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Splurk.com -- By Category -- Learning Spanish Resources -- Destinos Video Course
Destinos Video Course
This is an excellent resource for the self-study of Spanish.
Try to buy a copy of the workbooks or textbook too before starting. Although their use is not mandatory, the extra course material will help.
Like the similar series, French in Action for learning French, the series is several decades old and looks a little dated but that detracts very little from its overall value as a learning tool.
From the Annenberg Learner web site --
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A video instructional series in French for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 52 half-hour video programs, audiocassettes, coordinated books, and Web siteA video instructional series in Spanish for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 52 half-hour video programs divided into two parts (Part I programs 1-26, Part II programs 27-52), audiocassettes, music CD, video and audio scripts, and coordinated books
Destinos teaches speaking, listening, and comprehension skills in Spanish. This telenovela, or Spanish soap opera, immerses students in everyday situations with native speakers and introduces the cultures, accents, and dialects of Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. Understanding of Spanish and appreciation of many Hispanic cultures increase as students become absorbed in the mysterious and entertaining story. Closed captioning in Spanish can be used as a teaching and literacy resource. The series is also appropriate for teacher professional development.
Produced by WGBH Boston. 1992.
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Pictures --
From Wikipedia --
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Format
Destinos uses the telenovela (Spanish soap opera) format to teach Spanish-language speaking, listening, and comprehension skills. Early episodes have English-language narration in addition to the Spanish-language dialogue, but the English language content decreases continually, eventually disappearing entirely. The viewer is introduced to various accents and dialects and the cultures of various Spanish-speaking countries.
The series consists of 52 videos that cover virtually the entire scope of Spanish grammar, including verb tenses of present, future (including future of uncertainty), imperfect, preterite, perfect, pluperfect, participles, and the present, imperfect, and perfect forms of the subjunctive. It also covers a variety of country-specific usages: for example, it uses both the verb extrañar (to miss somebody or something) and the phrase echar de menos (which means the same thing). After the early episodes, conversation is done at more or less normal speaking speed, improving the student's comprehension. Spanish subtitles are included on both VHS and DVD versions — translations are not provided.
An accompanying set of materials is available to complement the series. These include a set of audio tapes and textbook, the latter of which follows the series episode-for-episode but provides a more systematic presentation such as would be used in a classroom course.
Destinos is also characterized by frequent reviews of preceding episodes. This characteristic has led many people[who?] to criticize the series for being overly long and boring, but there is a purpose to the reviews: it provides extensive repetition, which helps many people learn the material.
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Tags: Learning Spanish Resources
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