This book develops the communication and literacy skills of heritage Spanish speakers with exercises that are designed to improve oral and written proficiency in the language. Nuevos mundos uses the cultures and voices of the major Hispanic groups in the United States, as well as those of Latin America and Spain, to familiarize students with a variety of issues and topics, which are sometimes controversial and always thought-provoking.

This book develops the communication and literacy skills of heritage Spanish speakers with exercises that are designed to improve oral and written proficiency in the language. Nuevos mundos uses the cultures and voices of the major Hispanic groups in the United States, as well as those of Latin America and Spain, to familiarize students with a variety of issues and topics, which are sometimes controversial and always thought-provoking.

This book proposes community service-learning as a critical pedagogy that connects learners and communities to address key challenges in heritage language education. The book’s purpose is two-fold: to fill a crucial gap in empirical research on community service-learning in the heritage language context, as well as to provide language educators and practitioners essential guidelines for designing community service-learning courses, with particular attention paid to the characteristics and needs of Spanish heritage language learners. This book presents compelling evidence demonstrating the central role community service-learning plays in developing heritage language learners’ identities, connections to the heritage language community, language attitudes, and social, cultural, and sociolinguistic awareness. Importantly, this book also addresses the often-overlooked perspectives of community partners and liaisons. As the first original research monograph on community service-learning for Spanish heritage language learners, this pioneering book will undoubtedly aid students, instructors and administrators across all levels of language education.

Contains 13 contributions addressing current scholarly research in applied linguistics and pedagogy relating to Spanish heritage language development and the teaching of Spanish to US Hispanic bilingual students at the elementary, secondary, and university levels, both in community- and classroom-based settings. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

The philosophy of this best-selling introductory text is to emphasize communicative proficiency. Based on the Natural Approach, the text stresses the use of activities in a natural and spontaneous classroom atmosphere. In this comprehension-based approach, the development of receptive skills listening and reading precedes and forms the basis for the development of the productive skills speaking and writing. "Dos mundos" is designed so that class time can be devoted to exposing students to Spanish through the abundant activities and readings in the text, allowing the grammar explanations and exercises to be studied outside of class.