Dicho y Hecho: Beginning Spanish

by Laila M. Dawson, Kim Potowski, Silvia Sobral

Book Overview

Building on Dicho y hecho's strong 25-year tradition, this eighth edition now incorporates an unwavering focus on authentic communication. It offers the most thorough and varied practice of vocabulary... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471272531
• ISBN13: 9780471272533
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 231 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.0" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

Excellent!

This book was in excellent condition! Fast and professional service. I would recommend this seller.

very easy to understand

I found this book quite easy to understand and well organized compared to previous spanish textbooks I've worked with. It's loaded with tons of practical examples and activities, and unlike many other texts has a heavy concentration in internet and high tech terms.

Wonderfully-creative and proficiency-oriented text

This is by far the best beginning text that I have found in twenty-four years of teaching. The high-interest level of the text with the easy-to-understand explanations and interactive activities make this book very accessible to even the student with no prior background in Spanish. At the same time, the wealth of activities including proverbs, cartoons, business Spanish, dialogues, open-ended conversations, problem solving, cultural information along with the CD's, videos, and internet activities, also challenge and interest the student who may already have some knowledge of Spanish. The text uses a communicative and personalized approach that allows the student to develop skills in speaking, reading, writing, and listening comprehension. The writing assignments and classroom drills are not dry and boring as in some texts but very creative and often humorous which helps make teaching with this text a joy. Each edition of the text has incorporated new material to meet the needs of our students. I especially like the segments in this edition on computer technology, letter writing, medical Spanish, and environmental and social discussions. After completing this text, most of my students are inspired and encouraged to continue their study of Spanish. Many of my Spanish majors enjoy this text so much that they keep it for reference instead of selling it back to the bookstore. I have built several successful Spanish programs using this text and have many fluent students who adored the text. The bottom line is that this text has personality as well as being highly useful. I love it!

Best Progressive Instructional Spanish Text

Dicho y Hecho is clearly one of, if not the best, Spanish Text books on the market. It is skillfully structured to capture the attention from beginner level and gradually progresses in difficulty from chapter to chapter to the advanced stage. The book is easy to follow, with illustrations that are timely, pertinent and colourful, masterfully using visual recognition to further cement the new vocabulary at the center of successive chapters. This is a must buy for any one wishing to learn Spanish and its grammar and is also a good place for persons with an advanced aptitude but little practice to rebuild their skills. The accompanying workbook and cassette further augment listening and comprehension skills.Never have I encountered a text that embodies the Spanish world and experience like this one. Es un libro de pura calidad!!

A Very Easy to Use Book and Accessories

This book is very straight forward and easy to use. Students can follow easily the progressive path of the chapters through the series of exercises. Students have found the sofware very entertaining and helpful to remember the important points of the lessons. I find the software a very good reinforcement of every lesson because it follows the book closely. Small variations can be found in books from the same edition but they don't interfere much with the goal to be achieved. Generally, it is a good standard book to use for beginners and intermediate students. Pictures are clear, modern, and reflects life as it is today. Chapters are progressive and deal with what most book would present to beginner and intermediate students. Most of the exercises are well chosen and the stories are written in a very easy to understand way. They are well spaced in each chapter to emphacise the important points. Grammar is well explained and visually easy to remember. Tests already prepared for the teacher are good and simple enough to facilitate the teacher's job. Students like to use the software and should be part of the book package rather than the audio disk.