The Spanish-Speaking World: A Practical Introduction to Sociolinguistic Issues (Routledge Language in Society)

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but could be much better
Review: I have used this book in a college-level class on Spanish linguistics, primarily for Spanish majors.

This book definitely fills a void. There doesn't seem to be anything like it available at the moment that introduces undergraduates to the language situation in the "Spanish-speaking world" as well as to some of the history of how it got this way.

The book, however, is less than perfect. Much of the treatment of the topics is way too superficial, even for undergraduates. The book could have been quite a bit longer and not have been too long. The book is also very uneven with regards to amount and quality of coverage. One does get the impression that the author does not have extensive background in the discipline.

Other things are annoying as well. Such as, for example, quite a few of the lengthy quotes which assume a fairly high command of Spanish seemed unnecessary (or should have been translated). Finally -- I just have to say this -- everyone who read the book was extremely annoyed by the constant use of whilst, and other British-isms.

I do hope that a second edition of this book is in the works. Or that someone else publishes something better along the same lines. Then again, there is also a great need for not excessively technical books (undergraduate level) on Spanish phonetics and phonology and on the history of Spanish. I just can't believe that there isn't a market for them.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but could be much better
Review: I have used this book in a college-level class on Spanish linguistics, primarily for Spanish majors.

This book definitely fills a void. There doesn't seem to be anything like it available at the moment that introduces undergraduates to the language situation in the "Spanish-speaking world" as well as to some of the history of how it got this way.

The book, however, is less than perfect. Much of the treatment of the topics is way too superficial, even for undergraduates. The book could have been quite a bit longer and not have been too long. The book is also very uneven with regards to amount and quality of coverage. One does get the impression that the author does not have extensive background in the discipline.

Other things are annoying as well. Such as, for example, quite a few of the lengthy quotes which assume a fairly high command of Spanish seemed unnecessary (or should have been translated). Finally -- I just have to say this -- everyone who read the book was extremely annoyed by the constant use of whilst, and other British-isms.

I do hope that a second edition of this book is in the works. Or that someone else publishes something better along the same lines. Then again, there is also a great need for not excessively technical books (undergraduate level) on Spanish phonetics and phonology and on the history of Spanish. I just can't believe that there isn't a market for them.

Rating:
Summary: Spanish speaking 'world'?
Review: The title of the book is very engaging, unfortunately it does not deliver what it would appear to promise. The topics raised in the table of contents are all interesting, but the book does not cover any of them really in-depth. Some of the activities are very nice, however.

What bothers me most about this book is its neve to claim to treat the Spanish speaking 'world' and only dedicate a couple of pages to anywhere outside of Spain. I find that even the coverage of the linguistic diversity within Spain is weak. The book follows a traditional division of language and dialect (something I spend an entire semester trying to teach my students is artificial) and then does not even bring up the fact that more and more the government is trying to revitalize these tongues and are officially recognizing them as 'languages'.

If you are a college professor looking to use this book in an undergraduate course, I would use this book to get ideas on how to structure the course, and perhaps for some interesting activities, but I think that there are other sources that could provide better content.