By Frank Gerace, Ph.D.
Leer Es Poder Books, N.Y. 2009
ISBN 978-1-4196-9812-5
Genre: Study Resource for Language Study
Available at: http://www.EscuchaHabla.com
Review by Miriam Guarena for Guacuru Notes
At last a book in Spanish for the Intermediate Learner of English!
This book was inspired by the author’s teaching of adult immigrants in an active New York City Community College. It has been field tested on the Internet in PDF and e-book versions.
The work presents some of the principal difficulties that Spanish Speakers have with grammar and pronunciation when learning English. It is not a complete course but is aimed at the Spanish speaking person “who knows some English and who wants to take a few steps forward”. It presents the principal “claves” or essential points dealing with the most common errors. The book is written in simple, conversational Spanish, free of regionalisms. There are multiple tables and examples to illustrate the problems dealt with. Points of pronunciation are illustrated in recordings made by a native speaker of East Coast United States English.
Among the grammatical issues treated in the first part are the framing of questions, the adjective-noun concordance, subject and predicate, possessive adjectives and pronouns etc. But the approach is light and “ungrammatical”, aided by charts and tables, and an occasional flash of humor.
The second part of the work deals with the principal errors of pronunciation that plague the Spanish Speaker. The vowels and nouns are related to similar Spanish sounds; the articulation and formation of the sounds are explained; and practice in identification of the unfamiliar sounds is provided.
An important feature of the book is the more than 140 brief sound files related to the points made in both the grammar and pronunciation sections. The reader is directed to a website to listen to the sounds while at their computer, to download them to their preferred mp3 player, or to “burn” them to a CD.
An important feature of the work is its utilization of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to indicate the pronunciation of English. This will free the user of the confusion of the different diacritical marks used in different dictionaries.
For an extensive sample (all in Spanish) click on:http://www.inglesparalatinos.com/Muestra_Escuchar_Hablar_Ingles.pdfFrank Gerace
Author Biography
Frank Gerace Ph.D currently teaches English in New York City at a CUNY college as well as maintaining a strong bilingual presence on the web. He has served in Latin America in UN and national Educational and Communication Projects, and has taught in Bolivian and Peruvian Universities. His prevous Book, "Comunicación Horizontal: Cambio de Estructuras y Movilización Social" was a key part of the surge in Communication Studies in Latin America.. He provides guidance on accent reduction and the proper American English accent. He also offers resources for Spanish Speaking learners of English at http://www.InglesParaLatinos.com and for English speaking learners of Spanish at http://www.InglesParaLatinos.com/SpanishCourses.htm. Dr. Gerace helps parents wanting their children to speak Spanish at: http://www.BooksLibros.com/SpanishForNinos.htm. He maintains a blog at http://www.InglesParaHispanos.blogspot.com
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