16.2178, Review: Textbook/Romance Lang:Andres Martinez et al (2004)

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-2178. Sun Jul 17 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.2178, Review: Textbook/Romance Lang:Andres Martinez et al (2004)

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>
 
Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org) 
        Sheila Dooley, U of Arizona  
        Terry Langendoen, U of Arizona  

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomi at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

What follows is a review or discussion note contributed to our 
Book Discussion Forum. We expect discussions to be informal and 
interactive; and the author of the book discussed is cordially 
invited to join in. If you are interested in leading a book 
discussion, look for books announced on LINGUIST as "available 
for review." Then contact Sheila Dooley at collberg at linguistlist.org. 

===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 14-Jul-2005
From: Regina Morin < rmorin at tcnj.edu >
Subject: Camino al espanol: A Comprehensive Course in Spanish 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 14:40:01
From: Regina Morin < rmorin at tcnj.edu >
Subject: Camino al espanol: A Comprehensive Course in Spanish 
 

AUTHORS: Andres Martinez, Consuelo de; Bruce, Eugenia Ariza; 
Cook, Christine; Diez-Bonet Isabel; Trippett, Anthony
TITLE: Camino al español
SUBTITLE: A Comprehensive Course in Spanish
YEAR: 2004
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-1884.html


Regina Morin, The College of New Jersey (TCNJ)

OVERVIEW

As described by the authors in the introduction, this book is a 
beginning Spanish course aimed at students with no previous 
knowledge of Spanish. Part I is divided into twenty units, centered on 
one or more topics or functions. Chapters 1 through 5 provide 
instructions in both English and Spanish, and only in Spanish from 
Chapter 6 on. Each unit is divided into four sections: 'Presentación y 
prácticas' is meant to introduce functions, and new structures and 
vocabulary; 'Comprensión auditiva' provides listening exercises based 
on these functions; 'Consolidación'  contains written revision 
exercises; and 'Gramática' provides explanations of all new grammar 
points in English. Part II includes Teachers' Guidelines, including a 
sample unit, solutions to the written exercises, and tape scripts for 
most of the listening activities that appear in the text. Part III contains 
reference tools and study aids such as a student guide to grammar 
terms, a list of Spanish verbs with conjugations, a Spanish/English-
English/Spanish glossary, and an index of grammar, topics, and 
functions.

CHAPTER BY CHAPTER SUMMARY

The Chapters in Part I present topics, functions and grammatical 
points in the following order:

Chapter 1 (¿Cómo te llamas?). Topics and functions: How to greet 
people in Spanish, giving and asking for personal information, and 
spelling names in Spanish. Grammatical points: saying "hello" 
and "goodbye" and introducing people, the present tense forms 
of 'ser' and 'llamarse', demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, 
questions, negation, pronunciation of vowels and consonants, word 
stress and the written accent.

Chapter 2 (¿Tienes hermanos?). Topics and functions: talking about 
family members, describing appearance and character, and telling 
your age. Grammatical points: subject pronouns, the present 
indicative of -ar, -er, -ir verbs, 'tener' ('años'), possessive adjectives, 
irregular comparatives, questions, cardinal and ordinal numbers.

Chapter 3 (¿Cómo es tu casa?). Topics and functions: describing 
places, saying where you live, saying what places there are in a town, 
using numbers. Grammatical points: gender and number 
agreement, 'haber' ('hay'), cardinal numbers, and adverbials such 
as 'muy', 'bastante', 'demasiado', 'un poco'.

Chapter 4 (¿Dónde está la oficina de correos?): Topics and functions: 
asking for and giving directions, locating people and places, 
expressing obligation and necessity. Grammatical points: present 
indicative of 'estar', 'ir', 'venir', 'coger', 'torcer', 'seguir', 'saber', 
and 'conocer', introduction of 'ser/estar' and 'saber/conocer', 'tener 
que'/'hay que', and prepositions of place.

Chapter 5 (¿Qué desea?). Topics and functions: expressing likes and 
dislikes, going shopping, talking about weights and measures. 
Grammatical points: irregular verbs in the present , indirect object 
pronouns, 'gustar/parecer', pronouns used as object of a preposition.

