During this course students will develop communicative skills related to explanatory and argumentative interactions on a number of sociocultural topics. Students will gain proficiency in the skillful use of the language: They will be able to build upon their grammatical knowledge and vocabulary, exploit their communicative resources when engaging with native speakers in fluent conversation, give a presentation on a complex topic, and hold argumentative debates.
Research has demonstrated that study abroad can enhance every aspect of language ability. One of the most important general findings of this research is, however, that study abroad is most beneficial for the development of abilities related to social interaction. Students who go abroad are able to learn how to produce language in a variety of situations, such as the making of requests, the use of compliments, and apologies, and they also may develop skills to interpret such interactions within the local cultural context. In short, and logically, study abroad has been shown to enhance the aspects of communicative competence that are most difficult to foster in classroom settings (IES Abroad MAP for Language and Intercultural Communication, p. 6).
Prerequisites:
Proficiency at a level equivalent to IES Abroad's Emerging Independent Abroad, as determined by placement test.
Attendance policy:
Attendance is mandatory for all IES classes, including field studies. Any exams, tests, presentations, or other work missed due to student absences can only be rescheduled in cases of documented medical or family emergencies. If a student misses more than three classes in any course half a letter grade will be deducted from the final grade for every additional absence. Seven absences in any course will result in a failing grade.
Learning outcomes:
Students who are placed in this level should be capable of achieving the outcomes in the Emerging Independent Abroad level as defined by the IES Abroad MAP for Language and Intercultural Communication.
By the end of the course, students will be able to achieve some of the outcomes for the Independent Abroad level as defined by the MAP for Language and Intercultural Communication. The key learning outcomes from the MAP are summarized below:
I. Intercultural Communication
A. Students will begin to identify at a basic level key host cultures, subcultures, habits, norms, and behaviors in a variety of settings, and they will be aware of the risk that generalizations can lead to stereotypes.
B. Students will start to identify their own cultural beliefs, behaviors, and values by contrasting and comparing them with the host cultures.
C. Students will be able to identify some gestures and body language, and they may be able to integrate some of those non-verbal actions into their interactions with native speakers.
II. Listening
A. Students will be able to understand some spoken communications of moderate complexity (media, speeches, music, conversations, etc.) on a wide range of concrete everyday topics as well as abstract topics covered in classes.
B. Students will begin to understand native speakers from a variety of backgrounds and limited experience with non-native speakers, and they will comprehend common colloquial expressions and slang.
III. Speaking
A. Students will be able to speak on and discuss concrete everyday and personal topics, abstract topics covered in classes, as well as other topics of particular interest to them.
B. Students will be able to participate and respond actively in a variety of interactions.
IV. Reading
A. Students will be able to read and understand articles, stories, and online texts using background knowledge to aid their comprehension.
B. Students will begin to read and understand the main ideas of academic texts with assistance.
V. Writing
A. Students will be able to meet many everyday writing needs (notes, text messages, letters, emails, chats, and online forums).
B. Students will be able to write brief essays for class that narrate, describe, report, compare, contrast, and summarize on a wide range of topics with developing degrees of grammatical and lexical accuracy.
C. Students will be able to edit their own and their peers’ writing for common errors covered in class.
Method of presentation:
CLASS DISCUSSION: The aim of class discussions is to provide the student with a more holistic view of Spanish language. These discussions offer the student the opportunity to present their views and hear the perspective of other students on selected topics.
CLASS DEBATE: The debate provides a lively forum for exchange of views on a prepared topic.
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: Presentations provide the student with the opportunity to develop oral presentation skills and to receive constructive feedback from their peers and professor on their approach.
HOMEWORK AND DAILY PARTICIPATION: Students will work individually and in groups in order to systematize and to practice orally all the grammatical concepts learned in class, with the opportunity to clarify doubts.
