Lecturas fáciles con ejercicios

DIRECTOR OF MODERN LANGUAGES IN THE NEW YORK CITY HIGH SCHOOLS CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA
AND
HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH, DEWITT CLINTON HIGH SCHOOL, NEW YORK CITY LECTURER IN SPANISH, EXTENSION TEACHING, HUNTER COLLEGE NEW YORK CITY
Copyright, 1916, By SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY.

La Giralda de Sevilla
THIS book is the result of the conviction of the authors, after several years of experience teaching the Spanish language, that it is discouraging to the students of that language, as well as a contravention of all common-sense pedagogy, to place before them as reading material in the first year or year and a half, selections from classic Spanish novelists and short story writers. Such writings can only be understood and appreciated after considerable training in the fundamentals of Spanish, a language abounding in intricate idiomatic expressions and having great wealth of vocabulary. Such writings do not provide the student with a working vocabulary of the more common and practical terms. To read, for instance, Alarcón's Capitán Veneno or even Valera's El Pájaro Verde in the second or third semester of the study of Spanish in high schools, seems a sheer tour de force , resulting in neither a practical vocabulary nor a proper appreciation of these little masterpieces. Yet the strongest claim, at least at present, that can be made for a place for Spanish in the educational scheme of the United States is that it is a practical language for North Americans to know (being, as a mother-tongue in the New World, second in importance only to English), while at the same time affording as good linguistic training as does a study of either French or German. But the task of the Spanish teacher has for many years been complicated in this country because no material other than that of a purely literary nature has been available for the reading work in elementary classes.
The present volume, it is believed, provides in every-day, idiomatic Spanish, stories and articles that are simple and yet not childish, that can be readily appreciated by the beginner and yet withal are muy español. It is suggested that it be used in the second and third semesters of the high school or in the first and second semesters of college, a proper place for it being determined by the age of the students and their previous linguistic training.