Customer Reviews

ˇArriba! Comunicacin y cultura (4th Edition)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I had a very bad experience with this textbook in my Spanish class at school. While it is very easy to do well on the accompanying tests, it is also easy to escape without learning very much Spanish at all. The main drawback is that the book uses much of its vocabulary without ever having officially introduced it. Then, when you go look words up in the back to find out what they mean, they aren't there! Further, although topics are introduced in logical order, they are not organized in the chapters in a standard format. This makes it difficult to locate a previous concept if you wish to review it.

I have found so many other Spanish products that are much better. I would not, therefore, recommend this one.

I used this text for Spanish 2 and Spanish 3 at the collegiate level.

Pros
-Vocabulary is introduced.
-Most grammar points are explained.
-Most every chapter has a theme around one Spanish speaking country.
-There are practice exercises.
-If a motivated student is persistent and resourceful -she/he can learn Spanish with this as their main textbook.

Cons
- This book presents Vocabulary/Grammar/Practice. But wastes the student's time and efforts on each item.
-Grammar points are difficult to find (buried, almost hidden! Difficult to come back to - for reviewing etc).
-Grammar points are not explained for their target audience: the American high school graduate. (i.e. can the average high school graduate spot a dependant clause? Not in my experience. So the authors need to define dependant clause when they use "dependant clause" to demonstrate a grammar point- which they don't).
-Vocabulary is spread throughout the chapter and indeed throughout the book. (look for careers and an example). Not all of the presented vocabulary is defined, nor is it in the in-book dictionary.
-Practice exercises are more like exercises in creative writing. By the time the student gets the exercise figured out (not the grammar or vocabulary portion - rather the construct of the exercise) what one is supposed to learn from this exercise is lost. Not an effective learning/practice technique.
Other gripes:
-Expensive! The required package for my class was over $200. The book alone is over $100 bucks on Amazon.
-The book is not self-contained. You must have reference books to use this book. Including an English grammar book and a Spanish - English dictionary, and preferably a supplemental exercise book.
-Table of contents is difficult.
-Color scheme is bland.
-The book tries too hard to be everything to everyone (especially politically conscious educators) and it ends up being a Spanish textbook second.

Overall this book hovers between one * and two **. Which is really a shame - the authors obviously worked very hard on this expensive book.

I can't recommend this book.

I would recommend: - "The ultimate Spanish review and Practice", "Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses". Both are available on Amazon for about 10 bucks each! The "Schaum's outlines" are also well done.

This textbook makes it very hard to learn the vocabulary because they do not define the words they use. Many of the directions for the exercises are confusing. The culture sections are decent and contain contemporary pop culture. I find the textbook to be of very little value.

I used this book in my college-level Spanish class. I think it is well-written, informative, and logically put together. My concern regarding some of the other reviews is that this book is not meant to teach someone Spanish without the course it is meant for. There are books out there for that purpose, but they are not textbooks. I have taken three (3) other intro to Spanish classes and I have found this book the easiest to follow. It is true that the dictionary in the back is lacking quite a bit, but any serious Spanish student will have a Spanish-English dictionary anyway. Maybe I just got lucky and had a great teacher who used this book as it was meant to be used. Maybe I'm just great at Spanish (ha-ha). Either way, I would not disregard this text when used properly.

There's many examples throughout the book that constantly use vocabulary that hasn't been taught and concepts that haven't been explained thoroughly. Even when a concept is explained, the examples are somewhat scarce. A real problem with the book is the lack of a spanish-english dictionary in the back from which many many words that are constantly used throughout the book are missing. It has many illustrations that go along with spanish vocab words but are missing the english word! This is not a book to be used without an excellent instructor.

I am a fairly new student to Spanish, this being my second semester in college with it. We had a book last semester by a different publisher that was outstanding, clear-cut, and helped me earn a B+ in that class. This book is the opposite. It is not clearly laid out, the directions for most of the exercises are in Spanish and if you aren't already fluent in Spanish (which I am not) it makes is SO awkward! Of course, the dictionary in the back of the text has absolutely no words... I would do better bringing my $5 Webster Spanish-English Dictionary to school than buying this. My class is using the 5th edition and it is exactly the same as this one, except the exercises are different. It is still garbage, and my entire class including the instructor despise this book. The 5th edition retails at $125 new in the college bookstore, and being short on money I bought this one. Neither book is useful to any student, and we are basically relying on our instructor to walk us through this. I also have a classmate who is fairly fluent in Spanish... thank god.

I hate that my son's college is requiring this book along with the Workbook, Answer Key, Dictionary and CD Pkg only read negative reviews. I wonder why the schools would require this expensive and apparently useless package?

Thank you for the reviews. Wish the schools would evaluate the package.

Book arrived on time and was in the condition described by seller. Would use this seller again.