Nieves Borrego, Rosa Brión, María Mejías, Iolanda Nieves de la Vega
Description:
In this course the student will gain proficiency in the skillful use of the language and will be able to refine the necessary tools to engage native speakers in fluid conversation, and will also be able to maintain a complex argumentation. In addition, this course emphasizes a language-in-use perspective. Students will develop their language skills and intercultural competence by means of research projects (‘field studies’), written assignments, debates, oral presentations, and critical reading of articles.
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 Aborad, as determined by placement test.
Attendance policy:
Attendance is mandatory for all IES Abroad 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, Aula 5)
Maneras de vivir
1.Functional: Expressing condition, talking about relationships.
1.Functional: Giving our opinion, and reacting to opinions, engaging in debate, making proposals, expressing conditions when negotiating, supporting/refusing a proposal.
2.Grammatical: Present subjunctive, subjunctive in expressions of belief and doubt. Argumentation markers and expressions.
3.Vocabulary: Vocabulary related to leisure and tourism.
4.Culture: Historical past events, characters of historical significance. The Spanish educational system.
Imagining “what the word would have been like if...”.
Final Exam
I.B; II.A; III.A; III.B; IV.A; V.B
Required readings:
Corpas, Jaime, Garmendia, Agustín, and Soriano, Carmen (2007): Aula 5. Barcelona: Difusión.
On-line or paper dictionary.
Recommended readings:
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:
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 were 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 Abroad since 2004.
María Mejías earned a degree in Spanish Philology at the University of Barcelona (UB). She studied postgraduate courses related to didactics and teaching foreign languages in Spain and the Czech Republic. Currently she is working on her dissertation on microblogging in Spanish as a foreign language courses. She has taught at University level in the Czech Republic (Southern Bohemian University), the U.S. (University of Georgia), and Spain (ESADE, UB), both Spanish for specific purposes and regular Spanish courses. She has also taken part in designing syllabi and curricula; and conducting official exams, such DELE. She has given lectures about topics related to didactics in congresses in the Czech Republic and in Spain. She has been teaching Spanish at IES Abroad since 2003, and has been a Language Faculty Advisor since 2010.
Nieves Borrego was born in Burgos (Spain) and earned a degree in Spanish Philology at the University of Salamanca. Before finishing her degree, she completed her junior year at the University of Birmingham (UK). She earned a Masters degree in Spanish Literature at The Pennsylvania State University, where she was also a Teaching Assistant at the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese from 2000 to 2003. She has been teaching Spanish at IES Abroad Barcelona since 2003.
Iolanda Nieves de la Vega was born in Barcelona, where she earned a degree in Spanish Philology and Catalan Philology at the University of Barcelona (UB). Since 2003, she has been a professor of Business Spanish for Communication at the IESE Spanish Business School where she has taken part in designing syllabi and curricula and has collaborated in the creation and development of specific materials for teaching/learning of Spanish for Business. She has taught at University of Bocconi (Milan), teaching Business Spanish and general courses to different teachers, and at IESE Business School in New York, teaching Spanish for Specific Purposes and online courses. In her role as a teacher trainer, she has taught courses for “Teachers of Spanish and foreign languages” since 2010; she has been professor of the course "Teaching Spanish for specific purposes: business, tourism, health and legal” (2010), “Teaching Spanish for specific purposes: negotiating in Spanish” (2011) at Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (UIMP), and “Spanish for Business: Specific methodology” (2011) at Fundación Comillas,(Centro Internacional de Estudios del Español). She has been teaching general and Business Spanish at IES Abroad since 2006.
In this course the student will gain proficiency in the skillful use of the language and will be able to refine the necessary tools to engage native speakers in fluid conversation, and will also be able to maintain a complex argumentation. In addition, this course emphasizes a language-in-use perspective. Students will develop their language skills and intercultural competence by means of research projects (‘field studies’), written assignments, debates, oral presentations, and critical reading of articles.
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 Aborad, as determined by placement test.
Attendance is mandatory for all IES Abroad 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, Aula 5)
Maneras de vivir
1.Functional: Expressing condition, talking about relationships.
2.Grammatical: 2nd-type conditional sentences (past subjunctive, conditional), present subjunctive.