Required work and form of assessment:
Midterm: 10%; Final Exam: 20%; Oral Exams (2 exams): 10%; Quizzes (6 quizzes minimum on listening, speaking, reading, writing, intercultural communication): 15%; Video/Oral presentation: 10%; Compositions: 15%; Field studies: 10%; Class participation: 10%.
content:
Week
Content
Assignments
Corresponding Learning Outcome(s)
Week 1
Unit 1
1.Functional: Asking for/giving information; describing oneself; locating events in the past; expressing the duration of events; talking about interests and hobbies.
2.Grammatical: preterite vs. present perfect; time expressions.
3.Vocabulary: Adjectives to describe personality, time expressions.
4.Culture: University life (Erasmus/IES); Spanish and American working life. Famous events and people in Spanish history.
-Describing character and study habits: What kind of student am I?
-Activities: Past tenses and time expressions/markers
-Writing a resume and a letter of presentation.
I.A, B, C
II.B
III.A, B
IV.A, B
V.A, B
Week 2
Unit 2
1.Functional: Describing a city: Locations, services, characteristics; expressing recommendations for travelling.
2.Grammatical: Uses of SER / ESTAR; relative clauses with indicative and subjunctive; relative pronouns preceded by a preposition.
3.Vocabulary: Adjectives to describe people, places and objects; discourse markers.
4.Culture: Urbanism in Spain vs. USA; Spanish stereotypes.
-Activities: Description of places and people
-Debate: the ideal city to study.
-Field Study: Visit a market
I.A, B, C, D
II.A, B
III.A, B
IV.A, B
V.A, B
Week 3
Unit 3
1.Functional: Talking about books; expressing likes and dislikes about literature; explaining anecdotes and narrating stories in the past.
2.Grammatical: Past tenses, time conjunctions and time adverbs to narrate in the past.
3.Vocabulary: Literary genres, narrative discourse organizers for both oral and written stories.
4.Culture: Spanish and Latin-American literature, short stories.
-Survey about reading habits.
-Review of irregular pasts; activities contrasting past tense uses.
-Analyzing short stories and fairy tales.
-Writing a modern fairy tale.
-Exam 1
I.A, B
II.A, B
III.A
IV.A, B
V.A, B
Week 4
Unit 4
1.Functional: Expressing preferences about travel destinations, reacting to opinions, recommending places, giving directions and expressing location.
On-line bilingual and monolingual dictionaries.
On-line dictionary of synonyms.
Alonso Raya, Rosario et alii (2ª edición 2006): Gramática básica del estudiante de español. Barcelona: Difusión.
Aragonés, L. y Palencia, R. (2006): Gramática de uso del español A1-B2. Madrid: Ediciones SM.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Laura Vázquez was born in Madrid. She has been teaching Spanish and Spanish Cinema to American students for over 10 years, and has been a Faculty Regional Educational Technology Specialist at IES Abroad Barcelona since 2011. She studied Spanish literature in Madrid and during that time she also lived in Italy for a year, studying literature and Italian as an Erasmus student. In 2001 she spent 7 months in the US, teaching Spanish and Spanish Cinema in Washington and Lee University (VA). She is now writing her PhD thesis on intercultural studies and cinema. She loves multiculturalism, new technologies and learning about other cultures, which is always very important in her job.
Rosa Brión was born in Galicia, Spain, where she earned a degree in English Studies at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. She later moved to U.K. to do a postgraduate masters degree in theoretical linguistics at the University of Reading, and then to Germany to earn a degree in German Studies at Heidelberg Universität. Her academic areas of concentration was syntax and semantics. She was then appointed by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be Spanish lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, where she spent three years. She is currently an associate professor at Universitat de Barcelona and is writing her PhD thesis on “Institutional Discourse on Gender Violence” at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She has been teaching Spanish at IES since 2004.
Spanish Language in Context: Independent Abroad I Intensive
During this course students will develop communicative skills related to explanatory and argumentative interactions on a number of sociocultural topics. Students will gain proficiency in the skillful use of the language: They will be able to build upon their grammatical knowledge and vocabulary, exploit their communicative resources when engaging with native speakers in fluent conversation, give a presentation on a complex topic, and hold argumentative debates.