Chapter 6 (De viaje) (first chapter with instructions only in 
Spanish).Topics and functions: telling the time, days of the week, 
months and dates, transportation and buying tickets, booking a hotel 
room, holidays, the weather. Grammatical points: telling time and 
asking when something happens, days of the week, the date and the 
seasons, the verbs 'hacer', 'llegar' and 'salir', verbs followed by an 
infinitive, formal letters (greetings and endings).

Chapter 7 (¿Y tú, qué haces?). Topics and functions: describing daily 
routines, frequency of activities, writing informal letters. Grammatical 
points: present tense of stem changing verbs (o>ue, e>ie, e>i), 
reflexive verbs, more verbs followed by a preposition, expressions of 
frequency, informal letters (headings, openings, endings).

Chapter 8 (Cuando era pequeño). Topics and functions:  talking about 
what you used to do, comparing people and places in the past, 
comparing past and present, saying what people were doing at a 
particular time. Grammatical points: forms and uses of the imperfect, 
time phrases used with the imperfect, the verb 'soler'.

Chapter 9 (¿Te gustan estos zapatos?). Topics and functions: buying 
clothes and presents, making comparisons. Grammatical points: word 
stress and the written accent, comparatives and superlatives, verbs 
combined with direct and indirect object pronouns, the adjectives otro
(a)(os)(as), and ¿qué?, ¿cómo?, ¿cuál?

Chapter 10 (¿Qué van a tomar?). Topics and functions: ordering a 
meal in a restaurant, talking about preferences, saying how long you 
have been doing something, asking if something is allowed, physical 
and mental states with tener. Grammatical points: the present 
indicative of 'poder' and 'tener', states with tener, direct object 
pronouns, the personal "a", familiar commands and pronoun 
placement, the passive and impersonal se.

Chapter 11 (¿Qué harás este fin de semana?). Topics and functions: 
making and talking about future plans, making, accepting and refusing 
invitations, and writing letters and using the telephone. Grammatical 
points: expressions for talking on the telephone, uses of the gerund 
and the present continuous, the future tense, uses of the 
verb 'pensar'.

Chapter 12 (¿Qué te pasa? ¿Cómo estás?). Topics and functions: 
parts of the body, talking about health and how you are feeling, talking 
about problems and how to solve them, describing states. 
Grammatical points: 'ser'/'estar', obligation ('deber', 'hacer falta').

Chapter 13 (¿Qué has hecho esta semana?). Topics and functions: 
talking about what you and others have done, saying how long you 
have been doing something. Grammatical points: present perfect, 
direct and indirect object pronouns, negation, the 
adverbs 'ya', 'todavía', 'aun', 'ni siquiera'.

Chapter 14 (¿Qué pasó?) Topics and functions: events in the past, 
the order in which things happened, getting people to talk about what 
happened to them. Grammatical points: the preterit, the preterit and 
the imperfect, the preterit and the perfect, time expressions used with 
the preterit and other past tenses.

Chapter 15 (Ya se había marchado). Topics and functions: saying 
what happened and the circumstances in which it happened, telling 
someone's life story, speaking of what had already taken place. 
Grammatical points: stem-changing/irregular verbs in the preterit, the 
pluperfect.

Chapter 16 (Cuando llegue el verano...). Topics and functions: talking 
about what you may do in the future, saying what might or might not 
happen. Grammatical points: the subjunctive (the future, doubt, 
uncertainty).

Chapter 17 (Quiero que vengas): Topics and functions: describing 
your ideal partner, apartment, etc., saying what you feel about things, 
saying what you want to happen, telling others what to do. 
Grammatical points: the uses of the subjunctive.

Chapter 18 (No olvides la crema bronceadora!) Topics and functions: 
giving instructions and advice, telling someone what not to do. 
Grammatical points: polite affirmative commands (ud., uds.), familiar 
and polite negative commands (tú, vosotros, ud., uds.), pronoun 
placement with commands.

