Course Outline

Introductory Spanish I:

Course Description:

Basic Spanish language skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing within a cultural framework. Students will acquire the vocabulary and grammatical structures necessary to communicate and comprehend at the beginner level.

Student Learning Outcomes:

After studying all materials and resources presented in the course, the student will be able to:

1. Engage in conversations using level-appropriate grammatical structures including narrating events that take place in the present and producing questions and responses on a variety of topics dealing with everyday life.

2. Demonstrate understanding of level-appropriate spoken Spanish.

3. Write simple sentences and organize them into short paragraphs.

4. Read and comprehend level-appropriate texts.

5. Identify and discuss traditions, customs, and values of the Hispanic world.

6. Compare and contrast the traditions, customs, and values of the Hispanic world with characteristics of their own culture.

Course Outline:

Students in all sections of this course will learn the following content:

1. vocabulary including cognates, family members, numbers, academic subjects, animals, days of the week, months of the year, telling time, clothing, interrogatives, seasons, colors, descriptive adjectives, etc.

2. the verb ser

3. articles and gender

4. hay, estar and ir, present tense of regular verbs, subject pronouns

5. personal a, adjective agreement

6. saber and conocer, present tense of irregular verbs

7. present tense of stem-changing verbs

8. reflexive verbs, possession, and adjectives

9. demonstratives, more with ser and estar

 

Introductory Spanish II:

Course Description:

Introduces the fundamental elements of Spanish sentence structure and vocabulary. Promotes speaking, listening, and writing within a cultural context. Class work may be supplemented with required aural/oral practice outside of class.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Written Spanish Communication. All Spanish majors demonstrate their ability to write in Spanish at an ACTFL written intermediate high level.

2. Spanish Culture. All Spanish majors demonstrate cultural awareness and knowledge and understanding of the civilizations and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world.

3. Oral Spanish Communication. All Spanish majors demonstrate their ability to express themselves orally in Spanish at the ACTFL intermediate high proficiency level, that is, they will successfully handle uncomplicated tasks and exchange of information in social situations in Spanish.

4. Critical and Creative Thinking. Students will comprehensively explore issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion, and combine or synthesize existing ideas, images or expertise in original ways reflecting a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking.

5. Intercultural Knowledge. Students will be able to demonstrate cognitive, effective, and behavioral skills that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts.

6. Foundational Lifelong Learning Skills. Students will engage in purposeful, ongoing learning activities that improve their knowledge, skills, and competence in their personal and professional lives.

7. Integrative Learning. Students will connect ideas and experiences to synthesize and transfer learning to new, complex situations within and beyond the campus.

8. Diversity, Inclusion and Equity. Students will intentionally engage with diversity in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions leading to opportunities for equal access to participation in educational and community programs for all members of society.

Course Activities:

• Weekly assigned activities:

1. Viewing of (for credit) multimodal presentations, interactive tutorials and/or videos to better engage in your learning of Spanish vocabulary, pronunciation, culture, and grammar.

2. Completion of (graded) vocabulary, pronunciation, culture, and grammar practice activities –listening speaking, fill-in-the-blank with/without options, matching words, open-ended, word and sentence creation, etc.

3. Short (for credit) vocabulary and grammar self-check assessments (on weeks without lesson tests).

• Five lesson tests:

1. One roughly every three weeks at the end of each lesson.

2. Note that there will not be a midterm exam. However, there will be a final comprehensive exam at the end of the semester.

• Three writing projects:

1. Brief (graded) projects to be completed at the end of lessons 6, 7 and 9.

2. Typed with proper marks (accents, questions, and exclamation points) and formatted and cited according to the MLA style.

• A speaking project:

1. Brief (graded) project to be completed at the end of lesson 10.

2. Recorded and uploaded to Desire2Learn.