Chapter 5 discusses SLA and intervention studies with inflectional morphemes, functional elements that mark such grammatical distinctions as tense, subject–verb agreement, and grammatical gender. Inflectional morphology is known to present a challenge to learners and has been the subject of multiple intervention studies. Chapter 5 begins with an overview about the debate in SLA concerning whether learners’ difficulties with inflectional morphology reflect underlying syntactic impairments or more surface problems. The chapter then reviews intervention studies on tense marking that use processing instruction, intervention studies on verbal morphology that use more explicit vs. more implicit instructional approaches, and intervention studies on grammatical gender that vary the types of feedback that learners receive. The target languages of the intervention studies include both English and several Romance languages (Spanish, Italian, and French).

Chapter 4 describes and analyzes the German economy during the peacetime period of Nazi rule, 1933–39, focusing on industry and the industrial working class, agriculture and the peasantry, the middle classes, and the professions. The chapter describes Nazi economic thinking as a form of managed capitalism, intending to preserve the basic features of the capitalist economy while using the authority of the state to impose peace between management and labor. Two entities of central importance to this arrangement were the German Labor Front, which replaced the independent labor unions, and the Trustees of Labor, who were government officials who determined wages and working conditions. German workers were granted access to vacations and cultural programs by the “Strength through Joy” organization. Managed capitalism also functioned in the agricultural economy, where the Reich Agricultural Estate exerted significant power over the activities of farmers in a so-called Ordered Market. Among the middle classes and professionals, economic opportunities were improved by the elimination of Jews from German commerce and from professions such as law and medicine. Economic policies thus helped win widespread acceptance for measures motivated by Nazi antisemitism.

Chapter 9 surveys World War II from the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 through late 1944, focusing on the intensifying violence inflicted by Germany on the inhabitants of the regions under its control. Hitler and other members of the Nazi leadership regarded the war in the East as an historic struggle against so-called Judeo-Bolshevism. Both the German army and German police carried out the systematic murder of real and suspected political officers in the Red Army. German occupation authorities pursued a policy of starvation targeted at Soviet civilians, especially in Ukraine, with a view to allocating the local food supply to German troops. At the same time, the Germans applied increasingly severe methods of anti-partisan warfare in the Soviet Union and elsewhere in Europe. Starting in the summer of 1941, the so-called Final Solution to the Jewish question took the form of mass shootings of Jews in the Soviet Union by German special task forces. After Hitler decided in late 1941 to expand the genocide to the entire Jewish population of Europe, the Germans organized the deportation of European Jews to Poland, where they would be murdered in specially constructed extermination camps.

This unit expands on the first by adding vocabulary relating to family members, numbers, physical appearance and character. The present tense of regular verbs from all three conjugations is introduced, along with the irregular verb tener, demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, and interrogatives.

This unit continues work on the present subjunctive, this time focusing on the expression of hopes, feelings, evaluations and indications of influence or obligation in the main clause that trigger the subjunctive in the subordinate clause. Frequently, what is described in the subordinate clause has yet to happen or may not happen at all. Students are thus enabled to speak about what they hope, wish or imagine will happen and how to issue orders and negotiate prohibitions. A survey of definite, indefinite and relative pronouns and opportunities to practise them in individual and pair-work exercises foster greater flexibility in communication.

This unit expands on the first by adding vocabulary relating to family members, numbers, physical appearance and character. The present tense of regular verbs from all three conjugations is introduced, along with the irregular verb tener, demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, and interrogatives.

This unit introduces students to the subjunctive (as opposed to the indicative) mood for all verbs. The subjunctive is used in subordinate clauses following certain expressions in the main clause. This unit focuses on the present subjunctive and expressions which indicate the future, doubt or uncertainty, and includes the conjunctions ojalá and que. These grammar elements allow students to express future plans and possibilities. Written passages and audio recordings support them with examples of correct usage, and a comparison of acronyms in Spanish and English helps them to avoid common pitfalls.

This unit introduces the imperfect and pluperfect subjunctives. Students now have the full range of tenses, moods and voices at their disposal. They can build on their earlier knowledge of how to use the subjunctive with regard to the present and the future, and now apply it to past situations too. They can negotiate conditional sentences and create their own ‘what if’ scenarios, describing what they would have done had such and such happened. A checklist reminds students how to work out whether to use the subjunctive or the indicative in a given context. The topic of false friends, and the traps presented by Spanish and English cognate words that are seemingly similar but with different meanings, which can lead to great confusion, is explored thoroughly.