Chapter 19 (¿Qué harías?). Topics and functions: describing 
hypothetical places, saying what you would do in a hypothetical 
situation, reporting what was said or done. Grammatical points: the 
conditional, the passive voice, 'ser' +past participle vs. 'estar' + past 
participle.

Chapter 20 (Si fuera millionario). Topics and functions: Reporting what 
you would do if..., giving advice, reporting what others wanted you to 
do. Grammatical points: the imperfect subjunctive, conditional 
sentences and the subjunctive, a checklist of when to use the 
subjunctive, the indicative or the infinitive.

EVALUATION

This textbook has some desirable qualities that are often absent in 
beginning Spanish textbooks. The tips in the learner guide are 
extremely practical, and point the student who takes the time to read 
them towards out-of-class activities that can enhance the learning 
experience. The tips for gaining linguistic awareness specifically 
encourage learners to look for language patterns in Spanish, and to 
notice patterns that are similar and different in their native language 
and Spanish.

Each chapter is headed by a Learning Aims section that explicitly 
spells out the functions and topics of each unit. In this way students 
are made aware of  the specific objectives of each new chapter.

The earlier chapters in this book recycle material such as vocabulary 
and grammatical points, thus providing the students with multiple 
exposures to the same material. For example, to complete a writing 
activity in Chapter 2 students must refer back to information contained 
in Chapter 1. Chapter 9 uses clothing vocabulary to review noun- 
adjective agreement, which is introduced in detail in Chapter 3.

Throughout, the book explicitly points out useful facts that students 
too often do not learn until too late when they are already making 
errors, for example, subject pronouns are used sparingly in Spanish, 
mostly for emphasis or to avoid ambiguity; question words have 
written accents on the stressed syllable;  -o is generally masculine 
and -a is generally feminine, but in addition, certain suffixes (-ción,-
dad) are generally associated with masculine or feminine gender.

Most of the readings in the book are authentic materials, either 
adapted from or taken directly from Spanish language newspapers, 
and in many cases they are followed by web addresses (e.g. 
http://www.lamoncloa.es ) that students can consult for further information in 
the target language.

Despite these positive characteristics, this book is characterized by a 
number of shortcomings that may not make it the ideal textbook for the 
average U.S., college-age learner of Spanish. The authors purposely 
used a standard presentation throughout the book. Material is 
presented in roughly the same way, in the same order for the entire 
20 Chapters, thus allowing for very little variety of presentation. 
Especially in the more advanced chapters, much of the "contextual" 
presentation of topics is accomplished through reading and listening 
to dialogues or introductory texts while reading along and then 
answering a series of questions. The book makes scant use of picture 
stories or drawings.

The introduction states that the emphasis is on communication, but 
merely doing activities in the target language is not necessarily 
communicative. It is true that especially in the earlier chapters there is 
a good variety of information gapping and describing activities, but 
throughout the book, a number of functions are introduced exclusively 
with fill-in-the-blank type or transformation exercises. In this way, 
grammar exercises consistently find their way into the 'Presentación y 
Prácticas' section, which is meant to introduce new structures and 
vocabulary in context. For example, in Chapter 4 (p. 82) '¿Conocer o 
Saber?' is a fill-in-the blanks exercise not based on any activity that 
presents the concept in context. In Chapter 9 (pp. 174-5) comparisons 
are not introduced contextually, but as a series of example sentences 
followed by an exercise of the type: "El perro no 
es...independiente...el gato." In Chapter 15 (p. 286), the function of 
telling what had already taken place is introduced by a paragraph in 
which students are asked to underline all verbs in the pluperfect 
tense, followed by a transformation exercise of the type: Belén; "No 
sonó el despertador."-->"Belén dijo que no había sonado el 
despertador". 	Additionally, the book would be better organized if 
the 'Consolidación' and 'Gramática' sections were combined into one. 
The large amounts of grammatical information provided would be 
easier to assimilate if each new point and sub point were followed by a 
relevant exercise through which to apply the new concepts.

