My Book Review for
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Las
puertas retorcidas (The Twisted Doors):
The
Scariest Way in the World to Learn
and
Listen to Spanish!
by
Dr. Kathie Dior
available at:
www.thetwisteddoors.com
This
is certainly the scariest way to learn Spanish and it is also a fun way.
The book takes you through a scary story of adventurous children in a
scary house, which has many large wooden doors which present challenges.
This in itself makes it fun. It also gives it a feeling of structure and
makes the student want to continue to find out what happens. What makes
it a challenge is that you can’t just go on, you have to answer
questions and get them right before you can move on; yet another great
tactic to get students to learn and enjoy it. The use of wide ranging
vocabulary means that it is a good opportunity to pick up plenty of
vocabulary, but with the line by line translations it is not a problem
if you find it a lot at once. The format is well thought out with pages
especially for notes in each chapter, always useful for when you come to
look through the book again. Also there is a useful glossary at the back
of the book to look up vocabulary.
What really
makes this book work is the interconnection between the stories and the
chapters and tests. The challenge is linguistic, but it feels like a
game or a puzzle, something more fun than conventional learning.
However, it did strike me that there is an emphasis on thorough
learning, which is a crucial aspect of language learning.
There is a CD which
comes with this book, which helps
anyone learning on their own. You can listen to the stories being read
out in each chapter, which brings the book to life and also demonstrates
how it should be pronounced. (The recording is in South American
Spanish).
All in all,
this is a unique idea for learning, because it is plot driven, which
makes it exciting. Originally it was conceived of in French, but I think
this is a great Spanish version of the book, and I would recommend it to
learners who want something less conventional, or especially for younger
learners who find the standard books boring and hard to concentrate on.
Learning doesn’t have to be boring and this
book proves that!
Order this book together with
the CD
at:
www.thetwisteddoors.com
This review was written by
Christopher Champion.
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