
listen to vocabulary and structures that have been presented in the text. Most decisions about the
Salu2 video program were driven by the desire to make such challenging material understandable.
b. The Morning Show Format of Salu2
The selection of a morning show format was the key decision in the design process for this video
program, since this type of show offers features that represent advantages for the language learner.
• Familiarity of format: Students (and instructors) are well acquainted with the style of
morning shows. This means that they know what linguistic formulas to expect at certain times,
such as greetings, goodbyes, transitions, banter between anchors, and so on. Students will
naturally rely on their expectations as an aid to comprehension, whether they realize it or not.
Moreover, the fact that a Spanish-language morning show is based in Los Angeles reinforces the
idea that Spanish is a U.S. language and that there is a large multi-cultural Spanish-speaking
community that actually watches similar shows.
• Short segments: All morning shows have features that enhance comprehension, even for
native speaker viewers, whose attention is often distracted from the television screen. The most
obvious feature of this type is the variety of segments within each program. This makes “re-
connecting” with the program very feasible if you stop watching it for a few minutes. For the
language learner, this means that a typical morning show is made up of short “watchable”
segments whose individual length is realistic for a beginner, even though the whole program is
long.
• Diversity: Besides length, the most obvious advantage of the multi-topic nature of morning
shows in terms of a language course is the opportunity to offer a broad representation of the
world’s highly diverse Spanish-speaking community, inside and outside of the U.S. Variety is the
key, and programs explore a wide array of topics within each chapter’s lexical and thematic
framework, thus holding students’ attention.
• Visual support: The language of morning shows is almost always supported or at least
accompanied visually, either by activity in the studio or by the footage in reports supplied by
roving reporters. What students see supports their comprehension (and it also conveys cultural
information from all over the Hispanic world).
• Culture: By virtue of their content, morning shows tell a lot about the culture or society they
represent: its tastes, its belief systems, its deep-rooted cultural values, and so on. But rather
than conveying that information in a pedantic way, morning shows present it as entertainment,
which is certain to engage and motivate students
To summarize, it is obvious that all of these the features typical of a morning show are
advantageous for language learners, making it easier for them to understand the Salu2 shows. For
the shows to be comprehensible, however, additional support is needed, and it is offered in the
textbook in sections called Salu2: Segmento 1 and 2. in each chapter.
c. The Salu2 Sections in Each Chapter
In Capítulo 1, there is only one Salu2 section, a two-page spread (pp. 20-21). In all other chapters
there are two Salu2 sections, each one page long, one following Vocabulario: Preparación , and
the other after Un poco de todo. Each Salu2 section focuses on one segment of the chapter’s
program, and provides ample support of many kinds for viewing, discussion, and exploitation of the
shows. (For more explanation, see below in The Salu2 Program.)
• Vocabulary: As to be expected, an authentic, realistic television show uses vocabulary that goes
well beyond that of any basic Spanish course. For example, even simple greetings and basic
courtesy formulas often deviate from the basic exchanges presented in the first chapter of any
given text. Yet it’s this kind of language that students will encounter as soon as they leave the
safe cocoon of the classroom. While it is difficult to expose beginning students to such variation
in a text, it is easy to do so in a video, provided that students are prepared for and supported in
the experience.
Vocabulary is presented in many places in Salu2, especially in the sections that students should
read before viewing:
• in Antes de mirar
The purpose of this vocabulary is to facilitate comprehension; it is not vocabulary that students
need to learn. Some vocabulary is also presented in the pre-viewing Antes de mirar and in the
post-viewing Después de mirar activities. For this reason, and also because reading over
comprehension questions before viewing is an excellent way for students to prepare for seeing the
segment, it is a good idea to suggest that students at least scan these sections before they watch a
given segment.
To summarize, vocabulary is activated in every part of the Salu2 sections’ spreads. It is
important that students be aware of this, especially if they will watch the programs on their own.
• Previewing: Antes de mirar offers questions that ease students into the topic of the program,
using active chapter vocabulary as well as vocabulary useful for watching the show. The
questions are directed to individual students, but these activities can easily be converted to
partner/pair or group discussion formats.