Research has demonstrated that study abroad can enhance every aspect of language ability. One of the most important general findings of this research is, however, that study abroad is most beneficial for the development of abilities related to social interaction. Students who go abroad are able to learn how to produce language in a variety of situations, such as the making of requests, the use of compliments, and apologies, and they also may develop skills to interpret such interactions within the local cultural context. In short, and logically, study abroad has been shown to enhance the aspects of communicative competence that are most difficult to foster in classroom settings (IES Abroad MAP for Language and Intercultural Communication, p. 6).
Proficiency at a level equivalent to IES Abroad's Emerging Independent Abroad, as determined by placement test.
Attendance is mandatory for all IES classes, including field studies. Any exams, tests, presentations, or other work missed due to student absences can only be rescheduled in cases of documented medical or family emergencies. If a student misses more than three classes in any course half a letter grade will be deducted from the final grade for every additional absence. Seven absences in any course will result in a failing grade.
Students who are placed in this level should be capable of achieving the outcomes in the Emerging Independent Abroad level as defined by the IES Abroad MAP for Language and Intercultural Communication.
By the end of the course, students will be able to achieve some of the outcomes for the Independent Abroad level as defined by the MAP for Language and Intercultural Communication. The key learning outcomes from the MAP are summarized below:
I. Intercultural Communication
A. Students will begin to identify at a basic level key host cultures, subcultures, habits, norms, and behaviors in a variety of settings, and they will be aware of the risk that generalizations can lead to stereotypes.
B. Students will start to identify their own cultural beliefs, behaviors, and values by contrasting and comparing them with the host cultures.
C. Students will be able to identify some gestures and body language, and they may be able to integrate some of those non-verbal actions into their interactions with native speakers.
II. Listening
A. Students will be able to understand some spoken communications of moderate complexity (media, speeches, music, conversations, etc.) on a wide range of concrete everyday topics as well as abstract topics covered in classes.
B. Students will begin to understand native speakers from a variety of backgrounds and limited experience with non-native speakers, and they will comprehend common colloquial expressions and slang.
III. Speaking
A. Students will be able to speak on and discuss concrete everyday and personal topics, abstract topics covered in classes, as well as other topics of particular interest to them.
B. Students will be able to participate and respond actively in a variety of interactions.
IV. Reading
A. Students will be able to read and understand articles, stories, and online texts using background knowledge to aid their comprehension.
B. Students will begin to read and understand the main ideas of academic texts with assistance.
V. Writing
A. Students will be able to meet many everyday writing needs (notes, text messages, letters, emails, chats, and online forums).
B. Students will be able to write brief essays for class that narrate, describe, report, compare, contrast, and summarize on a wide range of topics with developing degrees of grammatical and lexical accuracy.
C. Students will be able to edit their own and their peers’ writing for common errors covered in class.
CLASS DISCUSSION: The aim of class discussions is to provide the student with a more holistic view of Spanish language. These discussions offer the student the opportunity to present their views and hear the perspective of other students on selected topics.
CLASS DEBATE: The debate provides a lively forum for exchange of views on a prepared topic.
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: Presentations provide the student with the opportunity to develop oral presentation skills and to receive constructive feedback from their peers and professor on their approach.
HOMEWORK AND DAILY PARTICIPATION: Students will work individually and in groups in order to systematize and to practice orally all the grammatical concepts learned in class, with the opportunity to clarify doubts.
Midterm: 10%; Final Exam: 20%; Oral Exams (2 exams): 10%; Quizzes (6 quizzes minimum on listening, speaking, reading, writing, intercultural communication): 15%; Video/Oral presentation: 10%; Compositions: 15%; Field studies: 10%; Class participation: 10%.
Week
Content
Assignments
Corresponding Learning Outcome(s)
Week 1
Unit 1
1.Functional: Asking for/giving information; describing oneself; locating events in the past; expressing the duration of events; talking about interests and hobbies.
