Punto y aparte: Spanish in Review, Moving Toward Fluency places communicative goals at the forefront of the intermediate Spanish course so students don't just learn about the language, they learn how to use the language in an authentic and natural way that allows students to express themselves with increasing fluency and accuracy in real-world settings. The proven qualities of Punto y aparte include: - a focus on seven core communicative functions (called out with icons throughout the program) and the grammatical structures that support them. These functions are constantly recycled throughout the program to reflect the real-life use of language. - meaningful communicative practice through writing and speaking activities presented in a real-world context. In Connect, our composition and peer editing tools along with our Blackboard IM and VoiceBoard tools allow students the opportunity to have communicative practice with their peers outside the classroom as well. Connect is the only integrated learning system that empowers students by continuously adapting to deliver precisely what they need, when they need it, and how they need it, so that your class time is more engaging and effective. - constant recycling of grammar and vocabulary throughout the program using the seven communicative functions, Para repasar boxes, Pruebas diagnosticas, and the LearnSmart suite of tools. - cultural content in the form of new !Cuentennos! videos and the !Viaje conmigo a... videos as well as readings on art, music and history serve to recycle grammar and vocabulary and to enrich students' experience of language learning and provide a window into Spanish-speaking cultures. These features support the core goals of the intermediate Spanish course and put students on a successful path from simple utterances to more extensive discourse, from sentence-level to paragraph length expression. *Connect Spanish, including but not limited to the workbook/lab manual, LearnSmart, the video program, and chat tools, is sold separately and does not come automatically with the purchase of the textbook.

Author Biography

Sharon Wilson Foerster retired from the University of Texas at Austin in 2001, where she had been the Coordinator of Lower-Division Courses in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, directing the first- and second-year Spanish language program and training graduate assistant instructors. She continues to teach in the Spanish Summer Language School at Middlebury College in Vermont. She received her Ph.D. in Intercultural Communications from the University of Texas in 1981. Before joining the faculty at the University of Texas, she was Director of the Center for Cross-Cultural Study in Seville, Spain, for four years. She continues her involvement in study abroad through her work as Director of the Spanish Teaching Institute and as Academic Advisor for Academic Programs International. She is the co-author of the following McGraw-Hill titles: Pasaporte: Spanish for High Beginners (2009); Supplementary Materials to accompany Puntos de partida, Eighth Edition (2009); Metas: Spanish in Review, Moving Toward Fluency (2008); Punto y aparte: Spanish in Review, Moving Toward Fluency, Third Edition (2007); Lecturas literarias: Moving Toward Linguistic and Cultural Fluency Through Literature (2007); Metas comunicativas para maestros (1999); and Metas comunicativas para negocios (1998). Anne Lambright is Associate Professor of Modern Languages and Literature in the Hispanic Studies Program at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. She earned her Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research and teaching focus is on contemporary Latin American Literature, Andean literature, indigenismo, and Latin American women's writing, topics on which she has published several articles and books. She is the author of Creating the Hybrid Intellectual: Subject, Space, and the Feminine in the Narrative of Jose Maria Arguedas and co-author of Unfolding the City: Women Write the City in Latin America (2007), with Elisabeth Guerrero. In addition, she is the co-author of Metas: Spanish in Review, Moving Toward Fluency (2008).