Book Description
Based on the Natural Approach, Dos mundos stresses the use of engaging activities and interesting readings in a natural and spontaneous classroom atmosphere. In this comprehension-based approach to learning language, the development of communicative language skills is the central goal, with formal grammar presentation and grammar practice at the service of communication. The text is designed so that class time can be devoted to exposing students to Spanish through creative activities and readings, allowing grammar explanations and exercises to be studied outside the classroom.
Customer Reviews:
A good book that did the job.......2007-05-23
I needed this book for my spanish class and it provided me with the step by step instruction I needed.
Best text on the market for Spanish Instruction.......2006-09-24
I teach college Spanish and I love this text. It is thoughtfully constructed and provides numerous activities for communication in the target language. Dos mundos also provides very useful ideas for instructors. The pages are colorful and the content engaging. My students love all the activities I use from this text. I wish more Spanish instructors would embrace the methodology presented in Dos mundos. My level one Spanish students actually speak Spanish (albeit low-level Spanish). I don't know if I would recommend this text for independent study, however. I believe it would be most effective if used in conjunction with a dynamic instructor. I do agree that the authors should include a separate English-Spanish dictionary section. I also find the video segments to be very poor (and why are they exactly the same as the ones for Puntos de partida when they both have such different approaches to language acquisition?)
pretty good.......2006-02-25
this is not a bad spanish book. i don't know if i would say it is great. lots of group activities that are helpful, but they are pretty simple and repetitive. they need to be a little more thoughtful and put in lots of DIFFERENT activities. one last, quite frustrating thing, there is only a spanish-english dictionary in the back. extremely irritating because this is a spanish 1-2 book, and anytime you want to look up a word, you'll need to consult another dictionary.
Book Description
The philosophy of this best-selling introductory text is to emphasize communicative proficiency. Based on the Natural Approach, the text stresses the use of activities in a natural and spontaneous classroom atmosphere. In this comprehension-based approach, the development of receptive skills —listening and reading— precedes and forms the basis for the development of the productive skills —speaking and writing.
Dos mundos is designed so that class time can be devoted to exposing students to Spanish through the abundant activities and readings in the text, allowing the grammar explanations and exercises to be studied outside of class.
Customer Reviews:
Terrible for Beginners (No me gusta).......2006-09-11
If you have a choice, do not buy this book. If you must buy it for your class, seriously consider taking a different Spanish class that doesn't use this book.
This book is full of errors - typos, missing text and using words that haven't been taught yet. It goes on and on. This may be understandable for a 1st edition, but I'm referring to the 5th edition!
They also use a hard-to-read font (small and artsy-fartsy) on their illustrations. So when you see foreign words you can't tell if the word is Lan or Ian. That may seem picky, but when you're paying $200 for the book and workbooks, I expect better.
They also have CD's (they don't include videos for some reason), but it is painfully obvious that the CD's were produced for the ease of manufacturing, not teaching. If you plan on using these CD's while going through a chapter, you will find yourself constantly changing between 3 different CD's - because they don't layout the CD's according to the chapter. One part will be for cultural parts of the chapter, another for the vocabulary and another for the workbook exercises.
It did awake me to the different between Textbooks and what I'll call Free Market books. Textbooks, at least this one, doesn't have a reference section - putting all the numbers together, colors, etc.
Just look at the editorial description (above). It really says it all..."Dos mundos is designed so that class time can be devoted to exposing students to Spanish through the abundant activities and readings in the text, allowing the grammar explanations and exercises to be studied outside of class."
In other words, if you want to learn grammar and have it explained, don't use this book. Study it "outside of class." Why am I taking this class?
A LONG WAIT FOR PRODUCT.......2005-09-04
I ordered this product on the 3rd of August via expedited (2 day)shipping and it did not get here until the 13th of August!! Class started here on the 15th. The product itself was as it stated, so I can not complain about that. I would not use this shipper unless you have plenty of time to wait.