3.Vocabulary:verbs of emotion.
4.Culture: relationships, urban tribes.
Completing a survey: ¿Preparado para vivir en pareja?
I.A; I.B; II.A; III.A; IV.A; V.A
Week 2
(Unit 1, Aula 5)
Maneras de vivir
1.Functional: Expressing feelings, describing people and objects.
2. Grammatical: Relative pronouns, present subjunctive.
3.Vocabulary: Verbs of emotion, vocabulary to describe appearance and personality.
4.Culture: Likes and dislikes Barcelona and Spain.
Speed dating.
Composition: The society I would like to live in.
I.A; I.B; II.A; III.A; IV.A; V.A; V.C
Week 3
(Unit 2, Aula 5)
Así pasó
1.Functional: Talking about past experiences and events.
2.Grammatical: Contrast of past tenses. Writing the chronicle of an incident, narrate in the past:connect actions temporally.
3.Vocabulary: Vocabulary related to event, stories and news.
4.Culture: News and events.
Describing and explaining past events.
I.A; I.B; II.A; III.A; III.B; IV.A; V.A; V.B; V.C
Week 4
(Unit 2, Aula 5)
Así pasó
1.Functional: Giving messages, transmitting information.
2.Grammatical: Present and Imperfect Subjunctive in Indirect Speech
3.Vocabulary: Verbs for transmitting information.
4.Culture: The Press in Spain.
Composition:
Writing the chronicle of an incident.
Field Study: Discovering Barcelona and Spanish Culture.
Exam 1
I.A; I.B; II.A; II.B; III.A; III.B; IV.A; V.B; V.C
Week 5
(Unit 3, Aula 5)
¿Y tú qué opinas?
1.Functional: Giving our opinion, and reacting to opinions, engaging in debate, making proposals, expressing conditions when negotiating, supporting/refusing a proposal.
2.Grammatical: Present subjunctive, subjunctive in expressions of belief and doubt. Argumentation markers and expressions.
3.Vocabulary: Vocabulary related to leisure and tourism.
4.Culture: Spanish leisure.
Having an assembly (meeting).
Giving our opinion and reacting to opinions.
Assessing a situation.
I.A; I.B; I.C; II.A; II.B; III.A; III.B; IV.A; V.A; V.C
Week 6
(Unit 5, Aula 5)
La vida es puro teatro
1.Functional: Studying a screenplay. Describing actions. Talking about body positions/postures.
2.Grammatical: Uses of pronouns Se and Le. Verbs to describe body postures.
3.Vocabulary: Vocabulary related to cinema and theatre. Verbs that can use se and/or le.
4.Culture: Spanish cinema.
Writing a small screenplay to be performed.
Talking about cinema, theater and other artistic expressions.
Discovering Spanish films.
I.A; I.B; I.C; II.A; II.B; III.A; IV.A; V.B; V.C
Week 7
(Unit 5, Aula 5)
La vida es puro teatro
1.Functional: Describing moods and spatial situations.
2.Grammatical: Time markers. Perífrasis verbales.
3.Vocabulary: Vocabulary related to the cinema and theatre. Verbs to express different moods. Uses of poner and quedar.
4.Culture: Spanish cinema.
Expressing different moods using the body, voice and gestures.
Describing actions and movements in a precise way.
Spanish theater.
I.A; I.B; I.C; II.A; II.B; III.A; IV.A; V.B; V.C
Week 8
(Unit 6, Aula 5)
Dijiste que lo harías
1.Functional: Expressing purpose and opinion, refering to promises and statements.
2.Grammatical: Review of subjuntive (present and past).
3.Vocabulary: Vocabulary related to television.
4.Culture: Spanish television.
Canal 10 (TV Channel): reading comprehension and discussion.
TV programmes: comparing Spanish and US TV. Discussion and composition.
Examen 2
I.A; III.A; III.B; IV.A
I.A; I.B; II.A; II.B; III.A; III.B; IV.A; V.A; V.B;V.C
Week 9
(Unit 7, Aula 5)
Lugares con encanto
1.Functional: Describing places
2.Grammatical: Relative clauses, review of past tenses and subjunctive, past participles.
