Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish http://www.learner.org/resources/series75.html is intended for high school and above audiences.
The intended purpose of this website is to assist learners of Spanish. There are 52 videos in telenovela (soap opera) style episodes which are presented free of charge. Other than purchasing the accompanying text and work books, there are no external documents offered. There are a few links to Spanish news organizations. I suppose these could also be considered external documents, however they are not tied in directly to any of the lessons. They can be effective in that they are authentic text.
This site could be interesting to the learner who wants to see and hear the language spoken in a controlled environment that allows the learner to know what concepts are being presented. Much like the "real" telenovelas, there is so much overacting it is difficult NOT to understand what is happening in the story. :)
There is no practice, assessment, or feedback offered on this website.
The site is easy to use if you don't mind viewing the episodes on a two-inch screen. Or, you can play it in MediaPlayer if you know how to get the URL and paste it in. That way you can watch it on full screen.
This website is good for what it is intended. Which is providing a platform for viewing the videos and increasing textbook sales. The videos are of excellent quality (even though they are somewhat dated now). If used in conjunction with the text, the site is excellent. But even without the text, a teacher or student could make good use of this site.
The site could be improved by having questions to be answered after each video. Or possibly having links to cultural websites of the different countries each episode takes the viewer to.
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5 comments:
I love watching dramas when I study a language. In Korea, I watch them all the time. They have English shows, like Friends, with subtitles at the bottom. I learn so many words and phrases that way. Also, I watch Korean dramas all the time. Both ways have been very helpful to me.
I am just learning about all that is available to our students on these webpages. How do you project these videos so that all students can see them? Do you download them on a CD and then play these telenovelas for the kids?
I know that the stories are so popular in this country and overseas. I noticed in the Middle East that everyone watched the telenovelas and these were imported ones from Venezuela and Mexico. I thought that was pretty interesting in such a closed society.
Victoria,
If you play them directly from their website, you are limited to about a 3 or 4 inch screen. I figured out that if you right click on the icon and select properties, it will show you the URL address. Just highlight the URL, right click, and select copy. Then open Media Player. Select File and Open URL. Paste the URL in box that appears. Click okay.
When the video starts playing, double click the screen and the video will go to full screen. That's how I play them for my classes. My room is so small that nobody is very far from my desk. Works fairly well.
Another little trick with embedded Media Player files is this.
Wait until the video begins to play. Then right-click on the video screen. Then choose Zoom >> Full Screen. The quality isn't as good as a DVD, but this works pretty well for projection screens.
Some will also allow you to choose only slightly bigger sizes (150% or 200%). These are better for image quality.
Dan
I just got a chance to look at this site and it's a real "hoot". I've always been amused by Spanish soaps anyway, and to think of them as a learning tool is both amusing and very good. As you said, no external documents or support for using them as teaching tools, but I think that older students could decide a bit about how to treat these. If anything it's great fodder for 10 minutes of conversation each week.
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