Unhappy.......2004-09-08
I was looking for a student workbook for practice in spanish. I ordered this book because it was listed as "like new",it took me almost three weeks to get it and when I did I found the worksheets for the first five chapters were cut out. I am now approaching my first term exam for those same chapters and have no book to review.
The Best Spanish Resource I've ever Come Across.......2003-10-27
I think that "Dos Mundos" is an excellent resource for both teachers AND students. I disagree that study of the book needs to be accompanied by teacher instruction and supervision. The beauty of the text, in my opinion, is that it makes self-teaching very easy. The grammar section at the back of each chapter is clearly explained in English, and there is a complete vocabulary list at the end of each chapter.
The other beauty of the book is that it creates the closest thing to language immerson that you can get out of a book. There are many articles from Spanish-speakers, written in very natural Spanish.
As for the person upset about the Mexican Spanish, I can't say that I agree with you. I was pleasantly surprised because the book actually has samplings of the language from all over the Spanish world. But in order to avoid confusion (which would make sense), they stuck to one main form of Spanish - Spain Spanish.
I recommend this book for ANYONE - teacher and students (from beginner level write up to the advanced learner)
World Language.......2003-03-30
to the reviewer who says that every Spanish textbook should emphasize Mexican Spanish, there are many other countries other than Mexico that speak Spanish. It is pure linguistic chauvinism to state that vosotros shouldn't be taught. I also think 'vos' as used in Central American and the River Plate region should also be introduced in beginning Spanish classes. Limiting the accents that are offered and by refining the text as though Mexico were the only country potential Spanish speaker will visit is short-sighted and small-minded at best. The text is not meant to be used on an autodidactic basis.
Book Description
Based on the Natural Approach, Dos mundos: En breve stresses the use of engaging activities and interesting readings in a natural and spontaneous classroom atmosphere. In this comprehension-based approach to learning language, the development of communicative language skills is the central goal, with formal grammar presentation and grammar practice at the service of communication. The text is designed so that class time can be devoted to exposing students to Spanish through creative activities and readings, allowing grammar explanations and exercises to be studied outside the classroom.
Customer Reviews:
GET IT USED!!!.......2007-10-05
BUY IT USED!!!!! The bind-in passcode is worthless because they publishers have already made that material FREE on their website!!! ... I thought I needed it for school, but it turns out that my school has a specialized workbook on their own website, which I had to pay for separately anyway. Great text, just not worth full price.
WHAT a ridiculously organized textbook!.......2006-07-07
The organization of this text is incredibly unhelpful to the introductory Spanish student. Conjugated verb forms, reflexive pronouns, and general vocabulary words are very often used long before the text actually _defines_ or _explains_ the words. Keep in mind that most American students now have little to no training in grammatical structure, so they will not be able to deduce the meaning of a word based on its location in a sentence.
Page design is similarly horrible--the "blue pages" at the end of each chapter are crammed full of text with very little white space or other categorizing strategy. Critical information is shoved off to the margins or relegated to footnotes.
My teacher did the best she could with the text, but she also relied heavily on the instructor's manual-- and the manual took the class all over the textbook in no particular chronological order. I felt badly for her because of the amount of explanation she had to do in order to pull the text together into any kind of coherency.
If you're a teacher pondering adoption of this text, run, RUN in the opposite direction! Let's hope the current edition is much improved. Exponentially much improved.
A reasonable book but the online resources it boasts about really suck.......2006-07-03
The book is OK, but don't count on finding any of the online stuff that the book boasts about on the back cover. I have looked everywhere trying to find it, but to no avail. I think they discontinued all the premium content or something. The website it gives to enter your registration code doesn't have a place to register. I recently emailed McGraw Hill tech support to ask what happened to the online content, but I am still waiting for a response.
Worth considering.......2005-12-13
Dos Mundos En Breve is used in my college class intro to Spanish. The text and example sentences are age appropriate. Vocabulary lessons are substantially in Spanish. Grammar lessons in English follow each chapter, and are on distinctively colored pages for ease in locating.
