En comunidad: Comunicacion y conexion » (1st Edition)

Pennie A. Nichols holds a Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. She has taught at that institution as well as at Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge), Southern University (Baton Rouge), and Austin Community College. She has worked for over twelve years as a writer, editor, and author of college-level and high school textbooks. She is also coauthor of the Cuaderno de actividades of De viva voz, and has contributed material to Puntos de partida. ¿Qué tal?, Pasajes, and many other publications of the McGraw-Hill World Languages Group, in addition to co-authoring En comunidad.

Jane A. Johnson teaches literature at the University of Texas at Austin, and has taught both introductory and intermediate Spanish at Austin Community College as well as at the University of Texas (University Extension). She received her Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. She has contributed as a writer to many college-level and high school Spanish textbooks. Her professional endeavors include ACTFL and AATSP presentations on the teaching of culture and on service learning, and she is a long-term volunteer with Hospice Austin.

Lynne R. Lemley holds a Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. She has taught at both of these institutions and at Austin Community College. She has been a writer for numerous college-level Spanish textbooks. She currently teaches Advanced Spanish in the Lifetime Learning Program at Concordia University. Her academic interests include the continuing manifestation of the honor theme in Hispanic literature and cinema.

Lucía Osa-Melero, from Valencia, Spain, holds an M.A. in Foreign Language Education and an M.A.T. in Teaching Spanish as Second Language from the University of Iowa. She is a doctoral candidate in the department of English and German Philology, at the University of Valencia, Spain. At present, she is a lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin where she successfully implemented a Community Service Learning program at the fourth semester level. She is coauthor of En contexto: Manual de lecturas y películas (2007). Her interests include cooperative practices in the foreign language classroom, pre-reading activities, and learning through community service learning.

We've listened to intermediate Spanish instructors across the country to find out exactly what they are looking for in their course materials. Of course, all of them are looking for the materials that will best help students develop their language skills, but they are also looking for more than that. They've told us that they want materials that will motivate students, that will help them understand the value of learning another language, that will help them understand and appreciate cultures - others as well as their own - and that will bring them closer to the Spanish-speaking communities right here in the United States.

En comunidad: Comunicación y conexión is an exciting new intermediate Spanish program that responds to these very needs:

—En comunidad carefully and consistently addresses the "Five Cs" of languages learning (Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and Communities).

—En comunidad offers a learner-centered approach that helps motivate students to take responsibility for their own language-learning process.

—En comunidad targets the use of language skill for real-world, practical purposes, thus helping students see the immediate value in their learning process.

—En comunidad not only focuses on Spanish-speaking communities outside the United States, but also those within the United States.

—En comunidad provides a contextualized approach that integrates all four language-learning skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and doesn't "compartmentalize" the acquisition of vocabulary and grammar.