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Read more about Libro Libre: Beginning Spanish

Libro Libre: Beginning Spanish

(31 reviews)

Erin Huebener

Jessica Steinberg

Copyright Year: 2018

Publisher: Erin Huebener

Language: English

Formats Available

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CC BY-NC-SA

Reviews

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Reviewed by Anna Proffit, Associate Professor, City Colleges of Chicago on 3/8/23

Libro Libre would be ideal for the first two semesters of Spanish. This is a truly comprehensive text in terms of grammatical structures, inclusive language, and variety of activities. There are listening and video exercises, games, spaces to... read more

Reviewed by Linda Miller, Associate Professor, Tidewater Community College on 8/1/22

The book covers the main content of an introductory Spanish course: present and past tenses, basic vocabulary about school/family/food/work/travel, noun and pronoun use, and a quick (last chapter) overview of commands, subjunctive, future, and... read more

Reviewed by Elizabeth Deifell, Senior Lecturer, University of Texas at Arlington on 4/12/21

The presentation of vocabulary, grammar, and culture is appropriate for the first two beginning-level courses. I especially like the inclusion of prompts through which students establish and evaluate learning goals. Not all cultural topics were... read more

Reviewed by Elsa Coronado Salinas, Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Arlington on 4/12/21

I found this book to be a bit overwhelming and too inclusive for a first year, beginning Spanish course. Chapters 1-9 cover, for the most part, what a typical first year Spanish course would cover. Chapter 10, however, is jammed packed with... read more

Reviewed by Maribel Campoy, Assistant Professor, University of Indianapolis on 4/11/21

This book can be used for two semesters. It covers all the basic grammar structures that other more expensive textbooks include, just in a slightly different order. It also covers other topics not usually included in the second semester of Spanish... read more

Reviewed by Lisa Lopez, Spanish Instructor / Foreign Language Coordinator, Trident Technical College on 3/9/21

Kudos to the author for all of the work that went into creating this resource. This book generally covers the basic information presented in introductory Spanish courses. While I did encounter some issues with navigation and organization, I... read more

Reviewed by Mesi Walton, Lecturer, Howard University on 12/21/20

I used this book for a Spanish 1 class and found it to cover what I would normally want to introduce to a beginners class. The glossary at the end was a good way to have students think on their own about the vocabulary before knowing the meanings.... read more

Reviewed by Marina Escamez Ballesta, Lecturer of Spanish, University of Virginia on 12/14/20

The book covers all the vocabulary and grammar structures that a beginner Spanish course should cover to build the productions skills needed to jump into Intermediate. At the beginning there is a Table of Content that specifies the components of... read more

Reviewed by Maria Aldana Rogers, Spanish Instructor, Lane Community College on 8/30/20

Libro Libre is a great book for beginners and intermediate level students. As other textbooks, Libro Libre introduces new vocabulary and grammar as the chapters progress. In my opinion, the explanations of the grammar are clear and relevant. The... read more

Reviewed by Maria Victoria Maillo de Aguilera, Spanish Adjunct Faculty, Greenfield Community College on 6/22/20

Libro Libre is a frankly complete book for beginning Spanish students. It begins with basic notions such as expressing time or vocabulary of food, going through the conjugation of the present and past, and ends with some notions of the... read more

Reviewed by Odilia Smith, Adjunct Faculty (Spanish Professor), Bunker Hill Community College on 6/20/20

I really enjoyed going through the whole book "Libro Libre". It is a very complete book for beginners. It is an accessible book for the students because it has clear and colorful illustrations, basic vocabulary using a good number of cognates... read more

Reviewed by Maritza Cole, Adjunct Faculty Spanish Teacher, Bunker Hill Community College on 6/20/20

Libro Libre is a book that I enjoyed reading. The book covers aspects of Hispanic culture using readings of authentic materials, and as a native Spanish speaker I believe this an excellent resource to familiarize learners with different Hispanic... read more

Reviewed by Alejandra Peary, Instructor of Spanish, Bridgewater State University on 6/18/20

I completed the review of the Libro Libre book and I really liked it. I teach the beginner level of Spanish at a local community college, as well as at a state college, and most of the students enrolled in my classes come with a mix of proficiency... read more

Reviewed by Shonu Nangia, Professor of Foreign Languages, Louisiana State University of Alexandria on 5/1/20

This textbook is comprehensive in its treatment of the standard vocabulary and grammar as is expected from a high quality first year college textbook. The entire gamut of vocabulary and grammar is sequentially and thematically organized and... read more

Reviewed by Vivienne Larrea, Adjunct Professor, Raritan Valley Community College on 4/13/20

This text covers a variey of appropriate themes and topics: grammar, vocabulary, and culture. I would have liked to see specifics when it came to the cultural section of each chapter. In the first chapter of the index, for example, it reads... read more

Reviewed by Mirta Suquet, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Susquehanna University on 3/19/20

