Spanish is the second most popular language in the world after English and the second most spoken after Chinese. Therefore, its study is relevant at the present time. There are many textbooks of this language, both for classes with a teacher, and for independent work. The article will give a brief overview of the textbook Dyshleva "Spanish for beginners."
General Benefit Information
The textbook of the Spanish language for beginners of Dyshleva Irina offers a huge material, which is divided into topics of a domestic nature. It is designed for 120-140 hours of classroom instruction. It can also be used for self-study for 3-4 months (1 semester). The volume of the textbook is small, about 300 pages of text in A5 format without pictures. The manual was published by the St. Petersburg publishing house "Perspective" in 2009.
The author of the textbook claims that after reading the tutorial in question, the student will have basic ideas about the Spanish language, necessary for reading light texts and communicating on simple topics, an active vocabulary, and also learn to apply many grammatical constructions in practice. The purpose of the textbook is the practical mastery of the language spoken by Spain and most of South and Central America.
Phonetic part
Perhaps one of the strengths of the Spanish course for beginners Dyshleva is the phonetic part. Here the alphabet consisting of 26 letters is examined in detail, the rules for reading each letter in different words are given, and corresponding exceptions are given. Particular attention is paid to 5 vowels. The phonetic part is devoted to about 30 pages. Topics such as the features of the intonation of the language are also considered, ideas about diphthongs and trifthongs (sets of consecutive vowels that are read as one whole sound) are given.
Each theoretical material is supported by a set of interesting and boring exercises. It should be noted right away that the manual in question differs in a huge amount of material for independent work, it is equipped with a large number of various exercises that allow not only to learn the material passed, but also to expand your horizons in Spanish.
In general, we can say that the phonetics in "Spanish for Beginners" by Dyshleva is described in sufficient detail and gives comprehensive information about the sounds and rules of reading. In fact, if students learn them well, then after the first few lessons they will be able to independently read any words and sentences correctly. Naturally, the meaning of the sentences will not be clear to them, but this is already a matter of vocabulary and grammar, not phonetics.
Tutorial lessons
In Spanish they are called the beautiful word lección (lexion) and they are in the manual 11. I. Dyshleva’s textbook “Spanish for Beginners” does not imply any structural organization in terms of grammar. Since the manual is aimed at practical mastery of the basics of the Castilian dialect, the grammar is given in it only to the extent that it is used in everyday life to describe various events and situations.
Each of the 11 lessons provides some grammatical material, then exercises for learning it are offered. The lesson necessarily includes several texts in Spanish and Russian, intended for translation, retelling and memorization. There are also fun and entertaining dialogues that use a variety of conversational cliches and templates from live Spanish. Each lesson contains a fairly large dictionary, which you can learn at will. The dictionary is composed of words and expressions that are found in all exercises, so for a good understanding of the textbook, there is not even the need to use any additional literature. The allowance is self-sufficient.
Textbook Benefits
The Spanish course for beginners Dyshleva 100% lives up to its goal. It contains all the grammatical constructions that are useful for communication in everyday life. The textbook, despite the lack of illustrations, is written in a fascinating and funny way, which throughout the course supports interest in its study. The absence of any clear structure allows you to take a course starting from any number of the lesson.
Perhaps one of the important advantages of the manual is an impressive vocabulary, the mastery of which will allow you to read adapted literature on general topics. This is evidenced by the reviews of many beginner polyglots. The student will find in the dictionary what the days of the week are called, ordinal and numeral numbers, and learn how to construct interrogative constructions. In the textbook Dyshleva there are many nouns and adjectives that serve to describe different things. The main verbs and their conjugations in the present tense in various persons are also given.
Textbook disadvantages
They are present for each study guide, and the course being studied is no exception. The minuses are told by students who have already read this book.
The main drawback is the lack of a systematic presentation, that is, the Dyshleva course provides a wealth of information about the Spanish language, it does not adhere to the “from simple to complex” scheme. In addition, only the present is present in the textbook and there is no information about the future and the past, very few verbs.
As a drawback, we also note the lack of audio recordings attached to the manual.
Reviews of teachers of the Spanish language
It is safe to say that professional teachers respond only positively to the textbook.
Thus, for a beginner who wants to master the basics of practical Spanish in a short time and plans to engage with a teacher several times a week, the textbook Dyshleva considered is a good choice.