Metas is an exciting new version of the best-selling intermediate Spanish textbook Punto y aparte, created in response to requests from reviewers for a version of Punto y aparte with enough material to be used over the entire second year. Metas achieves this goal by essentially doubling the amount of material in each of the six main chapters of Punto y aparte (originally designed as a fourth-semester book), and then by dividing each of these expanded chapters (now called Unidades in Metas) into two self-contained sections (Captulo A and Captulo B) to make the amount of material more manageable. Thus, Metas offers the same 12-unit structure found in most intermediate Spanish textbooks (6 units x 2 chapters each = 12 manageable chapters).
In terms of grammar, Metas focuses on key grammatical structures (los puntos clave) critical to the seven communicative functions or goals (las siete metas comunicativas) that are central to intermediate-level study. The seven communicative functions are:
- Description (Descripcin)
- Comparison (Comparacin)
- Reactions and recommendations (Reacciones y recomendaciones)
- Narrating in the past (Narracin en el pasado)
- Talking about preferences (Hablar de los gustos)
- Hypothesizing (Hacer hiptesis)
- Talking about the future (Hablar del futuro)
By organizing the text around key grammatical structures, Metas retains the framework of Punto y aparte, resulting in a logical and manageable progression. Additionally, the continual reinforcement and recycling of all seven communicative functions offer students many opportunities to communicate, produce, and create with the language, rather than to simply review the scope and sequence of Spanish grammar of their first-year course.
