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Cinema for Spanish Conversation
Second Edition

Cinema for Spanish Conversation, Second Edition

Mary McVey Gill

Deana Smalley

María-Paz Haro

2006 • 1-58510-231-8 • paper • 294 pages • 8½ x 11 • $46.95

|  About the Authors  |  Contents  |  Ancillaries  |  Preface  |

The First Edition is still available. Click here.

 Description                                               

      The second edition of Cinema for Spanish Conversation includes the same stimulating exercises and conversation materials that have made the first edition a success among students and instructors alike. The text is designed to be used in courses in which outstanding films from the Spanish-speaking world are used as springboards for classroom Spanish-language discussion. Using high-interest feature films, students hear Spanish as it is spoken in different countries and in a wide variety of situations and are encouraged to listen to and converse about the social and cultural aspects of Spanish-speaking countries around the world.

      The second edition includes a high-interest reading for each chapter; reading selections include interviews, magazine or newspaper articles, and selections from film scripts or literary pieces. Each reading is followed by an activity. These readings are optional; they can be covered in-depth if reading is one of the goals of the course.

      Each chapter is devoted to one movie, and contains appropriate vocabulary, cultural notes, special terms for conversation and composition, a focus on a specific scene for structured discussion or writing, questions for review and understanding, and quotations from directors or critics. Difficult-to-find or older films have been replaced by films of more immediate interest to students. New to this edition are: María llena eres de gracia [Maria Full of Grace], Diarios de motocicleta [The Motorcycle Diaries], and Mar adentro [The Sea Inside].

      As with the first edition, the second edition comes with an instructor’s manual that includes answers to exercises and ideas for additional activities.
 

Sample Pages

The following link is a downloadable PDF file which can be read using the free Adobe Acrobat reader. To get the reader, go to www.adobe.com.

        Sample Chapter

 Authors                                                     

Deana Smalley (B.A. in Spanish, University of Oregon; M.A. in Hispanic literature, New York University; Ph.D. in Hispanic literature, Purdue University) has taught at a variety of colleges and universities, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Stanford University and Santa Clara University. She began to incorporate film into her language, culture and literature classes early in her teaching career. She is the author of web activities, video activities and test banks for major Spanish textbook companies.

María-Paz Haro (Valencia, Spain) is Professor of Spanish (Emerita) at Stanford University where she has taught several courses on Spanish and Spanish American Cinema including "Spanish Society Through the Eye of the Camera", "The Films of Pedro Almodovar", "Women in Film and Film by Women", and "Cinema of the Southern Cone". She participates in Film Conferences and publishes on Spanish Cinema.

 Table of Contents                                     

(Clicking on the title below will take you to the Amazon.com page where you can purchase the film.)
       
  Hombres armados
  El norte
  Como agua para chocolate
  Danzón
  María llena eres de gracia

  Todos somos estrellas
  Diarios de motocicleta
  De eso no se habla
  La historia oficial
  Caballos salvajes

  Fresa y chocolate
  Nueba Yol
  Guantanamera
  Belle Epoque
  ¡Ay, Carmela!
  Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios
  Todo sobre mi madre
  Mar adentro

For purchasing or renting the films: Information for finding the films to rent or purchase can be found here. Be sure to search for the films under the Spanish title, or the English translation of the title, as some films are listed either way.

 Ancillaries                                                

Teacher's Manual

2006 • 1-58510-241-5 • paper • 98 pages • 8½ x 11 • $19.95           

 Preface                                                     

Why a Spanish Conversation Book Based on Cinema?

There are many reasons:

• Movies appeal to students of all ages.

• There have been numerous studies showing that authentic language is the best “comprehensible input.” Cinema offers natural language in context.

• Movies provide a context in history and culture, as well as language, on which a course can build.

• Videos and DVDs (rented or bought) are highly versatile teaching tools. Students can watch them in or out of class. Instructors can use film clips in class or include them on exams. DVDs can also be programmed.

• The eighteen movies in this book present a wide variety of themes, genres, and cultural experiences.

Students who watch the movies chosen for this book will learn not only about “Big C” culture (e.g., the Mexican Revolution in Como agua para chocolate, life in Castro’s Cuba in Fresa y chocolate, or the Spanish Civil War in ¡Ay, Carmela!). They will also see daily-life culture in a wide variety of settings. How do people in the Hispanic world eat, cook, travel, play, get married, raise their children, spend their free time? What non-verbal communication do they use, how much distance is normal between people in different situations, how do they greet each other or express affection? It’s impossible to watch these movies and not learn about culture through this engaging medium.

