Lecturas escogidas

Preface: In preparing the revised edition of this reader, the editors have been guided by two major considerations. The first is bound up with the increased insistence on the part of many teachers that Spanish-American materials be introduced in elementary work. Accordingly the amount of American material has been augmented and now occupies approximately half of the reading text in the volume. The second consideration is the provision of bases for oral work. Certain schools have revised their methods of instruction to the extent that the early stages of language study are almost entirely oral. Others are emphasizing to a greater degree than heretofore the proportion of oral work in the course of study. With this in mind, the editors have included exercises of various kinds which seek to provide means for stimulating expression in Spanish.

The stories, chosen from the works of Spanish and Spanish- American authors and journalists of recognized standing, are intended for mature people and seek to avoid the childish tales only too often associated with elementary language texts. In the main these stories represent the most popular selections from the material used at the University of Wisconsin, as determined by the preference of the students.

All the selections are adaptations of the originals. The length of each story has been reduced so as to bring it within the scope of one or two assignments. However, as much of the. vocabulary and phraseology of the originals was retained. (…).