Customer Reviews

Dos mundos Student Edition with Online Learning Center Bind-in Passcode (McGraw-Hill World Languages) (Spanish Edition)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I teach college Spanish and I love this text. It is thoughtfully constructed and provides numerous activities for communication in the target language. Dos mundos also provides very useful ideas for instructors. The pages are colorful and the content engaging. My students love all the activities I use from this text. I wish more Spanish instructors would embrace the methodology presented in Dos mundos. My level one Spanish students actually speak Spanish (albeit low-level Spanish). I don't know if I would recommend this text for independent study, however. I believe it would be most effective if used in conjunction with a dynamic instructor. I do agree that the authors should include a separate English-Spanish dictionary section. I also find the video segments to be very poor (and why are they exactly the same as the ones for Puntos de partida when they both have such different approaches to language acquisition?)

this is not a bad spanish book. i don't know if i would say it is great. lots of group activities that are helpful, but they are pretty simple and repetitive. they need to be a little more thoughtful and put in lots of DIFFERENT activities. one last, quite frustrating thing, there is only a spanish-english dictionary in the back. extremely irritating because this is a spanish 1-2 book, and anytime you want to look up a word, you'll need to consult another dictionary.

I've been using Dos Mundos in my Spanish III class this fall and it's been a quite positive experience. I'm a former English teacher, and a long time psychologist, so I have some feel for the teaching/learning dynamic of a text. I'm finding DM to be intelligently written and organized, with many different kinds of activities that build on and integrate what you're learning. I like the way history, art, pop culture, geography, politics, music, literature, etc. are interspersed throughout DM. There's cartoons, color, and a reasonably unstilted, good-hearted consciousness in the book. For those of us used to American textbooks which have been reduced to squirmy blandness by pressure groups leaning on state textbook purchasing agencies, it's a bit refreshing to encounter occasional perspectives on economic and political injustice, environmental exploitation, etc. Not that this is a particularly political book, it's just that these things are usually soooooo sanitized. Some people have complained about the lack of an English to Spanish dictionary in this book. Face it---you need to buy a little dictionary to have when you're reading DM and learning Spanish. No added-on dictionary section is going to be complete enough to meet your needs. You'll only be wasting time using it, since half the time the word you're looking for won't be there anyway. You might as well go to the dictionary in the first place. To sum it up: I like this book and I'm in the process of reading the seven chapters which were previously covered in Spanish I and II, which I didn't take in this sequence.

I have studied several languages...Turkish, French, Italian...and gone through several texts -- good and bad. This is, by far, the worst language text I have experienced.

The concept is interesting. Take bits and pieces of contemporary student life, construct vocabulary and grammatical packets based upon familiar concepts, have the student engage in them, and the address structure and depth later. In the beginning, it works. But it quickly falls apart.

It might have worked. It doesn't in this text. The vocabulary is extensive, but scattered and incomplete. Words are introduced once, in one form, and not seen again for several chapters in another form. Verb conjugation is only partially presented, then -- again -- several chapters later, presented with the assumption that the conjugations are known. The drills are fine, except that they focus sparsely on one concept, which is then abandoned and assumed understood.

Having grammar explained after the grammatical mechanism used once and only explaining it incompletely is extremely frustrating. Physically separating the grammar from the introduction to a new concept is similarly frustrating.

The text is very inefficient in not repeating and drilling new vocabulary and new grammar, but then having the words and concepts pop up later with no explication and the assumption that all has been learned.

I am about to finish my first semester with this text and have had to purchase several grammar and verb texts in an attempt to understand concepts that are just disorganized and incompletely presented. I have learned more on my own than from this text.

Not to mention the politically correct orientation of the authors.

I would avoid it at all costs.

I'm an adult student and used this text and supporting materials for 2 semesters. I did all the textbook and workbook homework and listened to the audio, Spanish radio, and watched a little Spanish tv. My teacher was dynamic and motivated and her classes were centered solely on this text. We were speaking Spanish (like 3 to 4 year olds) by the end of the semester. The emphasis is communication and grammar is a secondary, although a well thought out, component.
My son is about to begin this course as a high school student in a community college class. I have full confidence that he'll enjoy the work and will be speaking Spanish soon.

This book is vastly confusing and does not make learning Spanish easy. Parts of it are in Spanish and parts are in English. Only some of the new vocabulary is explained, and it's often difficult to understand the point or question they are trying to make/ask. The glossary and index in the back are virtually useless. I would recommend using other avenues to learn this language, unless you are in a class in which the profesor goes through the book with you and explains it.

I'm enjoying the workbook, though I agree with those who would prefer more organized chapters with lengthier explanations of grammar. But the workbook require exact word order, so you can easily get marked wrong when your answer was right.

Used it for Spanish 1 and really enjoyed the organization of the book. The definitively thought this through. Just wish the graphics were a bit more interesting. They make me think of school books in the 1980s ...

This is an excellent resource for Spanish students. I am an advanced student, taking a course to review and improve my written Spanish and grammar. The interactive portion is also well done.

This is a great book to learn from, the workbook is also very helpful. This is one of the few college text books that I refused to sell back.