This unit exploits students’ knowledge of present subjunctive forms, to complete (following Unit 8) their understanding of the remaining examples of the imperative – formal, negative, first and third person. As a result, they can understand and issue instructions, advice and prohibitions. Comparisons of sayings and proverbs in English and Spanish both entertain and guide them against literalism in translation, while close study of a selection of newspaper articles from throughout the Spanish-speaking world alerts students to cultural and historical issues.

Building on the description of the perfect in Unit 9, this unit introduces students to the pluperfect tense. It is formed from the auxiliary verb haber (now in the imperfect) and the past participle. Usage is similar to English, describing the relationship between earlier events and subsequent ones. It is frequently used for describing things that had happened and the circumstances in which they happened, as, for example, in someone’s life story. Students now have the full range of past tenses at their command, and the unit explores and revises the ways in which the past tenses relate to one another and are used in different combinations. Additional expressions of time support this work. The adjustments that need to be made in moving from direct to reported speech, often associated with the use of the pluperfect, are explained and practised through a number of exercises.

This unit expands the practice of working with verbs with two pronouns. It further introduces indefinite adjectives and pronouns (quantifiers): all, some, any, much, etc. It also expands on comparisons of equality and superlatives (introduced in Unit 7) to allow for comparison of nouns and verbs as well as adjectives.  Students are now able to express sophisticated preferences when buying items of clothing and presents. The introduction to indefinite adjectives and pronouns enhances their ability to make comparisons. Finally, the appropriate translation of the English interrogative ‘What?’ ¿Qué?  ¿Cómo? ¿Cuál? is usefully explained.

This unit continues work on the present subjunctive, this time focusing on the expression of hopes, feelings, evaluations and indications of influence or obligation in the main clause that trigger the subjunctive in the subordinate clause. Frequently, what is described in the subordinate clause has yet to happen or may not happen at all. Students are thus enabled to speak about what they hope, wish or imagine will happen and how to issue orders and negotiate prohibitions. A survey of definite, indefinite and relative pronouns and opportunities to practise them in individual and pair-work exercises foster greater flexibility in communication.

The term ‘active voice’ refers to sentences or verbs where the subject performs the action of the verb. Juan come chocolate. (Contrast: passive voice)

Chapter 3 focuses on the transformation of Germany into a one-party dictatorship. It focuses on the period from Hitler’s appointment to the German chancellorship on January 30, 1933 to his accession to the presidency and position of “Leader” (Führer) in August 1934. Two key steps toward dictatorship were the Reichstag Fire Decree of February 28, 1933, which suspended individual rights, and the Enabling Act, which transferred lawmaking authority from the parliament to the cabinet. The chapter also examines the prohibition of political parties other than the NSDAP. On the level of German society, the chapter analyzes the process known as “coordination” (Gleichschaltung), by which organizations were taken over by Nazis. An important feature of this development was “self-coordination,” in which organizations placed themselves under Nazi leadership voluntarily. Terror and intimidation formed the background for much of this process. The chapter examines the causes and consequences of the “Night of the Long Knives” of June 30, 1934, when the leadership of the Nazi SA, as well as many others, were killed on Hitler’s order. That violent event served to stabilize the Nazi regime by eliminating challenges to Hitler’s authority from both the SA and conservative circles.

This unit introduces students to the first of the past tenses (imperfect), with the forms of the regular and three irregular verbs and guidance as to the use of the tense. The latter will enable students to describe people and places in the past, talk about they used to do and compare the past and the present. This usage is supported by relevant time phrases and the verb acostumbrar (a), which can be used to describe habitual actions in the past where the imperfect would be appropriate. An introductory explanation and exercises on the very common Spanish impersonal se construction helps students to form passive and impersonal sentences. More on this is to be found in Unit 19.

The purpose of this sample unit is to provide suggestions and ideas about how to exploit the different types of activities and materials contained in Camino, highlighting their flexible nature and showing how the different sections in each unit can be used to complement each other. It also provides a clearer insight into the language teaching methodology and language acquisition theories that inform this course.