Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Spanish the fun way! (Foreign Language Graded Reader Series)
£8.00£10.40 (-23%)
An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young and adult learners.
“I love Olly’s work – and you will too!” – Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for Numbers
Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners has been written especially for students from beginner to intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, and most importantly – enjoyment! Mapped to A2-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference, these eight captivating stories will both entertain you, and give you a feeling of progress when reading.
What does this book give you?
· Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller – making reading fun, while you learn a wide range of new vocabulary
· Controlled language at your level, including the 1000 most frequent words, to help you progress confidently
· Authentic spoken dialogues, to help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking ability
· Pleasure! It’s much easier to learn a new language when you’re having fun, and research shows that if you’re enjoying reading in a foreign language, you won’t experience the usual feelings of frustration – ‘It’s too hard!’ ‘I don’t understand!’
· Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, in a stress-free way
Carefully curated to make learning a new language easy, these stories include key features that will support and consolidate your progress, including
· A glossary for bolded words in each text
· A bilingual word list
· Full plot summary
· Comprehension questions after each chapter.
As a result, you will be able to focus on enjoying reading, delighting in your improved range of vocabulary and grasp of the language, without ever feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners will make learning Spanish easy and enjoyable.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Teach Yourself, Bilingual edition (4 Oct. 2018) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 240 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 9781473683259 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1473683259 |
| Dimensions | 12.7 x 2.16 x 19.69 cm |
by angel rei
This book is definitely a valuable learning resource and has helped to introduce me to a lot of useful new vocabulary and phrases. It uses many different verb forms (I think the pluperfect even made an appearance) so as a beginner be prepared to encounter various past, future and subjunctive forms which honestly can be pretty confusing but I guess it’s all good practice. The main frustration for me is that I find the vocabulary lists poorly organised. Words that you could easily guess are defined and words that a beginner is highly unlikely to know but are crucial to the story are missed, for example “padlock”. Idiomatic expressions that you could probably use help with, like “en marcha” for example are also missed. They also choose not to translate a word in one story forcing you to have to look it up and then decide to translate it for you in a later story! And they also repeat translations of words they’ve already given you – it’s just a lot of sloppy editing! If you are happy to just get the gist of the stories and breeze through maybe you won’t care but if you’re like me and want to understand the language more fully be prepared to sit with a dictionary and Google translate by your side… Finally, it’s a more minor complaint but the stories themselves invariably end predictably and/or anticlimactically. It would also have been nice if they had pitched the stories at a slightly older audience as I’m guessing many readers will be adult learners rather than school students.
by Magdalena
But I haven’t bought it for the thrill 😉 It’s meant for higher beginners – I’d say it could be a bit more challenging or maybe I know Spanish better than I think? There are only 2 – 3 words on each site I don’t know, sometimes even none; I guess I will get the one for intermediate students; nevertheless the book is well prepared to help you expand vocabulary and teach how Spanish works in practice and that’s the most important thing for that particular position;
I feel compelled to take 1 star away for the stories – they’re really not good and that makes it a bit of a struggle to read the book.
by ChrisC
It’s a good concept and I have got a lot out of the book. I have one criticism, that is, that the dictionary at the back of the book does not contain most of the words I needed to look up. This is a minor criticism as I could of course use a separate dictionary, but it does seem strange for it not to cover the book’s vocabulary.
by laura b
This is a really well put together book. The stories are perfect length, not boring or over-complicated. Some questions on each chapter, and some new vocabulary to learn.
by Declan ONeill
Very readable and in excellent condition.
by Steph
I have started reading these stories and has been helping support my language learning (I also take lessons). Good introduction to useful phrases and I think is suitable for beginners.
The only thing I would improve is to have a bit more vocabulary/translations in the back. Some words that I wasn’t accustomed to yet were not featured in the book. General it has important verb/word translations, but it would have been handy to have a few extras! Still a fantastic way to bolster Spanish studies!
by Annie B
Great book for helping to improve your Spanish. Good level of vocabulary for beginners.
by BlindMonkey
I thought it wouldn’t be at my level (1200 day streak on Duolingo) but has worked well.