The order in which grammar points are introduced is somewhat 
mystifying. For example, Chapter 1 introduces a host of grammar 
points, including all the demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, while 
the more basic definite and indefinite articles are not introduced until 
Chapter 3. Indirect object pronouns make their appearance in Chapter 
5, direct and indirect object pronouns appear together in Chapter 9, 
and direct object pronouns appearing alone are first discussed in 
Chapter 10. Chapter 8 is entirely dedicated to the forms and uses of 
the imperfect, while the preterit is not mentioned until Chapter 14. It is 
discussed again in Chapter 15. The remaining chapters introduce the 
pluperfect, the present subjunctive,  polite and informal positive and 
negative commands, the conditional, the passive voice, and the 
imperfect subjunctive. Thus, while the earlier chapters effectively 
recycle vocabulary and grammar, the second half of the text 
introduces a large number of grammar points in quick succession, with 
little opportunity for repeated exposure or practice.

According the introduction, the book aims to develop a broad 
awareness of cultural contexts in which Spanish is written and spoken 
both in Spain and Latin America.	 It is, however, heavily tilted 
toward Spain. For example, on p. 28, the book states that: "Lunch (el 
almuerzo/la comida) is much later in Spain than in the English-
speaking countries." It does not then explain if this is true also in 
different Latin American countries. Much of the vocabulary is clearly 
inspired in Peninsular Spanish, with occasional explanations that 
vocabulary may vary somewhat in Latin American countries (e.g. 
clothing vocabulary, use of the verb 'coger'). Spain seems to be 
painted in a more positive light than Latin American countries. For 
example, in Chapter 3 one reading (p. 68) begins with: "Madrid es una 
ciudad fascinante, cosmopolita, llena de vida." On page 70, the 
reading on Latin America begins with: "Unos 100 millones de menores 
viven y trabajan en las calles de las ciudades del mundo en 
desarrollo. En América Latina hay cerca de 40 millones." In addition, 
much of the realia and many of the readings are drawn from 
Peninsular sources. For example, Chapter 6 (De viaje) includes the 
following activities: '¿Qué trenes hay para Madrid?' 
(dialogue), 'Estación de Atocha' (interpreting a train schedule from 
Madrid to Sevilla), '¿Qué tiempo hace en Santander?' (a weather map 
of Spain), 'Excursiones' ( a tour of Galicia), 'Billete de Tren' (a ticket 
from RENFE, the Spanish national railroad). Travel destinations in 
Latin America are only briefly mentioned in a listening exercise in 
the 'Comprensión auditiva' section. Chapter 9, on shopping, uses the 
floor plan of 'El Corte Inglés', the largest department store in Spain, 
and in all the dialogues in the Comprensión auditiva section, all prices 
are in euros. There are roughly 12 authentic readings in the text: 10 
are drawn from Peninsular newspapers, including regional 
publications like the 'Heraldo de Aragón', while only 2 come from Latin 
American sources. There are three additional articles included in 
the 'Comprensión auditiva' section, all from the Peninsular press. Of 
an additional eleven readings not drawn from the press, eight are 
about Spain, and three are about Latin America. There are three 
maps of Spain, one detailing all the 'comunidades autónomas', and a 
street map of Oviedo. There are two maps of Columbia, each showing 
only Bogotá. There are no other maps of Latin America.

On the cultural awareness level, the book presents the additional 
problem that some of the activities will not be relevant to U.S. 
students, and many of the grammar explanations will appear stilted 
because they use structures that are not usual in Standard American 
English. For example, Chapter 5 explains that: "En España las horas 
de las comidas son distintas a las de Inglaterra". If they are not the 
same in England as in the U.S. such an explanation does little to 
clarify what they might be in Spain. In Chapter 11, students are invited 
to accept an invitation from the Spanish consul in Liverpool, and in 
Chapter 14, they are asked to read a text and answer questions about 
the experiences of a young Spanish woman during her first year in 
Sheffield. Likewise, in Chapter 11 (p. 224), for example, the grammar 
section states that: "Spanish sometimes uses the present where 
English uses a future. ¿Quieres dejarme una libra? ¿Me dejas una 
libra? Will you lend me a pound?" American English does not use the 
future in this way, so the explanation may lead to confusion. There are 
other such examples throughout the book.

