KEY BENEFIT Gente is the only truly task-based program that transports the learner into an immersive environment. Learners interact with authentic language from the Hispanic world through a series of carefully-sequenced communicative activities culminating in a real-life task. KEY TOPIC: Gente employs a task-based approach to teaching language where you learn by doing or by completing tasks. "Tasks" are collaborative projects that integrate speaking, listening, reading and writing to complete them with the skills that are needed to communicate effectively in the real world! MARKET: Beginning learners of Spanish.About the Author: María J. de la Fuente graduated from Georgetown University in 1998 with a PhD in Spanish and Second Language Acquisition. She is currently an Associate Professor of Spanish at George Washington University, and has taught at Georgetown University, Duke University, and Vanderbilt University. Her research interests include the role of interaction in second/foreign language (L2) vocabulary acquisition, and the role of emerging technologies in language learning. The results of her research in these areas have appeared in refereed journals such as Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), and Language Teaching Research. Her current research focuses on the construct of task-based language learning. Prof. de la Fuente was the recipient of a 2008 Bender Teaching Award.