Foreign Language Curriculum Index

Spanish for Reading

By Fabiola Franco and Karl C. Sandberg, Barron's

Spanish for Reading is very helpful to me as I learn more Spanish. It is a great supplement to any Spanish curriculum at the high school level or above.

The first lessons focus on similarities in words that are common to English and Spanish and shows how the endings are changed. It also shows words that look similar, but have different meanings.

Later lessons focus on practical instruction about how words and phrases are used. When I was reading the Spanish Bible, I kept coming across a particular phrasing that wasn't translating to the English version. I looked in Spanish for Reading and found a lesson that explained it exactly.

Each lesson finishes with a reading that is broken up in short phrases to make it easy for you to check your answer as you read each part. The first readings are about the "Spanish-speaking world's language, geography, and culture." Later readings are works by well-known Spanish authors.

There are fifteen chapters with about seventy lessons. A Simplified Approach to Spanish Verbs contains four helpful verb charts that are worth memorizing.

I used the Grammatical Index to find the lesson that explained about the relative pronoun cuyo.

Paperback, self-instructional course

9780764103339

List $16.99

Sale $14.95

Spanish English Parallel New Testament Psalms and Proverbs

By Zondervan

In the Spanish Nueva Version Internacional New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs, the reading is in the left column, and the New International Version in English is in the right column.

I find that reading familiar passages in Spanish is helping me to learn more Spanish vocabulary and word usage. I chose this one because it is inexpensive and I was trying this as an experiment to see if it helped. I try to read at least a chapter each day, translating each verse if I can before I check the English version. The experiment is still a work in progress, but I can only see ways it helps.

Update 10-26-2011 After several months of reading and translating a few paragraphs most evenings, I see good results. I listened to two sermons in Spanish that were translated into English as the preacher spoke. I was very surprised to find that I understood most of it before the translator interpreted it.

An additional reason to read the Bible in the language you want to learn is that most foreign language programs teach secular words. If you plan to use your new language on a missions trip, it would be helpful to know vocabulary from the Bible.

Paperback

9780310925569

List $9.95

Sale $8.95

NVI Nuevo Testamento Audio Unabridged CD

By Zondervan

In the NVI Nuevo Testamento Audio Unabridged CD, there is a brief introduction to each book in the New Testament. All of the reading is narrated by the same male voice. There is some music and slight sound effects which are quiet and unobtrusive.

Each chapter is on a separate track--helpful to find your place if you are reading along in the Spanish English New Testament above.

It helps me to learn proper pronunciation and enunciation and accustoms my ear to hearing spoken Spanish. I can upload it to my mp3 player for portability.

Audio CD Set of 16 CDs

9780829742374

List $39.99

Sale $33.95