The FSI Spanish Programmatic Course Volume 1 (of 2), comprising this textbook and accompanying audio recordings together with an instructor's Manual, provides introductory learning materials for use by speakers of English who want to acquire a style of Spanish which is neither very formal nor overly casual.
The term programmatic has been adopted to denote a course which uses some techniques of programmed instruction and is adaptable to classroom use, to self-instruction or to combinations of the two. Part of each unit is in programmed form; other parts follow a more conventional audio-lingual format. In all parts, the guiding principles have been simplicity and clarity of presentation, characteristics which are required of materials to be used in self-instruction, although the materials have been written with the teacher-classroom situation also in mind.
The principal difference in approach between this course and the FSI Spanish Basic Course, for example, is the emphasis placed here on advance, preclass preparation of new material by the student with the help of tapes. The principal difference between this and completely programmed materials is that here the student's self-study is, if possible, regularly punctuated by sessions in the classroom with an instructor.
Other Volume of Spanish Programmatic Course:
You can find the other volumes of the course at the Live Lingua Project here:
FSI Spanish Programmatic Course - Volume 2
Spanish also called Castilian (castellano), is a Romance language that originated in Castile, a region in Spain. There are approximately 407 million people speaking Spanish as a native language, making it the second-most-spoken language by number of native speakers after Mandarin. It also has 60 million speakers as a second language, and 20 million students as a foreign language. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and is used as an official language by the European Union and Mercosur. Spanish is the most popular second language learned by native speakers of American English. From the last decades of the 20th century, the study of Spanish as a foreign language has grown significantly, facilitated in part because of the growing population demographics and economies of many Spanish-speaking countries, growing international tourism and the search for less expensive retirement destinations by North Americans and Europeans.
Spanish is spoken in: Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Paraguay, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Panama, Uruguay, Equatorial Guinea
Spanish is also called: Castellano, Castilian, Castillan, Español