It is laudable that this textbook pays attention to pronunciation and 
phonetics, an all-too-often ignored area of foreign language study. 
Nonetheless, the pronunciation sections are plagued with 
inaccuracies that could have been corrected prior to publication by 
consulting any good phonetics textbook (e.g. Teschner 2000). For 
example, the explanation of diphthongs on p. 30 of the text 
reads: "Vowels can come in twos or threes. They are not separate 
sounds but nevertheless need to be pronounced clearly..." This is 
patently incorrect. Diphthongs and diphthongs are indeed two or three 
separate vowel sounds, but they do not occur in two or three separate 
syllables. The explanation of strong and weak vowels is similarly 
misleading, stating that  "a", "e", "o" are strong vowels and "i", "u", 
and "y" at the end of a word are weak. This is not so. All vowels are 
strong in their own syllable (e.g. hijo, humo), and "i" and "u" 
additionally are strong when they are stressed (e.g. ha-cia vs. ha-cí-a) 
next to another strong vowel. The vowels "i" and "u" are only weak 
when they appear unstressed in a single syllable together with a 
strong vowel as part of a diphthong. More worrisome are the 
suggested pronunciations for Spanish vowels (e.g. "a" as in "cat", 
e.g. "casa," "o" as is American English "boat", e.g. "piloto", "u" as 
in "moon", e.g. "club"), which will lead to pronunciations that should be 
avoided in Spanish, characteristic of the complex vowel nuclei of 
English. The "a" of "cat" is slightly higher and more fronted that the 
Spanish /a/. Dalbor (1997: 141) suggests that it sounds like the vowel 
in 'hot'  in most American dialects, but that it is more open, tenser and 
shorter in duration. According to Dalbor (p. 144) the Spanish "o" is 
similar to the first part of the English complex vowel nucleus 
(diphthong) in 'boat'.

This lack of attention to detail is evident at other points in the text. For 
example, to express existence in Spanish it is usual to use the 
verb 'haber' ('hay'), but not with the definite article ('un'/'una'). An 
exercise on p. 62 asks: "¿Qué más hay en tu ciudad?". The prompts 
appear as: "un buzón, la playa, la parada del autobús, la parada del 
metro, el teléfono público", which will result in incorrect structures 
such as: *"Hay la playa. *Hay la parada", instead of "Hay UNA playa. 
Hay UNA parada.". Another example is to be found in the explanation 
of indirect object pronouns. The grammatically unacceptable *"La 
dependienta da el cambio a Luis", (without the use of "le") is used to 
illustrate the concept of "to whom". Spanish uses both the explicit 
indirect object and the pronoun together, so students who model their 
output on the example given will produce structures that are 
grammatically inaccurate in Spanish.

To summarize, this text is not quite as communicative, nor does it 
create as broad-based a cultural awareness of the Spanish-speaking 
world, as was promised in the introduction. In addition, it may not be 
the most adequate text for a U.S. American audience without revision 
of grammatical explanations to reflect usage in American English, and 
of activities that may be culturally irrelevant for students who may or 
may not be familiar with England and English customs and cities. 
Finally, it contains some inaccuracies that may led to incorrect output, 
which should be adressed before the publication of the second edition.

REFERENCES

Dalbor, John, B. 1997. Spanish Pronunciation: Theory and Practice. 
3rd Ed. Fort Worth, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.

Teschner, Richard. 2000. Camino Oral. 2nd Ed. New York: McGraw Hill. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Regina Morin is Associate Professor of Spanish and Linguistics in the 
Department of Modern Languages at The College of New Jersey. She 
received her Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from Georgetown University 
in Washington D.C. in 1997. Areas of interest include second 
language vocabulary acquisition, techniques for teaching phonetics 
and pronunciation in beginning level Spanish classes, Spanish/English 
borrowing as a result of the spread of Information and Communication 
Technologies.





-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-16-2178