Student Audio Cassette Program (Part B) to accompany Pasajes: Lengua

Rating:
Summary: A magnificent 2nd year textbook
Review: I have taught out of Pasajes Lengua from time to time over the last 10 years throughout several editions. The Fifth Edition, with Rodney Bransdorfer added to the author team, appears to be their hottest edition yet. The grammar activities are better organized and cleaned up, and the presentation in the book is sharper and more comprehensible than ever. While many texts just lose steam after several editions, Pasajes has hit its peak!

Rating:
Summary: Great Supplemental Text
Review: I use this book with my fourth year High School Spanish class. I have been using it for 3 years and have found it to be an excellent basis for conversation practice. The content in most of the chapters is interesting to the students so they enjoy talking about the subjects and learning the vocabulary by using it in real discussions. It's a buy!

Rating:
Summary: Great Supplemental Text
Review: I use this book with my fourth year High School Spanish class. I have been using it for 3 years and have found it to be an excellent basis for conversation practice. The content in most of the chapters is interesting to the students so they enjoy talking about the subjects and learning the vocabulary by using it in real discussions. It's a buy!

Rating:
Summary: Too much politics and too complicated
Review: Why must today's textbooks writers nearly always revert to political themes? From Chapter 1 (Tipos y estereotipos) the authors LIBERALLY (no pun intended) salt the text with their political philosophy. Another example is the slum lord who exploits the poor single mother in Chapter 5. Given that today's textbook writers are graduates of the 60's and 70's, I guess this is no surprise. That said, I also find the layout of the book wonting and too complex. Between the textbook, the accompanying "Cultura" book, the combined lab/workbook and the tapes, you're looking at some serious coin to buy supporting materials for an intermediate Spanish course. Add in a dictionary, 501 Spanish Verbs, a tape recorder/player and notebook, and I have to carry it all around in a small suitcase. It also becomes challenging to coordinate all the assignments between the different books. Enough with "learning systems". What ever happened to a simple, straight-forward textbook? Of course, there's even more stuff for the instructor (videos, instructor's manual). Surely these good caring folks couldn't be that heavily motivated by money -- could they?