The book covers all the basic grammar content of beginner Spanish with enough grammar activities and exercises to support student learning. It also has excellent Audio and Video activities, although the teacher probably needs to incorporate other... read more

Reviewed by Greg Severyn, Assistant Professor, Susquehanna University on 3/9/20

Libro Libre: Beginning Spanish is most appropriate for a 2-semester beginner sequence, with 400+ pages covering grammar commonly seen at these levels. While the textbook offers brief cultural readings with each of the ten chapters, the professor... read more

Reviewed by Oriol Casanas, Spanish Affiliate Instructor, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 3/6/20

This textbook seems to be consistent chapter after chapter on what it has to offer: a cultural section at the beginning of the chapter, a list of objectives, introduction to vocabulary, grammar, etc. However, I would like to have an index on the... read more

Reviewed by Wendy Gallagher, Senior Lecturer / Coordinator First-Year Spanish Program, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 3/5/20

Covers standard grammar topics seen in other beginner textbooks. Table of Contents clearly shows where to find each topic, although the order of introduction is sometimes unusual (e.g., imperfect before preterit). It also seems that the order of... read more

Reviewed by Ingetraut Baird, Assistant Professor of German and Spanish, Anderson University on 2/8/20

I felt that the book actually covers MORE than what we usually cover in the first two semesters of our Spanish sequence. read more

Reviewed by Ida Day, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Marshall University on 2/5/20

Libro Libre covers the essential topics and grammar typical for a beginning Spanish class. It also includes activities that can be filled out in the textbook, so there is no need for an exercise book. read more

Reviewed by Slav Gratchev, Associate professor, Marshall University on 2/3/20

The book is fairly comprehensive because it follows the standard path of teaching a foreign language. This is good though: students will have a good book that can certainly be used successfully for learning basics Spanish. read more

Reviewed by Alegria Ribadeneira, Associate Professor and Director of World Languages, Colorado State University - Pueblo on 1/15/20

This is mainly a grammar book. In that area it covers grammar points typical of a first year book. More complicated grammar points (subjunctive, etc) are covered in the last chapter as an introduction. I assume the expectation is that students... read more

Reviewed by Deyanira Morales, Spanish Faculty, Spanish Program Director, Blue Mountain Community College on 1/5/20

The textbook covers many of the basic structures needed in an introductory course in a simplified manner. The Glossary could be improved. read more

Reviewed by Nyssa Knarvik, Assistant Professor, Colorado State University on 12/24/19

This book covers most of the same topics that all beginning Spanish books cover. More discussion and explanation of pronunciation would be useful. read more

Reviewed by Marianna Kunow, Instructor, Southeastern Louisiana University on 12/21/19

The author has done a good job covering beginning level topics. An index would be very helpful. read more

Reviewed by Julia de León, Visiting assistant professor, William & Mary on 12/19/19

This textbooks covers enough grammar and vocabulary to get you started. Although, they are not put in context. For instance, the vocabulary has to be learnt by memorizing a list of words at the end of each chapter. read more

Reviewed by Fernanda Righi, Lecturer in Spanish, Roger Williams University on 12/9/19

From the beginning, students encounter expressions and words they are not supposed to know. Then, there are no translations provided for the vocabulary and “otras expresiones” sections (and in most cases there are up to 3 pages of words to... read more

Reviewed by Andrea Gaytan Cuesta, Visiting Instructor, College of William & Mary on 11/15/19

The book serves as an introduction to Spanish in a comprehensive way, but more as a "survival spanish", with topics from presentations, to the body vocabulary, school, travel and food. It includes links to videos with grammar explanations... read more

Reviewed by Florencia Henshaw, Director of Advanced Spanish, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on 11/13/19

Overall, the book moves from input to output far too quickly. Novice-level learners need much more engagement with meaningful comprehensible input. In that respect, it is not comprehensive enough (i.e., it doesn't "cover" enough input, so to... read more

Reviewed by Danilo Leon, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Colorado State University - Pueblo on 10/29/19

Libro Libre is a comprehensive textbook. It covers most of the topics usually covered for a beginning Spanish class. Also, every chapter provides a vocabulary section with translations of new Spanish words. read more

Table of Contents

  • Lectura cultural: La Patagonia
  • Lectura cultural: Las cabeza colosales
  • Lectura cultural: -AR verbs
  • Lectura cultural: The Verb ir and Places
  • Lectura cultural: Food
  • Lectura cultural: Health and the Human Body
  • Lectura cultural: Saber versus conocer
  • Lectura cultural: Childhood and Adolescence
  • Lectura cultural: Vacation
  • Lectura cultural: The Present Perfect

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About the Book

One of the most important things we can do to hold ourselves accountable for our learning is to engage in goal setting and metacognition—a fancy term for thinking about the way we think and learn. The goals we set should be specific and achievable. Something like “Speak Spanish” is too broad, we need to focus on the steps we need to take to get there and the signs that we will see as proof of our progress.

About the Contributors

Author

Erin Huebener

Editor

Jessica Steinberg

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