- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton; 3rd Revised edition edition (19 May 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340595353
- ISBN-13: 978-0340595350
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 574,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
This edition of this Spanish course is intended for people new to the language or those wishing to "brush up" on existing skills. It presents a step-by-step guide to the core vocabulary and grammar of Spanish. This edition has been revised by Pilar Gould to ensure that all cultural and linguistic references are up to date. The book includes exercises to help practice the language skills acquired. A cassette is also available, either separately or as a combined pack.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This series of books have been around for a long time. The first one I ever bough was the Italian book in the late 60's. So they are still here and still selling steadily. There's nothing gimmicky about these, they're just solid langauge books that will help you learn the language from the basics up. I first used one on a trip over many months in Italy and it fitted perfectly with being there and needing something to develop my langauge skills whilst in the environment.
In the long term I'm sure you might need more grammar, more verbs, more words, more of everything - but this will get you going on a solid foundation of understanding the language from the ground up (something you can't do with a phrase book or just adio CDs).
This would fit perfectly with Michel Thomas's CD courses to help you fill out the grammar and construction beyond his practised phrases and dialogue.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It would be a struggle to pick up spanish from this book alone, as it is very compact and moves very quickly through the various topics, but as a complement it serves well, especially as it does cover such a broad spectrum of material, works very well as a review or refresher course.
The age of the material is fairly vintage, as can be seen in the representation of a Spain, which is increasingly hard to find. the old-fashioned nature can actually be quite entertaining.
The age of the material is fairly vintage, as can be seen in the representation of a Spain, which is increasingly hard to find. the old-fashioned nature can actually be quite entertaining.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have Living Spanish, French, and German on my bookshelf, and love the rigour of the grammatical approach, probably because I'm a child of the Sixties, and in those days a grammar school education entailed rigorous grounding in both English grammar and that of French and German. I dissent from the view that this is an "inefficient" way of learning a language, and find myself frustrated by a "colloquial" approach, where the grammar is sidelined, and you find yourself wondering why verbs change for example, and what lies in those huge gaps that you find appearing out of nowhere. It's bewildering after the initial parrot-like phrase memorisation, unlike the rigorous approach, which builds knowledge step by step from firm foundations.
I still have my old hardback copy of this book, and although I use a colloquial CD-based set when I want to "brush-up" for a visit to Spain, I invariably turn to Littlewood for the real deal. It is soooo well-laid out, so succint, so comprehensive, and so intelligently crafted.
Each chapter starts with a passage, from which lessons are then drawn. First, colloquial phrases are explained with examples, then the chapter's grammar is introduced, and illustrated again with key conversational phrases, so that the material is never "dry" or "academic", but living, as the title indicates. The layout of the pages is immaculate, and makes the book a pleasure to work with.
The grammatical approach has stood me in good stead, as I can carry out reasonable conversations in these three languages to this day, despite only having intermittent opportunities to use them. The language seems to come back quite easily, since it was so thoroughly understood in the first place.
It is a fallacy to assume that we adults must follow the same method as children born into a linguistic culture from birth, who never hear anything but that language, and yet still take many years to master it.
The grammatical approach is scientific, in that it enables us to short-cut this "baby learning by osmosis" process, by identifying PATTERNS, rules, so that in Spanish for example, we learn early on that there are three types of (regular) verbs ( -ar, -er, -ir ) , which ALWAYS have the same form. At a stroke, we are propelled miles ahead of the two-year old "learning by listening".
And the proof of the grammatical pudding is in the contrast between the generations who were taught grammatically, and today's UK (state) schoolchildren, who have practically zero ( and I mean ZERO ) language skills. I know a French lady living in Britain, who said that it's always the same - people of my generation regularly like to speak with her in some French, but never the younger ones, who are almost completely ignorant, as a result of "progressive" teaching methods.
I still have my old hardback copy of this book, and although I use a colloquial CD-based set when I want to "brush-up" for a visit to Spain, I invariably turn to Littlewood for the real deal. It is soooo well-laid out, so succint, so comprehensive, and so intelligently crafted.
Each chapter starts with a passage, from which lessons are then drawn. First, colloquial phrases are explained with examples, then the chapter's grammar is introduced, and illustrated again with key conversational phrases, so that the material is never "dry" or "academic", but living, as the title indicates. The layout of the pages is immaculate, and makes the book a pleasure to work with.
The grammatical approach has stood me in good stead, as I can carry out reasonable conversations in these three languages to this day, despite only having intermittent opportunities to use them. The language seems to come back quite easily, since it was so thoroughly understood in the first place.
It is a fallacy to assume that we adults must follow the same method as children born into a linguistic culture from birth, who never hear anything but that language, and yet still take many years to master it.
The grammatical approach is scientific, in that it enables us to short-cut this "baby learning by osmosis" process, by identifying PATTERNS, rules, so that in Spanish for example, we learn early on that there are three types of (regular) verbs ( -ar, -er, -ir ) , which ALWAYS have the same form. At a stroke, we are propelled miles ahead of the two-year old "learning by listening".
And the proof of the grammatical pudding is in the contrast between the generations who were taught grammatically, and today's UK (state) schoolchildren, who have practically zero ( and I mean ZERO ) language skills. I know a French lady living in Britain, who said that it's always the same - people of my generation regularly like to speak with her in some French, but never the younger ones, who are almost completely ignorant, as a result of "progressive" teaching methods.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Living Spanish
Please be aware that this version of 'Living Spanish' was once the 'New Edition' - but that was in 1994. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Chatwin : Martin
Old-fashioned way
This is like being back at school. I learnt the basics of Spanish through the Miguel Thomas learning technique - absolutely brilliant. But I needed a good grammar book as well. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Lullaboo
Simple old fashion learning - it still works.
Good old fashion style of book. It starts each exercise with a small simple essay to read. Once read it then goes into simple detail of the content ie reviewing the words in the... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Lynn
Pure nostalgia!
Littlewood's Living Spanish first came out in 1949 and the book hasn't changed since. I can well remember our teacher taking great delight in shouting "Right, Spanish! Read more
Published on 2 Aug 2006 by A BookReader
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