Changes in the Second Edition

• There are three new films: María llena eres de gracia, Diarios de motocicleta, and Mar adentro.

• For each chapter there is a new section, Más allá de la película, including a reading and an activity. The readings are interviews, magazine or newspaper articles, or selections from film scripts or literary pieces.

• Introductory information about each film, its actors and directors has been updated.

Choice of Films

Choosing the films was extremely difficult, since there is such a tremendous variety of wonderful movies in Spanish. The movies were chosen for quality, cultural and historical content, and appeal to students; however, the choice also depended heavily on availability. Many excellent films are simply too hard to get in the United States or Canada. We did not choose films primarily to have a balance in countries of origin. Spain and Argentina are overrepresented simply because they have very highly developed cinematic industries with a long history of production and excellent distributing and marketing, so that the films reach a global audience. Difficulty was another factor: some films are simply too complicated to be used successfully or the pronunciation is hard to understand. Another important criterion was that we did not want to expose students to excessive violence, and a large number of very high-quality films were excluded because of this factor. We did include some films that are R-rated for language and/or sex. See the chart following the preface for ratings and other information about each film. If R-rated movies are not appropriate for your students, these can simply be excluded.

Organization of the Book and Teaching Suggestions

The book requires students to have intermediate Spanish skills and can be used most successfully at high intermediate or advanced levels. It can be a primary or secondary text for a course. Subtitles can provide flexibility—they should be used unless the students are advanced. As with any real-world experience, students will not understand every word—a certain tolerance of ambiguity must be cultivated—but they will be highly motivated to understand material that they know was created for native speakers of Spanish. While students will not all be able to spend time in a Spanish-speaking country, they can travel through the eyes of filmmakers to many different parts of the world. We expect that this highly motivating context will work well for students wherever the book is used, especially in classes where listening comprehension and conversation are emphasized.

Following are suggestions for each section of any chapter:

Preparación

Vocabulario preliminar

These sections are optional and can be done in class or assigned as homework. With some exceptions, the words on the lists occur at least twice in the film and often three or more times. Words that students may need to discuss the film but that were not actually used in the movie itself are glossed later on if necessary. The first section of exercises was designed to give students key words and expressions they will need to understand and talk about the movie. The second section, which they will encounter after they have seen the film, features thematic vocabulary, including regionalisms, that is useful for further discussion. We did not include vulgar words or expressions, in general; you can explain these at your discretion.

 

Antes de ver la película

In most cases, these previewing exercises can be done in pairs or groups as well as with the whole class. The exercise called Los personajes should be read before the film is viewed but completed afterwards.

 

Investigación

These topics can be assigned to individuals or groups rather than to the whole class. Students can report back with just a few sentences or with a more in-depth answer, depending on their language level and the time available. Students using the Internet should be able to find information on the topics readily.

 

Exploración

Ideally, the students should read this section over before seeing the film to help them prepare for it. The exercises here are designed to get them to explore the basic content and plot of the movie.

 

Análisis y contraste cultural

Vocabulario

Again, these sections are optional and can be done in class or assigned as homework. See the information under Vocabulario preliminar.

 

Notas culturales

These notes are included to provide information that may be helpful in understanding the film. Students can read them on their own.

 

Temas de conversación o de composición

As the title implies, these topics can be explored orally and/or assigned as short compositions. They can be done with the entire class or in groups or pairs. The questions in parentheses can be augmented or changed as the instructor chooses. These topics are optional and not all of them have to be covered.

 

Una escena memorable

Students can discuss or write about the scenes depicted, depending on the goals of the course.

 

Hablan los personajes

These can be covered quickly, with students giving short answers about who is quoted and in what context, or they can be explored in depth. Instructors may choose to ask further questions about the quotations and get students to elaborate on how they reflect the character in general or how they relate to the themes of the movie.

 

Hablando de la cultura

This section refers to a cultural point that is included in the film and it generally poses a question about cultural content or about how the movie would be different if it were from an English-speaking country. Instructors may want to elaborate on these points or ask students what other cultural differences they noticed in the film.

 

Hablan los críticos y los directores

These optional sections feature quotations from the directors of the films or from critics. Students can answer the questions included for them or they can simply comment on whether they agree or disagree with the quotations and why.

 

Más allá de la película

These readings can be assigned at home or covered in class. You may want to simply have students read them and do the activities for extra credit. You can also have students work together in pairs or groups to complete the tasks. In some cases, you might want to use only part of a reading (for instance, in Chapter 7, you could do only the selections from Alberto Granados’ diary, which will have fewer new vocabulary items than Ernesto Guevara’s). The readings can be skipped entirely if you are focusing on listening and speaking skills.