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Technology Tools For Spanish Language Teachers Click on photo for a video introduction Tom DeCree EDUC. 504 Fall 2006 Visit my homepage at http://www.angelfire.com/planet/tdecree/index.html Introduction Spanish is considered by many to be the most common foreign language spoken in the U.S. The Hispanic population in the United States is growing at a rapid pace. In this presentation, you will see: Useful websites and software for Spanish educators and anyone interested in learning Spanish An introduction to the culture, history, and grammar of the Spanish language Summary Findings Spanish is the official language of Spain and the native language of over 300 million people in the world. It is also the official language of Mexico, every country in Central America except Belize, whose official language is English, and every country in South America except Brazil, whose official language is Portuguese. Other countries in which Spanish is the official language are Cuba, Puerto Rico (shared with English), and The Dominican Republic, which are located in the Caribbean. Also, Spanish is the official language of Equatorial Guinea, which is located in Africa. With the growing use of technology in society and in the classroom, learning Spanish has become easier than ever. People can use CD-ROMS, online tutorials, and other software to teach and learn Spanish. Detailed Findings: Using Technology To Learn Spanish In past years, people would have to take Spanish classes or use books in order to learn Spanish. Now, with the growing use of technology in our society, online tutorials and CD-software are available for anyone interested in learning Spanish. http://www.studyspanish.com/ http://www.spanish.bz/tutorial.htm Technology has allowed people to practically teach themselves Spanish, with the help of the Spanish CD’s, videos, and other software. http://www.worldwidelearn.com/languagecourses/learn-spanish.htm Detailed findingsUsing Technology To Learn Spanish Hundreds of websites provide links that people can use to learn Spanish. http://www.aspira.org/spanish.htm As educators we can use software to teach various aspects of the Spanish language, such as grammar, culture, history, and how to speak and write in Spanish. http://www.spanishprograms.com/store.htm?link=5 http://www.spanishprograms.com/learn_spanish.htm?l ink=2 Click on icons to view a Spanish dictionary and a Spanish online tutorial Detailed FindingsUsing Technology To Learn Spanish Learn Spanish free online studying with interactive Spanish lessons that really teach you to speak Spanish. Learning Spanish on the internet can now be fun and easy! With Visual Link™ Spanish software lessons, you will learn to speak Spanish - Guaranteed. Study with the free online beginner's Spanish lesson to learn how to speak in complete sentences and actually communicate. Sound impossible? Download a free online lesson to tour the first of 201 lessons from the interactive software course. If you are looking for more intensive training in learning conversational Spanish language, order The Complete Visual Link™ Audio Spanish CD / CDROM course today! Visual Link™ Spanish lessons and Spanish learning software make learning to speak a foreign language easier than ever. This interactive course teaches you to start speaking Spanish by focusing on sentence structure, not just vocabulary. You learn Spanish words in context, along with other complimentary words, to form complete sentences and phrases. You don't just learn the words, you learn to speak and communicate in Spanish. · · · Free Spanish Lessons Free CDROM! About Course Detailed findingsUsing Technology To Learn Spanish The language you learn with the Visual Link™ Spanish learning software is language you will use everyday. Learn Spanish quickly for your travels to Spain or Latin American countries, your job, home, school, and to for speaking Spanish with your friends and neighbors. Visual Link™ students love this course because it is the best way to learn Spanish; it is easy to use, interactive and most importantly, it really works! If you want to learn to speak Spanish today, order the Complete Visual Link™ Spanish Software Course. http://www.spanishprograms.com/learn_spanish.htm?l ink=5 Detailed Findings: Population Trends In the United States, Spanish is spoken by threequarters of its 41.3 million Hispanic population. The continuous arrival of new immigrants enables it to resist the assimilation experienced by the languages of most previous immigrants. It is also being learned and spoken by a small, though slowly growing, proportion of its non-Hispanic population for its increasing use in business, commerce, and both domestic and international politics. Spanish holds co-official status with English in the unincorporated U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. See Spanish in the United States for further information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language#Com parisons_between_Spanish_and_other_languages Detailed Findings- The Use of Spanish in the U.S. In the United States, Spanish is spoken by threequarters of its 41.3 million Hispanic population. It is also being learned and spoken by a small, though slowly growing, proportion of its non-Hispanic population for its increasing use in business, commerce, and both domestic and international politics. Spanish holds co-official status with English in the unincorporated U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. See Spanish in the United States for further information. Flag of Spain Detailed Findings-Spanish Grammar In order to understand and speak Spanish, one must master Spanish grammar, sounds, and writing system. Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but no noun declension and limited pronominal declension. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_grammar Verbs are one of the trickiest areas of Spanish for foreigners as they are fairly complex, with over fifty conjugated forms per verb. Fortunately, verb conjugation patterns are quite regular, and Spanish has fewer irregular verbs than the other Romance languages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_verbs Detailed Findings-Spanish Grammar Spanish has nouns that express concrete objects, groups and classes of objects, qualities, feelings and other abstractions. As in English, all nouns are either countable or uncountable (not to imply that the distinction is always clear-cut) and, unlike English, also have a conventional grammatical gender (masculine or feminine). Countable nouns inflect for number (singular and plural). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_nouns Generally speaking, Spanish uses adjectives in a similar way to English and most other Indo-European languages. Unlike in English, Spanish adjectives usually go after the noun they modify, and they agree with what they refer to in terms of both number (singular/plural) and gender (masculine/feminine). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_adjectives Spanish uses determiners in a similar way to English. The main difference is that they "agree" with what they refer to in terms of both number (singular/plural) and gender (masculine/feminine). Here are some determiners: este (esta, estos, estas); ese (esa, esos, esas); aquel (aquella, aquellos, aquellas); el (la, los, las, lo); un (una, unos, unas); mi (mis), tu (tus), su (sus), nuestro (nuestra, nuestros, nuestras), vuestro (vuestra, vuestros, vuestras); mucho (mucha, muchos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_determiners Detailed Findings-Spanish Grammar Spanish has a range of pronouns that in some ways work quite differently from English ones. They include: yo, tú, vos, usted, él, ella, ello, nosotros, vosotros, ustedes, ellos, ellas, esto, eso, aquello etc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_pronouns The Spanish language has a relatively large number of prepositions, and does not use postpositions. The following list is traditionally recited: A, ante, bajo, cabe, con, contra, de, desde, durante, en, entre, hacia, hasta, mediante, para, por, según, sin, so, sobre, tras. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_prepositions Detailed Findings-Spanish Culture Primarily Spain is a wine drinking country with each region producing its own special wines, however there are several large breweries within Spain producing the light, lager-like beers popular everywhere. (http://www.idealspain.com/Pages/Information/Culture.htm ) All Spanish towns and cities have their own special celebrations, as well as the national holidays such as Christmas, Easter Week, All Saints Day etc. The way in which the national events are celebrated also varies from place to place. Most festivities are of religious base, mainly Catholic. See our full listing of holidays (http://www.idealspain.com/Pages/Information/Culture.htm ) Bullfighting is a popular attraction in the Spanish culture. Dancing is a common social activity for people in Spanishspeaking countries. Detailed Findings-Spanish Culture Café in Seville, Spain Bull Fight Dancing in Seville, Spain Detailed Findings-Sports The biggest sport of Latin America and Spain is soccer. In many countries soccer is such a big sport, fans from opposing teams will engage in fighting in the streets after the game. More than a few people have died due to fights after soccer games. Soccer Detailed Findings-Sports Baseball is also very popular in Spanishspeaking countries. Many professional baseball players in the United States come from Spanish-speaking countries, such as Sammy Sosa, Bobby Abreu, and Alex Rodriguez. Baseball Detailed Findings-Food Paella is one of the most famous Spanish dishes. If you ever find yourself in a Spanish restaurant that serves paella give it a try. You'll love it. The pictures above show the Paella in its cooking dish, then served in a plate ready to eat. In researching paella recipes I found that there was no one-way of making paella. Every chef has his own way of making it and the list of ingredients is different as well. The recipe here is inspired by the others I read and customized for simplicity. Feel free to experiment with the ingredients by adding your own favorites. Paella is cooked in a wide and short pan where the sides go up 4 to 5 inches, the more surface the better. Many of the toppings are added as a last step at the top of the paella. Paella Conclusion From my research, I became more familiar with the Spanish language, history, and culture. I have realized that, with the use of technology, it is much easier to learn Spanish today than in the past. I also learned how easy it is to incorporate technology into a Spanish classroom. Hopefully, from my research and presentation, I encouraged you to learn Spanish or to incorporate Spanish into your classroom. Appendix http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language#Com parisons_between_Spanish_and_other_languages Click here to view my research paper Click here to view my internet address book http://www.angelfire.com/planet/tdecree/index.html Click here to view my closing audio file Click here to view a scan page from my research paper