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A CD-and-book set by Stacey Tipton, the Musical Linguist. "Why music?" the book's introduction asks. Well, the truth is you're not going to learn Spanish just by listening to pop songs. On other other hand, as Tipton points out, music taps into the brain's natural language-learning and memory mechanisms, and gets us ready to learn. And it's fun to listen to. This is great stuff: La Bamba, La Cucaracha, Cielito Lindo, Guantanamera, and six more. The songs are used as jumping-off points for teaching the nitty-gritty of Spanish grammar and vocabulary; each chapter includes printed song lyrics with a pronunciation key, explanations, activities, and exercises. The book - a nicely designed 112-page paperback - is illustrated with bright little cartoon characters; the interactive CD includes the text of the book and all of the songs, with options for a karaoke feature - sing along in Spanish - and animations. The animated versions of the songs are great: humorous cartoons accompanied by the Spanish lyrics in big print. Musical Spanish is recommended for beginners of all ages, though looks most workable for ages 10-12 and up.
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