The second edition of Cinema for Spanish Conversation includes the same stimulating exercises and conversation materials that have made the first edition a success among students and instructors alike. The text is designed to be used in courses in which outstanding films from the Spanish-speaking world are used as springboards for classroom Spanish-language discussion. Using high-interest feature films, students hear Spanish as it is spoken in different countries and in a wide variety of situations and are encouraged to listen to and converse about the social and cultural aspects of Spanish-speaking countries around the world.

The second edition includes a high-interest reading for each chapter; reading selections include interviews, magazine or newspaper articles, and selections from film scripts or literary pieces. Each reading is followed by an activity. These readings are optional; they can be covered in-depth if reading is one of the goals of the course.

Each chapter is devoted to one movie, and contains appropriate vocabulary, cultural notes, special terms for conversation and |composition, a focus on a specific scene for structured discussion or writing, questions for review and understanding, and quotations from directors or critics. Difficult-to-find or older films have been replaced by films of more immediate interest to students. New to this edition are: María llena eres de gracia [Maria Full of Grace], Diarios de motocicleta [The Motorcycle Diaries], and Mar adentro [The Sea Inside].

As with the first edition, the second edition comes with an instructor's manual that includes answers to exercises and ideas for additional activities. About the authorMary McVey Gill has co-authored many widely adopted textbooks in Spanish, including En contacto: Gramatica en accion (seventh edition), En contacto: Lecturas intermedias (seventh edition), and Hablemos español (sixth edition). She has also co-authored Streetwise Spanish and Streetwise Spanish Dictionary/Thesaurus.

Deana Smalley has a Ph.D. in Hispanic literature from Purdue University

María-Paz Haro (Valencia, Spain) is Professor of Spanish (Emerita) at Stanford University where she has taught several courses on Spanish and Spanish American Cinema including "Spanish Society Through the Eye of the Camera", "The Films of Pedro Almodovar", "Women in Film and Film by Women", and "Cinema of the Southern Cone". She participates in Film Conferences and publishes on Spanish Cinema.