Topic                    Subtopic
                                                                                    Literature & Language    Language Learning
       Learning Spanish 
       How to Understand and Speak  
       a New Language
       Course Workbook
       Professor Bill Worden
       The University of Alabama
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                                                       Bill Worden, Ph.D.
                                                       Associate Professor of Spanish  
                                                       Director of Spanish Programs 
                                                       The University of Alabama
                                                               r. Bill Worden is an Associate Professor of Spanish and the Director of 
                                                               Spanish Programs in the Department of Modern Languages and Classics 
                                                       Dat The University of Alabama. Dr. Worden received his A.B. in Mathematics 
                                                       from Dartmouth College in 1985 and subsequently taught high school Spanish 
                                                       for five years in Illinois and Massachusetts. After studying in both Vermont and 
                                                       Madrid, he received his M.A. in Spanish from Middlebury College in 1996. 
                   As a doctoral student at Brown University, Dr. Worden was awarded the David and Ruth Kossoff Prize for Leadership 
                   in Language Teaching by the Department of Hispanic Studies and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching 
                   by the Graduate School. He also was chosen by fellow graduate students to give the address at the Graduate School 
                   commencement ceremony. In 2002, Dr. Worden received his Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies from Brown. 
                   Since 2002, Dr. Worden has taught a wide variety of courses at The University of Alabama, ranging from Introductory 
                                                                                                                      th        th
                   Spanish and Advanced Grammar and Composition to undergraduate and graduate courses in 16 - and 17 -century 
                   Spanish literature. He has directed doctoral dissertations on colonial Latin American literature, early modern Spanish 
                                    th
                   literature, and 20 -century Latin American literature.
                   Dr. Worden’s main area of research is the work of Miguel de Cervantes, especially his novel Don Quixote. Dr. Worden 
                   has published in the fields of early modern Spanish literature, colonial Cuban theater, and 19th-century Spanish 
                   literature. He also has published on pedagogical topics, including how to teach Spanish at the middle school and high 
                   school levels and how to help undergraduate students make connections to Don Quixote. In addition, Dr. Worden is an 
                   award-winning speaker who has lectured on such subjects as the prose of Cervantes, early modern Spanish poetry, 
                   and approaches for helping beginning language students become comfortable speaking Spanish. 
                   For a number of years, Dr. Worden served The University of Alabama’s Department of Modern Languages and 
                   Classics as the Director of the Spanish Language Program and was responsible for supervising all graduate teaching 
                   assistants and instructors of introductory- and intermediate-level Spanish courses. In 2013, the Alabama Association of 
                   Foreign Language Teachers selected Dr. Worden as the winner of the annual Outstanding Foreign Language Teacher 
                   Award for Postsecondary. ■
                   Dr. Laura Rojas-Arce, author of the workbook and coauthor of the speaking activities, grew up in Costa Rica, 
                   where she studied psychology as an undergraduate student at the Universidad Hispanoamericana in Heredia. She 
                   completed her doctoral studies with a focus on contemporary Central American literature and received her Ph.D. from 
                   The University of Alabama in 2013. Dr. Rojas-Arce is an Instructor of Spanish at The University of Alabama, where 
                   she teaches courses ranging from Introductory Spanish and Advanced Grammar and Composition to courses on Latin 
                   American literature. ■
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                Table of Contents
              Professor Biography  ..................................................................................................................................... i 
              Scope ...........................................................................................................................................................1
              Workbook Introduction ..................................................................................................................................2
              Workbook Families .......................................................................................................................................3
              Lesson Guides
              LESSON 1
              Introduction to the Spanish Language ..........................................................................................................4
              LESSON 2
              Definite Articles and Nouns ........................................................................................................................10
              LESSON 3
              Subject Pronouns and the Verb Ser �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������15
              LESSON 4
              Regular -ar Verbs in the Present ................................................................................................................21
              LESSON 5
              Indefinite Articles and Numbers to 100 .......................................................................................................27
              LESSON 6
              The Verb Estar and Numbers over 100 ......................................................................................................33
              LESSON 7
              Regular -er and -ir Verbs in the Present .....................................................................................................39
              LESSON 8
              The Verb Ir in the Present...........................................................................................................................46
              LESSON 9
              Expressing Time in Spanish .......................................................................................................................52
              LESSON 10
              Expressions Using the Verb Tener �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������59
              LESSON 11
              Verbs like Hacer and Interrogative Words ..................................................................................................66
              LESSON 12
              The Verbs Saber and Conocer �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������72
              LESSON 13
              Stem-Changing Verbs ................................................................................................................................78
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