Identidades: Exploraciones e interconexiones - Softcover

Immerse yourself in Spanish language and culture! Identidades empowers learners to acquire Spanish language skills while immersing them in the richness of the Hispanic world and its people. Identidades is a two-semester intermediate Spanish program that brings the goals of the National Standards to virtually every page of the text and its ancillary components. The program presents and treats the cultures of the Hispanic world in ways that are both appealing and appropriate for college students and simultaneously maintains reasonable expectations for their understanding and productive use of grammatical concepts and structures. Communicative and rich in cultural content, Identidades is engaging, supports the language-learning process, and prepares and encourages students to continue their exploration of the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures beyond the second year. Teaching & Learning Experience Communicative and Content-Based Approach - The goal of the program is to ensure that intermediate level Spanish learners build their language skills in rich communicative and cultural contexts. Communicative activities found throughout the program draw learners to the material presented and help them apply the content to their own experiences. Connect with Culture - By engaging with the cultural, artistic, and social manifestations that infuse the program, learners will deepen their understanding that the Spanish-speaking world is made up of many races, ethnic groups, and cultures. Explore Grammar - The philosophy that underlies the presentation of grammar in Identidades is that adult language learners benefit from straightforward explanations and examples, as well as from opportunities to use structures in both controlled and open-ended activities that embed the targeted structures in meaningful communicative contexts. Build Vocabulary - Learners are introduced to vocabulary in the context of thought provoking reading selections. Develop Skills - A strategy- and process-oriented approach to reading and writing guides learners to apply their cognitive skills to communication in a second language. Reading strategies and tips, which draw the learners' attention to key ideas or unfamiliar words or phrases in the passages of each chapter, help readers develop their reading-comprehension skills in Spanish, employing techniques and skills that they use automatically when reading in their native languages. Writing strategies and tasks provide guidance for students to produce descriptions, narrations, and explanations in writing. Research-oriented writing activities prepare the learner for courses beyond the second year. Personalize Learning - MySpanishLab's proven results are available for Intermediate Spanish courses! MySpanishLab for Identidades will be available for Fall 2012 courses. MySpanishLab does not come automatically packaged with this text. To purchase MySpanishLab access, please visit: www.mylanguagelabs.com or you can purchase a valuepack of the text + MySpanishLab 24-month access (ISBN: 0205876935 ).

ELIZABETH GUZMAN received her B.A in English from Universidad de Santiago (Chile) and her M.A. in English as a Second Language from West Virginia University, and then pursued doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She is currently the Director of the General Education Program at The University of Iowa, where she has been responsible for designing the GEP hybrid courses. She has extensive experience teaching Spanish and English to foreigners, Spanish Applied Linguistics, and Foreign Language Education at the university level in Chile and the United States. She co-directed the Spanish language program at the University of Michigan for 3 years, directed the Spanish program at Yale University for 5 years, and taught and coordinated the elementary summer language program at Middlebury College, one of the most successful and renowned language immersion programs in the world, for 10 years. Elizabeth is co-author of the first level Spanish textbook Mosaicos, published by Pearson. PALOMA LAPUERTA graduated from the University of Salamanca, Spain, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. She currently is a Associate Professor at Central Connecticut State University, where she teaches Spanish Language and Literature. She has 25 years of teaching experience at higher education institutions around the world, including in Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, and the United States. Dr. Lapuerta is co-author of the first level Spanish textbook Mosaicos, and the Spanish composition text La escritura paso a paso, both published by Pearson. JUDITH LISKIN-GASPARRO earned her Ph.D. in Foreign Language Education and Second Language Acquisition from the University of Texas at Austin. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa, where she also co-directs FLARE (Foreign Language Acquisition Research and Education), which operates an interdisciplinary doctoral program in Second Language Acquisition. Her research interests include language acquisition during study abroad, the acquisition of narrative skill in a second language, and foreign language program evaluation. She has published extensively on oral proficiency testing, language curriculum and program development, and second language acquisition. She has served as the Associate Editor for Reviews of the Modern Language Journal since 1999. She is a co-author of Mosaicos, as well as the co-editor of the Pearson Professional Library Series. In 1994, she was honored by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the Modern Language Journal with the Emma Marie Birkmaier Award for Doctoral Dissertation Research in Foreign Language Education. In 1999, she received ACTFL's Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in Foreign Language Education. MATILDE OLIVELLA DE CASTELLS (late) received her Ph.D. from the University of Havana. She had over 25 years of teaching experience at Rutgers University and California State University, Los Angeles where she received the University's Outstanding Professor Award and Merit Award. She was also the coordinator of second level Spanish at the Middlebury Spanish Summer Language School, a member of the Spanish Development Committee of the College Entrance Examination Board, and Chairperson of the Advanced Placement Committee. She had given presentations at the AATSP and ACTFL conventions and conducted numerous workshops at universities around the country. Professor Castells had authored and co-authored several Spanish texts, including La lengua espanola and the first level Spanish textbook Mosaicos, both from Pearson.