• Después de mirar activities move from checking basic comprehension (¿Está claro? and Un
poco más) to the discussion of a topic presented in the program (Y ahora, Uds.). If you are
showing the video segment in class, you may wish to cover ¿Está claro? after the first viewing,
then the somewhat more challenging Un poco más after the second viewing, then segue into
discussion with Y ahora, Uds.
• Focusing on students’ experience: As noted in the preceding point, Y ahora, Uds. presents
discussion topics, clearly designed to promote small group or whole class discussion. However,
the topics can easily be used in other formats. For example, individual students or groups can
6Individual words and whole phrases are listed. Verbs are sometimes listed in the same form in which they appear in the
program. For example, in Capítulo 2, the verb deber is listed in its conjugated form (yo debo), not as an infinitive, because
students have not yet learned about -er verbs (presented in Capítulo 3).
create a student-led presentation about the topic; the topic can be assigned for written
homework, as a capstone for the Salu2 section; and so on.
d. The SALU2 Programs
Unlike regular television shows, the full Salu2 programs vary in length. Here is the approximate
length of each chapter.
1: 5.28 7: 7.41 13: 8.12
2: 8.00 8: 11.21 14: 7.52
Shows always begin with an exchange between the anchors, followed by a segment (usually
introduced and narrated by Laura, the roving reporter). The anchors comment on that segment,
then segue into the next segment. Sometimes there is also a third segment, also introduced by the
anchors. Finally, the anchors wrap up the program. On occasion (not always) they will preview the
next show. Most of the shows are substantial in length, but because of their format (anchor +
segment + anchor + segment, and so on) they are extremely flexible and “segmentable” (see D
below in this section of the IM).
You may choose to assign the whole program, at least occasionally, as a true immersion
experience. If you choose to do so, you should not expect in-depth comprehension of segments not
supportedin the text. At the beginning level, getting the gist of those unsupported segments and
how they fit in the program as a whole is sufficient.
The DVD version of Salu2 has captions (in Spanish), which can be turned on or off in the DVD’s
menu (just like commercial movies). The captions are not available in this edition’s version of
Connect, however, because there is no way for instructors to turn the captions off if they do not
want students to have access to them. We believe that most instructors would agree with us when
we say that students’ first exposure to a program should be without captions. That said, some
e. Using Salu2
Many instructors prefer to use Salu2 in the classroom, so that viewing is a shared experience, one
that they can mediate. Depending on the contact hours of your course and the goals and needs of
your beginning Spanish program, however, it may not be possible or even desirable for you to show
the program in class. So you may need to encourage students to watch on their own, either in a
media center or language lab, or through Connect. Here are some suggestions for using the
programs in both environments.
i. The Controlled Environment of the Classroom
The following is a list of some ways in which the programs can be used if you are able to show
Salu2 in the classroom. Other methods not given here are certainly possible as well.
• Show the entire segment in one class period, after you have covered the Vocabulario:
Preparación section or the Gramática sections. Ideally, you will have time to cover Antes de
mirar as a whole class discussion and go over at least some of Después de mirar. If possible,
watch the segment a second time in class. If that is not possible, you can assign subsequent
viewing as homework and have students prepare Después de mirar for the next class.
• Show one segment once on one day, and then ask students to watch it again on their own and
prepare activities A and B, and possibly C, to discuss in class. Show or assign both segments on
the same day, perhaps as a capstone activity. In this case, you may want to do some activities in
class as a quick check-up, leaving others to be done as homework to share and discuss in the
next class period.
• The preceding suggestions assume coverage of the pre-viewing activities, but it is also possible
to have students watch the segments “cold.” Doing so will allow you to help them practice
predicting and gisting skills.
• Try showing a show or a segment of a show with the sound turned off and have students
predict what the narration is saying.
• Show a segment multiple times, having students complete a different listening task each time.
For example: 1) gist of the segment, 2) specific comprehension details, 3) linguistic detail, and
so on.