2.Grammatical: preterite vs. present perfect; time expressions.
3.Vocabulary: Adjectives to describe personality, time expressions.
4.Culture: University life (Erasmus/IES); Spanish and American working life. Famous events and people in Spanish history.
-Describing character and study habits: What kind of student am I?
-Activities: Past tenses and time expressions/markers
-Writing a resume and a letter of presentation.
I.A, B, C
II.B
III.A, B
IV.A, B
V.A, B
Week 2
Unit 2
1.Functional: Describing a city: Locations, services, characteristics; expressing recommendations for travelling.
2.Grammatical: Uses of SER / ESTAR; relative clauses with indicative and subjunctive; relative pronouns preceded by a preposition.
3.Vocabulary: Adjectives to describe people, places and objects; discourse markers.
4.Culture: Urbanism in Spain vs. USA; Spanish stereotypes.
-Activities: Description of places and people
-Debate: the ideal city to study.
-Field Study: Visit a market
I.A, B, C, D
II.A, B
III.A, B
IV.A, B
V.A, B
Week 3
Unit 3
1.Functional: Talking about books; expressing likes and dislikes about literature; explaining anecdotes and narrating stories in the past.
2.Grammatical: Past tenses, time conjunctions and time adverbs to narrate in the past.
3.Vocabulary: Literary genres, narrative discourse organizers for both oral and written stories.
4.Culture: Spanish and Latin-American literature, short stories.
-Survey about reading habits.
-Review of irregular pasts; activities contrasting past tense uses.
-Analyzing short stories and fairy tales.
-Writing a modern fairy tale.
-Exam 1
I.A, B
II.A, B
III.A
IV.A, B
V.A, B
Week 4
Unit 4
1.Functional: Expressing preferences about travel destinations, reacting to opinions, recommending places, giving directions and expressing location.
2.Grammatical: Prepositions (place), motion verbs, giving advice, commands.
3.Vocabulary: Vocabulary related to travelling, cities and describing places.
4.Culture: Spanish cities, touristic places and monuments.
-Reading comprehension and fill-in-the-blanks on Gracia, the student barrio.
-”Dictado Picasso”.
-Creating a touristic brochure of a Spanish destination.
-Designing a touristic tour of Barcelona´s barrios.
- Field study: Visit Gràcia Barrio
I.A, B, C,
II.A, II, B,
III.A,
IV.A, B,
V.A, B, C
Week 5
Unit 5
1.Functional: Locating events in the past; narrating historical events; describing life in different time periods.
2.Grammatical: Review of past tenses; temporal subordinate conjunctions; verbal combinations with a temporal meaning.
3.Vocabulary: Time verbal periphrasis (seguir..., dejar de..., ponerse a... etc.); temporal subordinate conjunctions.
4.Culture: Spanish 20th-century history; Spanish politics; “la Conquista de las Américas”.
-Listening to academic lectures on Spanish recent history.
-Practice on past tenses, temporal discourse markers, and temporal verbal periphrasis in context.
-Critical analysis of the discourse on “la Conquista”.
-Debate on America´s most significant historical events.
I. A, B
II. A
III. A, B
IV. B
V.B
Week 6
Unit 6
1.Functional: Express and react to opinions.
2.Grammatical: Indicative/subjunctive with opinion.
3.Vocabulary: Cinema.
4.Culture: Spanish cinema.
-Cinema survey.
-Cinema vocabulary.
-Movies synopsis.
-Re-telling movies.
I. B
II. A. B
III. A. B
IV. A. B
Week 7
Unit 6
1.Functional: Express and react to opinions.
2.Grammatical: Indicative/subjunctive with opinion.
3.Vocabulary: Cinema.
4.Culture: Spanish cinema.
- Writing a synopsis.
- Film viewing and discussion.
- Movie critique: the best movie.
- Field study: Visit Parc del laberint.
I. A. B
II. A. B
III. A
IV. A. B
V. B
Week 8
Unit 7
1.Functional: Expressing hypothesis about the future.
