The Spanish Teacher

Taruka is the new girl at the high school in town. The story takes the reader through a year of high school that Taruka is not likely to forget. She makes friends and meets a boy, Cooper. Like Cooper and many of the students at the school Taruka is very involved in sports, so she gets along with her new classmates well. But issues arise with her newfound friendship with Cooper when their differences are highlighted by the adults in their lives. This book is intended as a reader for students learning English. While the story has a plot similar to the classic story of Romeo and Juliet or Tony and Maria, the vocabulary and grammar are simple and comprehensible even for those just beginning with English.

Winner of the Gival Press Novel Award "...De la Cuesta's novel maintains an accumulating power which holds onto a reader's attention not only through the forceful figure of Ordóñez, but by demonstrating acutely how ordinary lives are impacted by the underlying social and political landscape. Compelling reading." -Tom Tolnay, publisher, Birch Brook Press and author of Selling America and This Is the Forest Primeval "Barbara de la Cuesta's The Spanish Teacher has everything to thrill you-pace, a great balance of description, gesture and action, charmed, perfectly-tuned dialogue, and most notably, a character we follow as closely and sympathetically as if we were living right there inside the story with him... So many books show us a character who seems to capably hang and move like marionettes from the strings of a fairly competent puppeteer, but rarely do we see a full drama like this, where every bit of the writing extends from, grows out of, is part and parcel with the author's complete realization of and connection to her character..." -Don Berger, judge for the Gival Press Novel Award

This book is written for middle and high school Spanish teachers. Its subject matter covers material normally taught in first year Spanish class. The book is divided into 10 parts. There are 31 lessons each one preceded by its objective, its method of accomplishment, and its outcome. Most of the 40 exercises have 20 or more items. Each exercise is accompanied by its solution. The modular design of each lesson enables it to stand on its own so you can easily fit it into your teaching schedule and carriculum insted of the other way around. This structure also makes it ideally suited for review. My unique 3-step approach to conjugating regular verbs, enables the student to easily grasp the mechanics of the operation, and, when necessary, enables her/him to diagnose and correct errors. You will find a verb bank of regular verbs, a verb bank of reflexive verbs, ample listings of stem-changing verbs, a listing of popular activities, a pronunciation guide to high frequency words, and two appendices.

Bringing Linguistics into the Spanish Language Classroom is a practical, time-saving resource that allows teachers to easily integrate the most interesting and important findings of Hispanic linguistics into their Spanish language classes. Teachers will find classroom-ready explanations and PowerPoint slides for each topic covered, as well as instructions and materials for in-class activities and take-home projects that will engage students in this fresh take on the target language. Slide presentations for each chapter are available online at www.routledge.com/9780367111960. The book covers aspects of Spanish from the trilled r to the personal a, from Indo-European origins to modern dialects, and from children’s first words to adult speech errors. An innovative set of five linguistics-based essential questions organizes and contextualizes this wide range of material: How is Spanish different from other languages? How is Spanish similar to other languages? What are the roots of Spanish? How does Spanish vary? How do people learn and use Spanish? Fully customizable to teacher and student interest, proficiency level, and time available in class, this book is ideal for Spanish language teachers looking to incorporate valuable linguistic insights into their curricula, even if they lack prior knowledge of this field. It is an excellent resource for Hispanic linguistics courses as well.