Reviewed by Louisa Buckingham, Sabanci University
En activo is aimed at intermediate to upper intermediate learners of Spanish who intend to work in a professional office environment where Spanish is the medium language. Both peninsular and Latin American variants of Spanish are featured. This work is not as narrowly focused and specialized as, for example, the Español por profesiones series (Madrid, Spain: Sociedad General Española de Librería, 2007). For this reason, instructors without specialized knowledge of the business world will feel comfortable using it. It may also have a place in general language courses with a vocational component. Nonetheless, En activo is a serious text that will provide learners with the solid linguistic basis required to perform adequately in a work setting. From an initial visual perspective, it has sacrificed the glossy full-colour and costly format typical of many textbooks currently on the market for a more sober approach, with relatively densely laid out texts and exercises. This will appeal to professionals, particularly those with an autodidactic leaning, as the text includes both an answer key and tape scripts at the end of the book. Moreover, each chapter encourages further individual learning through the inclusion of websites from the Spanish-speaking world that are relevant to the chapter’s topic.
En activo comprises twenty units, each of about fifteen pages. Four of these units constitute review lessons that consist of discussion exercises. Topics covered include communication in the work place, integration of disabled people and foreigners in the work place, health care, the stock market, international trade, and the media. Each unit is divided into six sections with a particular focus on one of the four skills, although all have follow up exercises involving other skills. The first two sections in each unit concentrate on receptive skills. Grammar (the usual selection of prepositions, tenses, use of subjunctive and the passive voice, and adverbial phrases) is covered with a short, pithy presentation of a particular point in the ‘Recuerde que’ (‘Remember that’) section, while vocabulary (including fixed phrases) is extended in the subsequent section. Productive skills are promoted in the final two sections that require students to undertake a work-skills related task (e.g. filling out forms, understanding documents such as pay slips and bank statements, and drawing up a contract) and complete an activity through researching informative internet sites. Both extend learners’ understanding of the chapter’s topic and encourage learner autonomy.
The organization and content of this work provides learners with the necessary support to complete the relatively controlled and the subsequently less controlled activities included at the end of each unit. A further laudable feature is the book’s ample online support where learners can access all audio texts and a blog, regularly updated by the authors of the book with information relating to the Hispanic business world. En activo is highly recommended both as a classroom text and as a medium for self-directed learning.