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The main unit topics for Level 1 include animals, people, colors, numbers 1-20, face and body, and clothing.  Emphasis is also placed on additional vocabulary, including a variety of objects,  descriptive adjectives, actions, and commands.  Students will acquire more Spanish as they are exposed to the language in meaningful contexts.  View sample pages from the Student Workbook.


Methodology

Because students acquire language as they listen to and understand language, Puertas abiertas videos offer students the unique opportunity to listen to Spanish and understand as they associate spoken Spanish with graphics, body language, and other visual and aural input. Their growing vocabulary will serve as a building block to learn new material.

When using the Puertas abiertas curriculum, students will first watch a video lesson. Next, they will listen to the audio cassette or CD as they complete the Workbook activities for that lesson. These activities allow students to practice the material presented in the video lesson.

Learners will not understand every word spoken on the video, just as a child learning his/her first language does not understand every word spoken. What is important is that the student understand the main vocabulary words and phrases being taught. Meanings of surrounding words will be deduced over time as the student hears them in more contexts.

Because comprehensible input is so important, the student should watch the video lesson as many times as necessary to feel comfortable with the material before doing the Workbook activities for that lesson.

If a student feels highly threatened or anxious, he/she will have a much more difficult time acquiring Spanish. For this reason, Puertas abiertas is designed so that the student will have fun!