Saturday, August 23, 2008

Mi vida loca: Spanish for beginners

 
As I was looking through various sites and blogs this morning, I found this one. La vida loca: Spanish for beginners is an interactive online course with video and sound produced by the BBC. From the site:

There will be 22 episodes, themed according to language topics such as directions, shopping, etc. You can check the full breakdown in the syllabus.

Each episode is a combination of real-action video with language teaching and practice, focused on developing communicative skills. The language is presented in small bitesize chunks when it's needed. Learners are encouraged to practise and to speak out loud to the characters they encounter.

Each episode should take no more than 20-30 minutes to complete for an absolute beginner. Learners can then be encouraged to watch the full episode or some of the key scenes more than once. Just make sure not to close the episode window.

At the end of each episode there is a consolidation section, bringing together all the key vocabulary, explaining the grammar structures and providing extra practice. All these pages are printable.

Learners can also review the key scenes, tagged with the key language objective, by using the orange bar at the top of the video screen after viewing the episode.

Along with the video you'll find a syllabus, teacher's guide and a user's guide.
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6 comments:

Jessica said...

Gracias, Karen.

This looks exactly like something I've been searching for--an interesting series to watch and learn in Spanish. I started recording and watching a telenovela, but that channel for some reason doesn't have closed captions, so following and studying the Spanish is a challenge.

I can't wait to get started!

Karen said...

De nada, Jessica. Let me know if you need any help. Feel free to send me an email. :)

Diane said...

You have no idea how much you are getting me ready for the school year, Karen. First all the techie resources, and now BBC! Outstanding . . . I'm going to use the French version with my high school French II's!
diane from foreignlanguagefun.com

Karen said...

Diane,

May sound a bit corny, but I'm sincerely happy to help. Puts a smile on my face.

Maestra Jen said...

This is a great site! I am going to pass it along to my adult students! I checked it out and correct me if I am wrong... it is free/gratis?? This is very cool.

Gracias!

Karen said...

Yep, it's free. :)