Textbook Evaluation – Revision
I chose two
completely random textbooks that I had never before used and couldn’t form any
preconceived notions based upon my previous experience. I wanted to be as neutral as possible. I
chose to assess the value of “Latin for Americans” by Ullman and Henderson
published by Glencoe and “Arriba!” by Zayas-Bazan and Bacon published by
Pearson.Prentice Hall. Both are texts from languages that I understand little
of but have an essential grasp of the basics.
“Arriba!” offers a
diverse sampling of Spanish as a global language. The text gives examples of
several dialects of Spanish speakers in sparse samplings, the grammar structure
was appreciable, and the attempts at cultural exploration were, while numerous,
boring and uninteresting to the contemporary student. The text on the whole
focused much of its attention of the rote memorization of the language,
vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure. It did offer many opportunities for
oral exchanges between students and the instructor. The book is accompanied by
a CD/rom, a website and some video content though the content lacked
contemporary applications. The conversations were bland, outdated, and far too
directed rather than open to interpretation by a wide range of ages or
generations. There was a severe disconnect with the community at large and the
need for more explanation of different dialects is necessary.
Of the two I feel
that “Arriba!” is the more effective choice. “Latin for Americans” was
ineffective in relating to the students and therefore would lose the interest
of most students that weren’t driven to learn the language by some external
force. “Arriba!” primarily focuses on the importance of communication. This is
the first and most essential part of SFLL. Students should be able to express
ideas, emotions, concepts, and opinion in both written and verbal formats.
“Arriba!” allows for this however, the frequent conversations lack contemporary
rapport with the reality of now. In my classroom I would take some of the ideas
from the book but be forced to develop more contemporary means of
communication. For writing and reading I might require that students use a blog
or facebook in the target language for classroom assignments.
“Arriba!”
looks at multiple Spanish speaking cultures in brief examples within each
chapter. This meets another requirement
of the SFLL by helping students to understand the culture of the target
language speakers. There is one small section on the influence of Italy and the
UK on Argentina. This passage while interesting is only a few paragraphs long
and leaves the reader lacking. In these cultural exposes it is difficult to
really understand the culture as a whole and how it was shaped by the language
or vice versa. In order to expand on culture I would use film, music, and art
to expose the students to greater insight into each society. I would ask for
students to select certain vocabulary that differs from the various regions or
countries and find out why certain words are used. Have the students examine
the cultural choice made by Argentina to speak the way that they do, for
example. Doing this will expose students, not only to culture, but, also to the
ideas that shaped history and language.
“Arriba!”
though incomplete, in my opinion, still offers variety and structure to the
language learner. It exposes the learner to all of the aspects of the SFLL
allowing the student connect to others, communicate effectively in the target
language, see the applications of Spanish in multiple fields, and through the
study of the language will inherently gather a greater understanding of their
own language.
There would most definitely need to
be significant and timely supplementation but overall “Arriba!” meets the needs
of the students the standards and provides an adequate framework for
instructions. Plus you can’t go wrong trusting a book that folks with a PhD
have recommended for a university program instruction.
