Spanish Speaking Skills Workshop: Emerging Independent Abroad

Course Information

Program(s):

Salamanca - Language & Area Studies

Discipline(s):

Spanish

Terms offered:

Fall, Spring

Credits:

Language of instruction:

Spanish

Contact Hours:

Prerequisites:

Completion of IES Abroad’s Novice Abroad level as defined by the IES Abroad MAP for Language and Intercultural Communication. Likewise, ability for teamwork and for communicative adaptation within a group, where the error becomes a stimulating element and a learning tool.

Description:

This workshop focuses on students’ approach to the knowledge and production of specific and relevant spoken registers in situations from various fields. Therefore, the specific purpose of this workshop is to help students implement their speaking skills from the first moment so that they can meet their main needs in the immersion context as well as improve their speaking skills to adapt their oral production to various contexts relating to family, academic and business fields. Additionally, they will acquire certain discourse strategies that will facilitate the goal of communication.

Watch this short video to get an overview for this course!

Attendance policy:

Attendance is mandatory for all IES Abroad classes, including course-related excursions. 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 one class, the final grade will be reduced by one-third of a letter grade (for example, A- to B+) for every additional unexcused absence.

Punctuality: Students who are late to class on a regular basis will also receive a reduction in their final grade.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of the course, as defined by the IES Abroad MAP for Language and Intercultural Communication, students will be able to:

Begin to understand and identify specific colloquial expressions in various situations, as well as demonstrate the use of skills to respond adequately.
Participate in social interactions with an increasing self-confidence.
Engage in simple conversations on familiar subjects successfully.

Method of presentation:

Taking advantage of students’ linguistic immersion, this workshop meets their real communicative needs by creating communicative situations as authentic as possible inside the classroom, and always having as a focal point the various areas of communicative expression. For this reason, this workshop maximizes work in groups and in pairs in order to give students the opportunity to practice and try out language in a safe context. The methodology will be diverse, and analytical and contrastive procedures will be carefully applied, leading to a deeper reflection on content, processes and techniques. In summary, this workshop has a strong pragmatic functionality that seeks to improve communicative speaking through analysis, comparison, correction and production of oral discourses.

Most of the class materials (presentations, texts, videos, pictures, etc.) will be available for students on the IES Abroad Salamanca Moodle platform.

Field study:

Course-related excursion I will be done individually and will consist of a presentation on a topic related to the host culture (misunderstandings, local anecdotes, festivities, etc.). Students should actively participate in this activity as follows:

Pre-task: Explain the choice of the topic and outline the presentation.
Task: Carry out the presentation (5-10 minutes), which will be recorded.
Post-task: Watch the presentation in class and analyze it as a group. For this task, students will be previously provided with an evaluation chart so that they can fill it out while watching the presentation.

Course-related excursion II will consist of a mini-interview about “colloquial Spanish” with a native student. Students should actively participate in this activity as follows:

Pre-task: Reading on colloquial Spanish. Approach to the content to be dealt with in the mini-interview.
Task: Carry out the mini-interview, recording 10-15 minutes.
Post-task: Watch the mini-interview in class and analyze it as a group. For this task, students will be previously provided with an evaluation chart so that they can fill it out while watching the mini-interview.

Required work and form of assessment:

Class participation and oral presentations: 10%
Oral exams: 40%
Course-related excursions: 20%
Required readings: 10%
Assignments: 20%

Class participation and oral presentations
Since it is a continuous evaluation process, apart from students’ academic performance, their active, participatory and responsible attitude in class will be positively evaluated. Additionally, class exercises of discourse analysis and production will significantly determine students’ final grade.

Oral presentations will consist of the explanation of a topic, either individually or in pairs. The presentation will include introduction, body and conclusion. Moreover, feedback is essential, that is to say, listeners will answer all questions from the speaker and facilitate comprehension.

Oral exams
Throughout the course there will be two exams: a mid-term and a final exam. Each exam will include an oral presentation of a discourse type previously analyzed in class. Established exam times and dates cannot be modified.

Mid-term exam: 20%
Final exam: 20%

Required readings
Throughout the semester required and propaedeutic readings will be analyzed. Their evaluation will be carried out through reading guides revised in class.

Assignments
Although assignments will not be required systematically, during certain weeks students will have to carry out some tasks outside the classroom that will introduce some theoretical issues to be studied in the following session, or that will consolidate concepts already studied in class. These assignments will consist of watching debates, interviews, lectures, etc., on TV or available on YouTube.

content:

Week	Content	Assignments
Week 1	“Vamos al bareto” Introduction Lexical colloquialisms	Read the fragment: La oralización (pages 47-59) Watch this video
Week 2	“Tío, paso de ese rollo” Informal conversations Contact markers	Observe a conversation between native speakers and write down all perceived lexical colloquialisms Read the fragment: El español coloquial en la conversación (pages 40-43) Watch this video
Week 3	I would like to talk about… Expository discourse (I) - monologue Individual oral presentation on a personal topic	Watch this video Fill out a questionnaire about the video
Week 4	Let’s interview… Journalistic interview (I) Hierarchy marks	Pre-task of course-related excursion II
Week 5	Seeing ourselves speak Spanish Course-related excursion II	Read the text: Actividades comunicativas. Ficha 23 (page 29)
Week 6	Yes, we can! Midterm Oral Exam
Week 7	I think that would be the best Making decisions as a group Presenting the result of those decisions	Pre-task of course-related excursion I
Week 8	Awkward situations Making excuses or explanations	Record students’ explanations of some awkward situations experienced in Spain
Week 9	I speak without dancing Extra-linguistic elements: proxemics, kinesics Analysis of errors in oral presentations in the academic field	Read the text: El discurso académico oral (pages 276-279; 284-287)
Week 10	Elementary, my dear Watson Explaining the reasons to reach a conclusion Linguistic mechanisms	Record the interview for course-related excursion I
Week 11	Applying everything I learned (I) Individual presentation of the results obtained in the course-related excursion I Group analysis and correction	Review all content studied in class and clarify any doubts with the instructor in the following session
Week 12	Review for Final Exam
Week 13	Final Oral Exam

Required readings:

Alcoba, S. (coord.) (2000) La expresión oral. Barcelona: Ariel, pages 71-80.
Alcoba, S. (coord.) (1999) La oralización. Barcelona: Ariel, pages 47-59.
Briz, A. (1998) El español coloquial en la conversación. Barcelona: Ariel, pages 40-43.
Domínguez, P. et al. (2004) Actividades comunicativas. Madrid: Edelsa, page 29.
Vázquez, G. (coord.) (2001) El discurso académico oral. Madrid: Edinumen, pages 276-279; 284-287.

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