3.Vocabulary: Vocabulary related to cities.
4.Culture: Hispanic cities.
Pongamos que hablo de... Cities in Spain and Latin America.
Field Study: Discovering Barcelona and spanish culture.
I.A; I.B; II.A; II.B; III.A; III.B; IV.A; V.A; V.C
Week 10
(Unit 7, Aula 5) Lugares con encanto
1.Functional: Expressing feelings
2.Grammatical: Relative clauses, review of past tenses and subjunctive, verbs of perception and opinion.
3.Vocabulary: Feelings, cities.
4.Culture: Contrast between Hispanic and American cities.
Comparing cities in Spain, Latin America, and the US: The best places to live.
I.A; I.B; II.A; II.B; III.A; III.B; IV.A; V.A;V.B; V.C
Week 11
(Unit 8, Aula 5)
Antes de que sea tarde
1.Functional: Locating events in the past, present and future with accuracy.
2.Grammatical: Temporal clauses with mientras, hasta (que), en cuanto...
3.Vocabulary: Nouns derived from verbs and adjectives, resources for writing texts with cohesion and coherence.
4.Culture: Environmental issues in Spain and contrast with the US.
Designing a campaign for raising social awareness.
I.B; II.A; III.A; III.B; IV.A; V.B
Week 12
(Unit 10, Aula 5)
Como no lo sabía
1.Functional: Expressing cause and consequence. Expressing conditions.
2.Grammatical: Sentence conjunctions (cause and consequence), third-type conditional sentences (plu-perfect subjunctive, perfect conditional).
3.Vocabulary: Logical conjunctions.
4.Culture: Historical past events, characters of historical significance. The Spanish educational system.
Imagining “what the word would have been like if...”.
Final Exam
I.B; II.A; III.A; III.B; IV.A; V.B
Corpas, Jaime, Garmendia, Agustín, and Soriano, Carmen (2007): Aula 5. Barcelona: Difusión.
On-line or paper dictionary.
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.
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 were 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 Abroad since 2004.
María Mejías earned a degree in Spanish Philology at the University of Barcelona (UB). She studied postgraduate courses related to didactics and teaching foreign languages in Spain and the Czech Republic. Currently she is working on her dissertation on microblogging in Spanish as a foreign language courses. She has taught at University level in the Czech Republic (Southern Bohemian University), the U.S. (University of Georgia), and Spain (ESADE, UB), both Spanish for specific purposes and regular Spanish courses. She has also taken part in designing syllabi and curricula; and conducting official exams, such DELE. She has given lectures about topics related to didactics in congresses in the Czech Republic and in Spain. She has been teaching Spanish at IES Abroad since 2003, and has been a Language Faculty Advisor since 2010.
Nieves Borrego was born in Burgos (Spain) and earned a degree in Spanish Philology at the University of Salamanca. Before finishing her degree, she completed her junior year at the University of Birmingham (UK). She earned a Masters degree in Spanish Literature at The Pennsylvania State University, where she was also a Teaching Assistant at the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese from 2000 to 2003. She has been teaching Spanish at IES Abroad Barcelona since 2003.
Iolanda Nieves de la Vega was born in Barcelona, where she earned a degree in Spanish Philology and Catalan Philology at the University of Barcelona (UB). Since 2003, she has been a professor of Business Spanish for Communication at the IESE Spanish Business School where she has taken part in designing syllabi and curricula and has collaborated in the creation and development of specific materials for teaching/learning of Spanish for Business. She has taught at University of Bocconi (Milan), teaching Business Spanish and general courses to different teachers, and at IESE Business School in New York, teaching Spanish for Specific Purposes and online courses. In her role as a teacher trainer, she has taught courses for “Teachers of Spanish and foreign languages” since 2010; she has been professor of the course "Teaching Spanish for specific purposes: business, tourism, health and legal” (2010), “Teaching Spanish for specific purposes: negotiating in Spanish” (2011) at Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (UIMP), and “Spanish for Business: Specific methodology” (2011) at Fundación Comillas,(Centro Internacional de Estudios del Español). She has been teaching general and Business Spanish at IES Abroad since 2006.