978-0073534497 04 Chapter Structure And Teaching Techniques For Puntos De Partida Part 2

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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.