• Try to vary the way in which you handle the video for each chapter. By using diverse viewing
strategies, you will mirror what people do the real world with television programs (watch only
part of a show, start watching a show in the middle, and so on). The flexible morning show
format makes it possible to do that.
ii. The Uncontrolled Environment of Students Working on Their Own
There are many ways to make the programs accessible to students working on their own: by
making Salu2 available to students in the media center or language lab, by having students
purchase their own DVD of the shows, by having students watch Salu2 through Connect. However
you handle this, it is a good idea to keep the following suggestions in mind.
• If at all possible, show the Salu2 program for Capítulo 1 in class, even if students will be asked
to watch subsequent shows on their own. Doing so will get students off to a good start with the
program.
• Stress to students that their viewing of the episodes will be greatly enhanced if they read over
and study the support materials on the Salu2 pages before they start to watch.
• Emphasize that watching only once is better than nothing but that it is not optimal. The more
times students watch a given program or segment of a program, the more they will understand.
can or cannot do.
8. A leer
The A leer sections are a two-page spread. The left-hand page, called Lectura cultural, consists of
author-written materials about the chapter theme. The right-hand page offers authentic materials.
a. A Note about Reading
The authors of Puntos caution against the frequent but rarely productive practice of having
students read the selection (or portions of it) out loud to the whole class. The practice almost
always makes the student who is reading aloud anxious, and it is usually boring for the rest of the
class. Furthermore, it does not facilitate comprehension of the passage, since the language of the
reading materials in this text—whether author-written or authentic—is not “oral” or
conversational. The reading materials in Puntos were not written to be read aloud; they are meant
to be read silently and processed visually.
There are definitely more productive ways to “do” reading in a beginning Spanish class.
• Antes de leer sections (which occur with both types of readings in A leer) can be covered in
class the day before the reading is assigned.
• The reading can be assigned for homework. Alternatively, instructors can give students time in
class to read the text.
• Comprensión can be assigned for homework, and then covered in class, followed by whole-
class discussion of problematic or interesting aspects of the reading.
If instructors feel that reading the passage aloud is a worthwhile activity, we suggest that pairs
of students read to each other.
b. Lectura cultural
As noted, these sections offer author-written material with a didactic purpose about the chapter’s
cultural theme. As such, they are coordinated with chapter vocabulary and grammar, increasing in
difficulty as more and more grammar is available to students. All unfamiliar vocabulary and
grammar is glossed.
Although these sections were written by the text’s authors, they are based on material
submitted to McGraw-Hill by the Cultural Ambassadors for the Ninth Edition. The Ambassadors are
all native speakers from the countries of origin. All of them currently live in this country, and most
of them are involved with the teaching of Spanish. They were asked to complete a questionnaire
about aspects of their country, then comment on each of the text’s cultural themes in the context of
their country of origin.
The goal of the Lectura cultural section is not to convey encyclopedic knowledge about the
country or countries of focus, but rather to give students a “feeling” for them: specific information
about the cultural theme in the country but then a sense of people, places, things, and ideas that are
important to natives of the country. It is hoped that students will relate well to and remember this
more conceptual approach to culture and be motivated by it.
the country of focus of the chapter.
The first section of Lectura cultural, indicated by the name of the country or countries of focus
for a given chapter, discusses aspects of the chapter theme in that country or countries. Then, to
show students that there are Hispanic cultures, not one unified Hispanic culture in the world, a
section called En otros países hispanos presents aspects of the cultural theme as manifested in
other parts of the Spanish-speaking world.
questions generally lead students to a discussion of cultural contrasts.
Each individual section of the page is relatively short, and not all sections need to be covered.
Extensive notes in the AIE (continued in the IM) support the section.
c. Del mundo hispano
As noted, this page offers authentic readings from the Spanish-speaking world. An “authentic” text
is one that was written by a Spanish-speaking author for a Spanish-speaking audience, quite
different from the author-generated texts of Lectura cultural.
