Features
Vistas is built around a proven six-step instructional design.
Each lesson is organized into color-coded strands that present new material in clear, comprehensible, and communicative ways. With a focus on authenticity, cultural immersion, and the seamless integration of text and technology, Spanish-language learning comes to life in ways that are meaningful to each and every student.
The pedagogy of Vistas was also informed from its inception by the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century. First published in 1996 under the auspices of the National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project, the Standards are organized into five goal areas, often called the Five Cs: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities.
Since Vistas takes a communicative approach to the teaching and learning of Spanish, the Communication goal is central to the student text. Comunicación and Síntesis activities engage students in communicative exchanges, providing and obtaining information, and expressing feelings and emotions.
Teach Spanish in real-life context throughout every lesson of Vistas.
Start lessons with full-page illustrations so students grasp related vocabulary terms and make connections to new topics and themes.
Model Spanish conversation with the Fotonovela, featured in the text with highlighted images, conversation, and expressions, with full-length video on the Supersite
Add some humor into the learning process with interactive grammar tutorials, featuring Professor Gómez Laserna. New structures and rules are introduced, with quick check questions incorporated throughout for students to check their understanding.
New Pronunciación tutorials and vocabulary activities incorporate our patented speech recognition technology, giving students immediate feedback on their language production.
Paint a picture of the diverse cultures of the Spanish-speaking world.
Expose students to different aspects of Hispanic culture tied to the lesson theme. En detalle and Perfil focus on a specific place, custom, person, group, or tradition in the Spanish-speaking world. Así se dice and El mundo hispano lexical and comparative features expand cultural coverage to people, traditions, customs, trends, and vocabulary. The new Con ritmo hispano feature profiles musicians of the Spanish-speaking world.
Authentic cultural inputs such as news reports and television commercials appear in En pantalla video clips found in every lesson.
Provide valuable cultural insights as well as linguistic input using Flash cultura videos, and introduce students to vocabulary, phrases, and everyday culture from a variety of countries.
Explore countries of the Spanish-speaking world in Panorama – and gain appreciation for the people, facts, and landscape, with all-new Panorama cultural videos adding a visual and musical context.