Student Viewer's Handbook to Accompany Destinos, an Introduction to Spanish: An Introduction to Spanish

DESTINOS is an innovative beginning Spanish program based on a a 26-week television series that premiered on PBS in the fall of 1992. The 52 half-hour shows of the series use the powerful appeal of a uniquely Hispanic genre--the telenovela (soap opera)--to make language and culture come alive. The situation and context of each episode introduce students to the basic structures, language functions and vocabulary groups of Spanish that are presented in most introductory- and intermediate-level Spanish courses.

This Student Viewer’s Handbook to accompany Destinos is designed to help instructors and students use Destinos as a supplement in a wide variety of courses, at beginning, intermediate, or advanced levels of instruction. By using the Handbook, instructors and students will enjoy viewing the 52 half-hour episodes of the television series more and get more out of them.

Bill VanPatten is Professor and Director of Applied Linguistics and Second Language Studies at Texas Tech University. His areas of research are input and input processing in second language acquisition and the effects of formal instruction on acquisitional processes. He has published widely in the fields of second language acquisition and language teaching and is a frequent conference speaker and presenter. His publications include Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen (with James F. Lee, 2003,McGraw-Hill), From Input to Output: A Teacher’s Guide to Second Language Acquisition (2003, McGraw-Hill), Processing Instruction: Theory, Research, and Practice (2004, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates) and most recently, Theories in Second Language Acquisition: An Introduction (with Jessica Williams, 2007, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates). He is the lead author of Vistazos, ¿Sabías que...?, Destinos and Sol y viento. Dr. VanPatten is the 2007 recipient of the Anthony Papalia Award for Excellence in Teacher Education, awarded jointly by ACTFL and NYSAFLT. When not engaged in academic activities, he writes fiction and performs stand-up comedy. He has recently published his first work of fiction, a collection of short stories titled Chicago Tales, published by Outskirts Press (2007).

Martha Alford Marks received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University. Co-author of ¿Qué tal? and Destinos, a Spanish video course, she also served on the Advisory Board to Boston PBS station WGBH during the development of the Destinos program, which was funded by the Annenberg Foundation. She is widely known as an ACTFL-certified oral proficiency tester and trainer in Spanish and ESL.

Richard V. Teschner received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Spanish Linguistics. He has taught at UW-Parkside, the University of Iowa, and (since 1976) the University of Texas at El Paso, where in 1988 he became a full professor in the Department of Languages and Linguistics. His publications include four edited anthologies, two book-length bibliographies, a placement exam, and a dictionary of Mexican-American Spanish, along with several editions of seven textbooks such as Español escrito: Curso para hispanohablantes bilingües; Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish; and Analyzing the Grammar of English: A Brief Undergraduate Textbook. He has published four dozen articles in professional journals along with an equal number of papers and keynote addresses. In 1988 he served as president of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese and also of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest.