Bill VanPatten,
University of Illinois, Chicago James F. Lee,
Indiana University Terry L. Ballman,
California State University, Channel Islands
ISBN: 0072990503 Copyright year: 2006
Feature Summary
Vistazos, Second Edition is a brief version of the successful ¿Sabías que... ?, Fourth Edition, perfectly designed for those programs that are interested in an innovative task-based approach but whose curriculum necessitates a briefer text.
Vistazos is highly innovative yet extremely practical in its task-based approach. Rather than asking students to do activities that are contrived or have no context, Vistazos asks students to use their Spanish to complete specific —and practical— goals or tasks. For example, a task might involve interviewing another student to create an information sheet for the instructor. The benefit to this approach is that students stay engaged in the activities and derive a greater sense of accomplishment and purpose from them.
Vistazos represents the practical application of the theories and research presented in Lee and VanPatten’s methods text Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen, Second Edition (2003, McGraw-Hill). It is a natural companion volume for additional support in teaching with Vistazos.
The activities in Vistazos are unique in that students must understand what the content means in order to complete them. In other words, there is no purely mechanical practice (substitution drills, strict verb conjugations, and so forth) in the text.
By organizing the chapters into thematic units (5 units of 3 lessons each, plus a Lección preliminar and a Lección final), Vistazos offers students and instructors more opportunities to recycle and reinforce the vocabulary presented.
Vistazos is uniquely and conveniently organized into sections called Vistazos (I, II, and III), each of which includes just the right amount of material to cover in one 50-minute class. This organization makes syllabus planning a breeze!
To obtain an instructor login for this Online Learning Center, ask your local sales representative.
If you're an instructor thinking about adopting this textbook, request a free copy for review.
2006 McGraw-Hill Higher Education