The learning method is by use of context as vocabulary is added. Students are required to try to understand what is written in Spanish by reference to photos and drawings, chapter titles, and other clues before looking up the translation of newly introduced Spanish words listed at the end of each chapter. It is not boring or difficult. The scheme works well.
The problem is a dearth of pronunciation help for Spanish letters and words. For pronunciation new students will need either, or both, a teacher or another source to supplement this text.
Spanish for Dummies is inexpensive, does this well, and is recommended whether you are studying on your own or taking a Spanish class.
Serious students of Spanish also will find Cliff Notes Spanish I and II (two books) excellent adjuncts to Dos Mundos. Paperbacks of LaCrousse Spanish-English dictionary (ISBN 2035420172) and of The Big Red Book of Spanish Verbs are essential, good choices among many, and fun.
The publisher of Dos Mundos En Breve has an extensive website especially for this book which helps learning Spanish and hear it spoken. The website is used with a separate Dos Mundos En Breve workbook. New books and college classes using this text may make the web site available free, but if you have to pay for it, it is not expensive and entirely worth the cost.
Also, don't overlook the many internet websites that help make learning Spanish fun and easy.
Book Description
This brief version of the best-selling market leader
Dos mundos is ideal for the school that wants to introduce a communicative approach in the classroom through exciting activities yet whose curriculum requires a shorter text.
Dos mundos: En breve is realized by removing the last 4 chapters from the long version of
Dos mundos. A Natural Approach textbook,
Dos mundos: En breve is recognized nationally for its innovative communicative methodology yet solid, comprehensive coverage of grammar.
Customer Reviews:
Dos Mundos text book.......2005-09-28
Some of the spanish words it uses are not very common or widely used in spanish conversation, but the activities and exercises are interactive and helpful to learning the material.
Customer Reviews:
Way overpriced.......2004-09-29
This is just a workbook. It gives you no information, like the text does. It just gives you exercises. Exercises are good & useful, but it's worth about $10. On my own I would never pay more than that for it. There's alot of other workbooks, just as good, if not better, at a reasonable price.
Student Review.......2000-06-21
I thought the book was useful. I used the book in a class with an excellent professor. It helped me a great deal but most of what I learned was learned in the class. The format of the book was easy to follow and you don't need to have any prior knowledge of the language in order to complete the workbook. The text book that accompanies this workbook is a definite must buy if you plan on truly learning the language.
Customer Reviews:
Good Price for a Required Workbook.......2007-02-22
This was a good price, much less than my campus bookstore.
lame.......2006-02-25
this cuaderno is really lame. some of the activities are useful. most of them are very 2nd gradish--they don't make you think at all about what needs to be written, all exercises follow the same formula, you jsut substitute a different vocab word/verb. the listening comprehension (done in a language lab) is good b/c it helps you train your ear, but even some of those exercises are silly.
Customer Reviews:
Good book for in class work.......2007-09-01
I think this is a good textbook for a class. The lessons cover a little cultural information, new information, and some review exercises. The white classwork pages are separated from the blue homework pages which are separate from the yellow-bordered vocab pages. The homework pages have the answers in the back so you don't have to wait for the teacher to review your work. The vocab is comprehensive so break out your notecards!
The examples use people from all over the Spanish speaking world in different circumstances (eg. One of the families is a Peruvian-Japanese family whose parents are divorced). Plus, the book is not condescending nor is it too basic.
I have used this book in Espanol clase 1,2, and soon, 3. The workbook is pretty good too.
Customer Reviews:
workbook/manual part A with Dos Mundos.......2007-01-23
This book is very helpful for the class I am taking.
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English (All)
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Combined Workbook/Lab Manual to accompany Dos mundos
Workbook/Lab Manual Part A to accompany Dos mundos
Student Audio CD Program Part A Prepack t/a Dos mundos
English Grammar for Students of Spanish: The Study Guide for Those Learning Spanish (Fifth Edition)
Dos mundos (Student edition )
Schaum's Outline of Spanish Grammar
Vox Compact Spanish and English Dictionary
The Big Red Book of Spanish Verbs(Book w/CD-ROM) (Big Book of Verbs)
