The positive response from adopters of the fifth edition confirmed that the chapter themes found in Puntos provide engaging and relevant content for exploration and discussion. Naturally, in the sixth edition, theme vocabulary for all chapters has been updated to reflect changes in the areas of technology, recreational activities, and so forth. In addition, instructors familiar with previous editions will notice that the theme of Capítulo 11 has been revised and now focuses on pressures of modern life, with a particular emphasis on student experiences.

Many comments from adopters of the fifth edition revealed that the chapter-opener page was often skipped in class, which led us to reexamine all aspects of this page: the intended purpose, the content, and the design. Informed by useful suggestions and feedback from professors across the country, we completely redesigned and restructured the opening page, converting it into a two-page spread. The result, we believe, is an introduction to the chapter that is more engaging and more purposeful to the instructor and the student. Spending class time on the chapter opener will provide a useful introduction to the chapter for the student and set the stage for a more successful experience with the chapter content. (A visual presentation of the new Chapter Opener is provided in the Guided Tour presented in the Preface.)

Numerous comments from adopters and potential adopters of the fifth and earlier editions have guided the authors in modifying the presentation of grammar. This feedback has resulted in a grammatical scope and sequence in the sixth edition that we believe is in sync with how Puntos is actually used in the classroom. The modifications to the sixth edition include the following:

• Unstressed possessive adjectives are now introduced in Capítulo 2 rather than in Capítulo 3.
• Demonstrative adjectives are now introduced in Capítulo 3 rather than in Capítulo 4.
• The verbs hacer, oír, poner, salir, traer, and ver are now presented as a separate grammar point in Capítulo 4 instead of as a vocabulary presentation, as in previous editions.
• An introduction to the subjunctive, which was presented for recognition in Capítulo 6 of the fifth edition, is now treated as a Nota comunicativa.

In the fifth edition of Puntos, extensive cultural content was covered in a section called El mundo hispánico de cerca, which focused on broad regions of the Spanish-speaking world. While adopters had many positive things to say about that section, many people also noted that a country-specific rather than regional focus would be of interest. In response, we have replaced the cultural spreads found in the fifth edition with the new Panorama cultural page now found in every chapter. This page, which focuses on one country (or in a couple of chapters, two countries), provides interesting information about customs, traditions, people, and so forth. A corresponding feature is also found on the Puntos Website.

New to the sixth edition is a section called Videoteca, which includes the Minidramas and En contexto videos. Both videos are text specific, the former filmed on location in Ecuador, Mexico, and Spain, and the latter in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru. This section provides information and activities that will facilitate the viewing experience for students, as well as postviewing comprehension questions. In addition, a new feature called Un poco más sobre… offers more backstory detail about the characters from the Minidramas video, with a corresponding feature on the Puntos Website.

Instructors familiar with the previous edition of Puntos will notice a revised Un paso más section following each chapter. This section, which has traditionally provided optional content to develop learners’ reading and writing skills, continues to serve this important function. More than half of the readings are new to the sixth edition, and all of these are authentic readings culled from sources written for heritage speakers of Spanish. We believe it is crucial that students be exposed to authentic written language not only for the development of reading skills but also for the acquisition of language. Students also feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment knowing that they have read (and understood!) a text written for native speakers.

In addition, the reading selections in the final three chapters (Capítulos 16-18) are authentic poems that provide an introduction to literature for beginning students of Spanish. These selections represent works from Spain and Latin America. We believe that a structured and guided introduction to literature at the beginning level of study will facilitate the transition to intermediate and upper-division courses that emphasize literature.

As in the previous edition, all readings highlight a particular reading strategy that serves to assist students, thus making their task more enjoyable and more successful. For example, in one passage we bring to the students’ attention the function that cognates can play in the reading process; in another passage we underscore the importance of rhetorical structure and organization. These strategies, which are informed by second-language reading research, can be carried from one reading to the next, as well as to texts that students might read on their own outside of class.

In addition to revising the reading passages for the sixth edition, we also revised the accompanying writing activities, now called Escritura. These activities serve to introduce students to the writing process and range from brief tasks such as filling out a form to longer tasks such as writing a letter, a descriptive paragraph, an essay, and so forth. The theme of the writing tasks is related to the theme of the reading passage, thereby integrating and uniting the two skills in a purposeful way.