This course is taught at Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ). Basic Spanish language concepts, including vocabulary, verbs, and syntactic structures. Students will also learn to express themselves with confidence and accomplish tasks in daily life. Finally, students will familiarize themselves with culture and its relation to the Spanish language. The question that guides this courses is, what are the basic words and structures to express myself correctly in Spanish?
Method of presentation:
Short grammar explanations, class discussion, group work, and activities. Students complete exercises and writing assignments outside of class.
Required work and form of assessment:
Attendance and participation are mandatory. Final grades are determined by the following:
Participation (20%)
Homework (20%)
Short quizzes (20%)
Mid-term exam (20%)
Final exam (20%).
content:
Personal pronouns.
Verb llamarse.
Greetings, introductions, spelling - Present indicative; verbs ser and hablar.
Ask and report nationality, language, ask for spelling information – trabajar, estudiar, vivir, tener; interrogatives; nouns; articles un, una.
Ask and report profession, studies, phone number and address – definite articles; demonstrative pronouns; contracted article al; use of tu and usted.
Physically describe a person – indefinite articles; demonstrative pronouns; adjectives; interrogatives.
Describe a population; discuss geography and and cities – prepositions and adverbs of place and interrogatives por, una, cerca, lejos, cuantos, donde, como, por que, cual.
Describe a home – prepositions and adverbs of location; verbs haber, hay, estar.
Question existence and location of public places and learn information about distances; give directions to a place; report the time – imperative; prepositions a, de, por.
Express personal likes – gustar verbs, forms and usage; indirect object pronouns; también, sino, tampoco.
Daily habits and weekend habits and activities; frequency – present indicative; regular and irregulars ir, empezar, volver, acostarse, hacer, salir; reflexive pronouns.
Ask and express emotions; offer, accept, and reject things; make suggestions and accept or reject suggestions – muy, mucho; verb doler; exclamation phrases; irregular forms of the present indicative.
Initiate a telephone conversation; discuss plans – querer and poder plus infinitive; irregular forms of the present indicative.
Speak in the past tense – past tense indicative regular and irregular forms.
Required readings:
Aragonés and Palencia. Gramática de uso de español para extranjeros. Theory and practice. Basic and Intermediate level. Madrid: Ediciones SM, 2000.
Borobio, Virgilio. Curso de español para extranjeros, Nuevo Inicial I. Madrid: Instituto Cervantes, 2002. (Student book and workbook)
Basic Intensive Spanish
This course is taught at Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ). Basic Spanish language concepts, including vocabulary, verbs, and syntactic structures. Students will also learn to express themselves with confidence and accomplish tasks in daily life. Finally, students will familiarize themselves with culture and its relation to the Spanish language. The question that guides this courses is, what are the basic words and structures to express myself correctly in Spanish?
Short grammar explanations, class discussion, group work, and activities. Students complete exercises and writing assignments outside of class.
Attendance and participation are mandatory. Final grades are determined by the following: