Designed with You in Mind The ?Anda! program provides practical responses to the challenges today's Spanish instructors and students encounter. Instructors now face many challenges: Decreased classroom contact hours, increased instructor and student workloads, larger class sizes, new course models like hybrid and fully online and more ambitious classroom goals including focusing on practical communication and culture awareness instead of grammar alone. The ?Anda! program offers a true solution for instructors by delivering realistic goals with a realistic approach; focusing on student motivation and offering a variety of tools to promote success. Teaching and Learning Experience The teaching and learning experience with this program helps to: Realistic and Balanced Approach -- Instructors and students don't have to rush through the entire scope of Spanish grammar in 2 semesters. They can focus on practical communication which helps students feel more motivated and successful in the course. Explore Grammar -- Grammar is chunked to allow students to assimilate and practice without feeling overwhelmed. Explanations are clear and concise and include many supporting examples followed by practice activities. Build Vocabulary -- Each chapter contains a realistic number of new vocabulary words and like grammar, is presented in chunks at the point of need. Develop Skills -- Unique reading and video storyline mystery motivates students to read. Dedicated speaking, listening and writing sections provide strategies and the process necessary to effectively develop skills in the target language. Connect with Culture - Both "high" and "popular" cultureare woven throughout the chapters to enable students to learn to recognize and appreciate cultural diversity as they explore behaviors and values of the Spanish-speaking world. They are encouraged to think critically about these cultural practices and gifts to society. Personalize Learning -- MySpanishLab's proven results will be available for fall 2012 courses. MySpanishLab does not come automatically packaged with this text. To purchase MySpanishLab access, please visit: www.mylanguagelabs.com or you can purchase a valuepack of the text + MySpanishLab 24-month access (0205876374). Editorial Reviews About the Author Audrey Heining-Boynton received her Ph.D. from Michigan State University and her MA from The Ohio State University. Her career spans K-12 through graduate school teaching, most recently as Professor of Education and Spanish at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has won many teaching awards, including the prestigious ACTFL Anthony Papalia Award for Excellence in Teacher Education, the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina (FLANC) Teacher of the Year Award, and The UNC ACCESS Award for Excellence in Working with LD and ADHD students. Dr. Heining-Boynton is a frequent presenter at national and international conferences, has published more than one hundred articles, curricula, textbooks, and manuals, and has won nearly $4 million in grants to help create language programs in North and South Carolina. Dr. Heining-Boynton has also held many important positions: President of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), President of the National Network for Early Language Learning, Vice President of Michigan Foreign Language Association, board member of the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina, committee chair for Foreign Language in the Elementary School for the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, and elected Executive Council member of ACTFL. She is also an appointed two-term Foreign Language Annals Editorial Board member and guest editor of the publication. Jean LeLoup is Professor Emerita of Spanish at the State University of New York (SUNY), College at Cortland. She holds a Ph.D. in Foreign Language Education and an M.A. in Spanish Literature from The Ohio State University, as well as an M.S.Ed. in Counseling from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. For many years, she taught Spanish and was a guidance counselor at the secondary level in the St. Louis, Missouri, area. Dr. LeLoup is the co-founder/moderator of the Foreign Language Teaching Forum (FLTEACH) listserv, and presents and publishes on the integration of culture and the use of technology in foreign language instruction. Dr. LeLoup has won many professional awards, including the ACTFL/FDP-Houghton Mifflin Award for Excellence in Foreign Language Instruction Using Technology with IALL, the SUNY Chancellor's Awards for Excellence in Teaching and for Faculty Service, and several awards from the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers for outstanding publications and service to the profession. She has been a Fulbright Fellow and has also been program director of two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She presently teaches Spanish at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), where she was named Outstanding Academy Educator in 2010 and received the 2011 USAFA Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Technology. Glynis Cowell is the Director of the Spanish Language Program in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and an Assistant Dean in the Academic Advising Program,College of Arts and Sciences, at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has taught first-year seminars, honors courses, and numerous face-to-face and hybrid Spanish language courses. She also team-teaches a graduate course on the theories and techniques of teaching foreign languages. Dr. Cowell received her M.A. in Spanish Literature and her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, with a concentration in Foreign Language Education, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining the faculty at UNC-CH in August 1994, she coordinated the Spanish Language Program in the Department of Romance Studies at Duke University. She has also taught Spanish at both the high school and community college level. At UNC-CH she has received the Students' Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching as well as the Graduate Student Mentor Award for the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. Dr. Cowell has directed teacher workshops on Spanish language and cultures and has presented papers and written articles on the teaching of language and literature, the transition to blended and online courses in language teaching, and teaching across the curriculum. She is the co-author of two other college textbooks.