Customer Reviews

Encuentros

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I have used this text for one quarter at the JC level. Decent organization, abit overdone on the use of color; it gets distracting rather than help organize sections. Too little offered to guide in pronuciatoion early. Instruction for the exercises from the beginning are in spanish, which makes as much sense to the student as putting the instructions in German. My version (different version? can't tell from this description) came with a CD, which is useless, given it is aimed at a much higher level. The cassette tape is also useless, as it contains very little material. The Workbook (which was also bundled, but may not be included in this ISBN) is pretty good, but could use more exercises early on.

Overall, I think that Encuentros is a very thorough beginning Spanish text. I found it to be somewhat confusing in the beginning, but once I understood its layout, I realized that it is very well organized in its teaching techniques.

Grammar is laid out extremely well in Encuentros. Its rules are clearly explained, and the exceptions to them are taught simultaneously. I find this to be one of the best aspects of the book. Vocabulary is taught in categories with pictures and examples, and includes Spanish expressions. Encuentros manages to teach pronunciation, the importance of which is often underestimated in text books. Encuentros also gives wonderful insites into different hispanic cultures: their similarities AND differences in lingual expressions, pronunciation, and culture.

Upon first glance, it may seem that Encuentros has too much Spanish for the beginning student. However, if it is read and studied from the beginning as it should be, one will find that it each section builds upon the last, so if something is in Spanish, it was most likely taught in a previous section, or will explained in the following few pages.