Con嶰tate ─ Introductory Spanish

The Story

Conéctate is a fresh approach in every way. With its focus on the most critical language for communication, its active presentation of vocabulary and grammar, and its inclusion of real-world culture throughout, the program provides a unique framework for the Introductory Spanish course, with two separate but complementary goals in mind: learning to use the language and appreciating the world that it comes from.

What makes Conéctate so unique?

• A focused approach: The tailored scope and sequence of Conéctate allows students to concentrate on what they can reasonably be expected to learn in an introductory course, allowing time for systematic review and recycling. This offers a solution to the Introductory Spanish programs that, in an effort to cover everything, include too much grammar and rush students through the curriculum without spending sufficient time for true learning or mastery.
• Active learning: Conéctate carefully balances a mix of inductive and explicit vocabulary and grammar presentations, applying the concept of desirable difficulty throughout. This leads students to discover and retain the language, and avoids the common type of presentations that only allow for passive learning.
• Integration of culture: Language is culture and culture is language. This central idea shapes the way culture is treated in Conéctate: not as something separate from the language acquisition process, but as something that is integral to the process. Students acquire cultural knowledge and understanding in a natural way as they learn how the language is used within the rich and diverse Spanish-speaking world.

Grant Goodall is Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Language Program at the University of California, San Diego, where he is also affiliated with the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies. An internationally recognized scholar of Spanish syntax, he has a longstanding commitment to the development and implementation of highly effective, research-based practices in language teaching. He brings a rich international background to the Conectate project: He was educated in both the United States and Mexico, has spent much of his life along the border between the two, and has taught or lectured in twenty countries.

Darcy Lear holds a Ph.D. in Foreign and Second-Language Education from The Ohio State University. She has been the director of the Spanish basic-language program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; the inaugural coordinator of the minor program in Spanish for the professions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and, most recently, a lecturer at the University of Chicago. She devotes most of her professional time to career coaching, which includes workshops for foreign-language students navigating the campus-to-career transition.