2.Grammatical: Expressions of hypothesis (indicative vs. subjunctive); uses of the future tense.
3.Vocabulary: Objects and tools; description of characteristics and functions.
4.Culture: Work culture; the job market in Spain; environmental issues.
-Listening: Making predictions about the future.
-Edward Hopper´s paintings: Hypotheses about what may have happened.
-Reading: The job market in Spain
-Science: Inventions that have changed our lives
-Exam 2
I. A, B
II. A
III. A, B
IV. A, B
V. B
Week 9
Unit 8
1.Functional: Expressing conditions with different degrees of likelihood. Arguing for and against.
2.Grammatical: Conditional sentences; conditional tense and past Subj.; pronouns.
3.Vocabulary: Linguistic skills, language politics.
4.Culture: Bilingualism in Cataluña; linguistic diversity in Spain.
-Practice on conditional sentences: Assessing the likelihood of a condition, and conjugating the verbs accordingly.
-Pronouns: Understanding the role of the event/state participants.
-Research on linguistic diversity in Cataluña, Spain, and the E.U. vs. U.S.A.
I. A, B
II. A, B
III.A, B
IV. A, B
V.B
Week 10
Unit 9
1.Functional: Expressing demands and petitions with different degrees of politeness/assertiveness. Repeating a message.
2.Grammatical: Use of the Subj. with verbs of command. Reported speech.
3.Vocabulary: The Media.
4.Culture: Spanish media.
-Reporting what someone else has said.
-Verbs for “telling”.
-Identifying the communicative intention: Indirect requests vs. giving information.
I. A
II. B
III.A, B
IV. A
Week 11
Unit 10
1.Functional: Expressing opinion, denying events, debating.
2.Grammatical: Discourse markers to express concession and to deny information.
3.Vocabulary: Social issues.
4.Culture: “Los indignados”.
-Room-mate casting.
-Dealing with complaints.
-Reading: The 68’ Revolution and the Indignados Revolution.
I. B
III. A, B
IV. A, B
Week 12
Unit 10
1.Functional: Expressing opinion, deny events, debating.
2.Grammatical: Past tense, subjunctive vs indicative.
3.Vocabulary: Expressions for debating.
4.Culture: Reverse culture shock.
- Final oral presentations.
- Home, sweet home.
- Review for final exam
-Final exam
I. B.C
II. B
III. A.B
IV.A
V.V. A.A. (2008): Destino Erasmus 2, SGEL, Madrid.
On-line bilingual and monolingual dictionaries.
On-line dictionary of synonyms.
Alonso Raya, Rosario et alii (2ª edición 2006): Gramática básica del estudiante de español. Barcelona: Difusión.
Aragonés, L. y Palencia, R. (2006): Gramática de uso del español A1-B2. Madrid: Ediciones SM.
Laura Vázquez was born in Madrid. She has been teaching Spanish and Spanish Cinema to American students for over 10 years, and has been a Faculty Regional Educational Technology Specialist at IES Abroad Barcelona since 2011. She studied Spanish literature in Madrid and during that time she also lived in Italy for a year, studying literature and Italian as an Erasmus student. In 2001 she spent 7 months in the US, teaching Spanish and Spanish Cinema in Washington and Lee University (VA). She is now writing her PhD thesis on intercultural studies and cinema. She loves multiculturalism, new technologies and learning about other cultures, which is always very important in her job.
Rosa Brión was born in Galicia, Spain, where she earned a degree in English Studies at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. She later moved to U.K. to do a postgraduate masters degree in theoretical linguistics at the University of Reading, and then to Germany to earn a degree in German Studies at Heidelberg Universität. Her academic areas of concentration was syntax and semantics. She was then appointed by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be Spanish lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, where she spent three years. She is currently an associate professor at Universitat de Barcelona and is writing her PhD thesis on “Institutional Discourse on Gender Violence” at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She has been teaching Spanish at IES since 2004.