Customer Reviews

Spanish for Educators

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Most language courses give you a lot of words and phrases which are needed if you are a tourist. This one concentrates on what you need if you work in the schools. The author writes very clearly and the lessons follow a natural progression. Everything I learned here was useful. A very good investment. Get the book with the tapes. They are well worth it.

I found this book to be very helpful as a resource in my classroom. With several Spanish speaking students (preschool) I repeatedly returned to this book for answers. I do have some knowledge of Spanish. I can see how this book could not be as helpfull to an educator with little or no Spanish language background. It was very relevant to school situations. I have used it as a resource when dealing with students from 2 years old to 20 years old. Every school should be required to have this wonderful book available to its educators.

This easy to use book helps even the Spanish illerate speak and converse. With easy to access vocabulary and phrases, you will be on your way to making your Spanish speaking parents and students feel welcome in your school. Everything from discipline to the clinic is covered in this book. I would like to see a copy in all of our school buildings to make easy references and translations for our parents and students.

As a special education teacher in an inner city school, I am in constant contact w/the parents of my students, most of whom are of Hispanic descent.

Since I have had prior experience w/Spanish, I am able to make good use of this resource. The authors provide vocabulary and phrases for a pretty good number of school situations. I think they wrote this book under the presupposition that the user would construct their own sentences w/the vocabulary and phrases provided.

Which leads me to one of the big weaknesses of this book. The authors would have done well to use conversation vignettes to introduce the topics they cover as giving the reader a context for use would go a long way to assimilating this vocabulary. As it stands now, this book is a glorified dictionary and phrase book; there was a better way to present a book of this nature that would have been far more useful than what it is in its current form.

America would not be the country it is without its diverse population, what once was referred to as a melting pot. It was once taken for granted that immigrants to the US would gain citizenship and learn to speak English, however, many people do not learn English. Schools have taken on the challenge of ensuring that English language learners achieve this task. While they are learning English, however, it would be beneficial for educators to meet students part way by gaining at least a small foundation in the language(s) of the students. If there are several different languages spoken by students in any given classroom, this can be difficult to do. But since Mexicans are one of the quickest growing ethnic groups in the US, for many educators, knowing Spanish might be beneficial. By providing some basic Spanish language tools, which teachers can use to communicate with Spanish speaking students, "Spanish for Educators" provides a chance for teachers to increase positive affective filters that can encourage Hispanic English language learners to feel more at ease and get motivated to learn.

In the appendix, there is an English-Spanish dictionary for quick reference. The book does not focus on grammar, but it does have some helpful information about grammar in the "Mas Informacion" sections scattered throughout each chapter. Although learning a new language can be difficult, this book makes learning Spanish a functional task for teachers and does not attempt to achieve fluency in the readers. It covers the kind of conversational Spanish vocabulary and phrases for use in the classroom, with a chapter on language needed for communication with younger students and another for older ones. Embedded throughout the textbook are helpful tidbits of insights into Hispanic cultural, very useful for avoiding a faux pas or major offenses. There are also chapters especially for school counselors, andministrators, and support staff. There are a lot of review and practice pages, however one major downside is that the book provides very little actual dialogue practice. For help with pronunciation, the book can be purchased with a CD. Although almost every Spanish word in the book is followed by a phonetic spelling to aide with pronunciation, utilizing the book without the CD (or without a good Spanish tutor) will most likely result in poor pronunciation. Not to worry though, since Harvey emphasizes in his introduction that "Grammar and pronunciation don't have to be 'perfect' in order to be understood. Thousands of words are similar in both English and Spanish, which makes it easier for you to remember vocabulary." The book does, however, suggest listening to the spoken language via Hispanic radio and TV stations.

Given the continuous Mexican immigration to the US, this book is relevant. It is also effective and easy to use. Just remember that it is only a guide, a resource textbook for teachers and administrators who want to be able to communicate in Spanish with non English proficient Hispanic students and their families, while the students are working on acquiring English.

I liked this book because it has vocabulary specific to education so I could brush up on certain words I might need to use. One thing that I thought was lacking was vocabulary needed for Parent/Teacher conferences. I thought there was a lot about talking to students, but not much about talking about them with parents.

This book should be called "Spanish vocabulary for educators" as that's about all it offers. An occasional poorly presented grammar lesson is thrown in. At one point Mr. Harvey says a grammatical concept is too hard to explain so just find some Spanish speaking people and listen to them. I would have the exact quote (which I did when I wrote to the publisher about this insult to educators) but I threw the book out. Don't waste your money on this piece of trash; a good dictionary will serve you better.