Espanol en Vivo Pilar Pinar

Espanol en Vivo emphasizes the richness of Hispanic culture and the variations of authentic spoken Spanish. Through filmed interviews with more than twenty native Spanish speakers, students are introduced to a variety of dialects that derive from differences in geographical area and other factors such as age, sex, ethnicity, and social status. The DVD contains forty-seven segments filmed in locations in Spain, Central America, and Latin America. Unrehearsed interviews with Spanish speakers deal with such aspects of life and culture as housing, family, the immigrant experience, cultural traditions, and politics. No other book or DVD presents the Spanish language in such a natural way, with speakers expressing themselves freely and using the real language of every day. Each of the book's twenty chapters focuses on an aspect of the life and culture of people from one of seven countries in the Spanish-speaking world. Transcripts of interviews from the DVD are included in the book, as are notes on vocabulary, pronunciation, idioms, and cultural issues. Questions are provided to guide students' comprehension of the DVD segments and direct their oral and written practice.

Pilar Pinar is associate professor of Spanish at Gallaudet University.

"This book and video package could stand alone as the text of a conversation course or as a supplement for other courses. It puts the student in close contact with language and cultural production."--Jose B. Alvarez, University of Georgia