Each selection featured in Del mundo hispano is related to the chapter theme, but selections
are not necessarily from the chapter’s country of focus. For the first ten chapters, the readings are
advertisements and other short texts extracted from Spanish-language newspapers or magazines.
Their familiar format will increase their comprehensibility for beginning Spanish students. The
language of these texts has been lightly edited although not greatly simplified. In Capítulos 11
through 18, the readings are literary (poems or microcuentos) and the original language has not
been altered in any way. In both kinds of readings, much but not all unfamiliar vocabulary and
grammar is glossed.
The student text offers Antes de leer and Comprensión activities, accompanied by extensive
notes and suggestions in the AIE and in the Chapter-by-Chapter Supplementary Materials in this IM.
Both kinds of activities can be done by students working on their own, in pairs, in small groups, or
as whole-class discussion. Comprensión activities (at least one; two when space permits) are
generally task-based, giving students something specific to do after completing the reading. It is a
good idea to have students scan Comprensión before they start the reading (just as students are
encouraged to scan Después de mirar before watching a Salu2 program).
The texts can be approached by students in many ways. That said, Estrategia (a repeating
feature of the AIE) gives suggestions about how instructors can facilitate students’ comprehension
of each reading, given what is particularly challenging about its content.
Instructors should note that four types of repeating material for Del mundo hispano appear in
Section X of this Manual.
• Un paso más: topics for small group conversations or mini-projects. These are based on the
reading, but they have students go further in their consideration of the topic. Students are
encouraged to report back to the class, so that there is some full-class closure.
• Optional Writing Activity: short writing assignments. When possible, student-to-student
interaction should be included as part of the writing process: brainstorming with other
students before writing, peer feedback on early drafts, reviewing/commenting on final drafts,
and so on.
• Multimedia: Internet: short Internet research projects based on the reading or its theme.
Students are sent to a specific website or asked to do a web search with the Spanish-language
search terms provided. They search for particular information, then bring it back to the class for
a full-class activity. It is a good idea to show students how to search for Spanish-language
websites. Most search engines have an “advanced search” option through which the language of
the website or the country suffix (es, .ar, .mx, and so on) can be set. You may wish to model for
students how to scan Spanish-language websites, to help them develop strategies for quickly
locating the information they need rather than getting bogged down in a word-for-word
reading of texts that are too complex for them to understand.
• Biography: For Capítulos 11–18, brief biographies of the authors are provided, in Spanish.
9. A escuchar
The A escuchar tasks are real-world listening experiences: conversations about everyday topics,
voicemail messages, excerpts from radio shows, and so on. The scripts are author-written, so the
language is somewhat simplified and coordinated with the vocabulary and grammar of a given
chapter. The scripts are included in Section X of this Manual.
The following sections support A escuchar:
• Title of the selection: The title gives students a heads-up about the content of the passage and
often vocabulary that will help them understand it. It is a good idea to call students’ attention to
the title and make sure that they know what it means.
• Antes de escuchar: These activities, to be completed in class, help activate schema and
background knowledge to prepare students to receive the information in the listening activity.
It is recommended that these activities be done by students working in pairs or small groups,
with information then reported back or shared with the whole class.
When appropriate, follow-up activities and suggestions are included in the AIE.
The student text makes no specific suggestions about how and when students will hear the
listening passage, so you can complete this section in class or assign it for homework. If you use the
passages in class, you will want to decide how many times you want students to listen to it. If only
once, then the listening experience will be more like a test. A more skill-building approach would be
to play the passage once, have students attempt to do the Después de escuchar activities, then
play the passage again. If students will listen to the passages on their own, you should give them
advice about how to listen and how many times.
10. Producción personal
New to the Tenth Edition of Puntos, Producción personal is a chapter-culminating section that
encourages different kinds of open-ended production, both written and oral. The section is based
on the common practice of portfolio development: a personal way for students to show their
linguistic and cultural progress while representing their personal interests and milestones in their
lives. Producción personal sections always have three parts.
a. ¡Ahora yo!
