Download The Spanish Language

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
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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:
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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Free
Spanish
Lessons
Free CDROM!
About
Course
Detailed findingsUsing Technology To Learn Spanish
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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).
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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