This part of Producción personal offers recurring ideas for oral production. The first one (A)
always asks students to give their personal answers to the questions posed in the chapter opener,
thus bringing the chapter full circle. In the chapter opener, those questions are answered by a
fictional Spanish-speaker in a way that is natural and authentic to a person from her/his country.
Now, students can demonstrate their progress by answering the questions themselves in a way that
is true to them, using the native speaker’s answers as a model. Instructors may wish to request that
students give their answers in writing, or better yet, as an audio recording.
b. A Escribir
These sections offer suggestions for guided writing activities related to the chapter’s cultural
theme. Most of the suggestions are for expository essays, and some are set in the context of a
simulated real-world writing task: writing part of a pamphlet to orient freshman students on the
campus or an article for the student newspaper. A process approach to writing is assumed.
Guidance for the writing task is given in three stages, and many suggestions are included in the AIE.
• Paso 1: These activities (in the student text) are generally to be completed in class, as they often
involve getting information from other students in an interview format. As they complete these
activities, students will not only be accumulating material to use in their writing sample, but they
will be activating schema and background knowledge about the topic. Instructors may wish to
follow-up this stage with whole-class discussion. The Connect version of these activities also
includes organizers to help students to gather their thoughts and devise a strategy.
• Paso 2: This step includes specific instructions to students for writing the first draft of their essays,
Guidelines about writing sample length and structure are provided in the AIE. You may wish to
share them with students or create your own guidelines.
c. Más ideas para su portafolio
This last section of Producción personal offers additional ideas for students’ portfolios, all of them
ways to reflect on aspects of the chapter theme and present a very personal view of their
experience learning Spanish.
11. En resumen: En este capítulo
En resumen: En este capítulo is linked by its title with the En este capítulo section from the
chapter opening pages. It lists both the chapter grammar and active vocabulary for the chapter,
linking the chapter’s material with the topics stated at the beginning of the chapter.
a. After Studying This Chapter I Can…
This new section offers a series of can-do statements, designed to make students reflect on the
linguistic and cultural abilities they have gained by studying each chapter.
b. Gramática en breve
The chapter’s grammar is summarized in the section, including both forms and (when possible)
concepts. As many irregularities as possible are also given. For this reason, Gramática en breve
serves as a quick thumbnail sketch of the chapter’s grammar. See, for example, this section on p.
198, where not only forms (present progressive, comparisons) are listed but concepts (ser versus
estar) as well.
c. Vocabulario
This section presents the chapter’s active vocabulary, that is, all new words in the chapter that are
to be learned. The list includes the theme vocabulary presented and practiced in Vocabulario:
In all chapters of Puntos there are some vocabulary items—either cognates or glossed words—
that are used to provide humor or establish the context for an activity. These words are usually not
considered to be active vocabulary and are therefore not listed in the chapter Vocabulario, since
students do not actively manipulate them. However, instructors who carefully follow the
introduction of vocabulary will discover that such background vocabulary often becomes active in a
later chapter, especially if it has appeared passively in a number of chapters.
You should also note that in most Vocabulario: Preparación sections, a few words are listed
that have already been learned as active vocabulary in previous chapters. For example, the verb
comprar relates to the shopping theme of Capítulo 4, but it was learned as active vocabulary in
Capítulo 2; such vocabulary is listed with no definition, in an appropriate semantic category, under
the heading Repaso.
When the same word is introduced with a new meaning, it is listed, along with the new
definition, in the Vocabulario lists. Thus, the verb sacar is listed in Capítulo 10 with the meaning
to take out (and listed as sacar la basura) and in Capítulo 11 with the meanings to extract; to
extract someone’s tooth/molar (sacarle un diente / una muela) and to stick out one’s tongue
(sacar la lengua).
The preceding feature makes explicit one of the ways in which vocabulary is consistently
reviewed throughout the chapters of Puntos. Instructors should note in addition the Word Families
feature of the IE for this section. It provides a valuable resource for instructors who wish to review
previous chapter vocabulary and emphasize the links between previously learned vocabulary and
that of the current chapter.
