SPAN 202: Spanish IV Intermediate Spanish Practice
Prerequisite: Spanish 201 or placement by examination
Credit Hours: (3)
A continuation of Spanish I, II and III with emphasis upon communication. Intensive reading of simple prose. Laboratory practice required. This course has been approved for credit in the Foreign Languages Area of the Core Curriculum.
Detailed Description of Content of Course
SPAN 202 is conducted in Spanish and represents the final semester of a four-semester sequence. The course is designed to develop the speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in addition to instruction in basic information about Hispanic cultures in Latin America and Spain.
Communicative functions focus on: talking about activities in the present, past, and future; talking about travel; talking about the traits needed for particular professions; commenting about hypothetical situations. Grammatical functions include: using the imperfect and preterit tense verb forms to indicate tense aspect; using the synthetic and true future; using the subjunctive in the present and past tenses; using constructions to indicate polite requests and criticism. Task functions focus on: writing brief compositions; making oral presentations; reading authentic materials (i.e. produced for native speakers) for information and pleasure; listening to and following directions.
Cultural sections include information on: Mexico and other Latin American cities; shopping hours; city profiles; family structure; traditions; religion; pre-Columbian societies; leisure activities, museums, and parks; food; weather; politics; music, literature and art.
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
Class instruction targets communication practice utilizing the situations, intentions, vocabulary, culture, and grammar introduced in a given chapter. Other activities include: grammar and vocabulary explanations, pronunciation practice, listening comprehension exercises, writing, and grammatical drills. Students must hand in workbook assignment based on taped materials in the laboratory and brief elementary compositions summarizing noncomplex texts dealing with cultural readings conducted on the WEB. Class is taught primarily in the target language.
Goals and Objectives of the Course
Speaking and listening goals (standardized ACTFL proficiency criteria): Students will be able to handle successfully a variety of uncomplicated tasks and social situations. They can ask and answer questions, initiate and respond to simple statements, and maintain face-to-face conversation on topics beyond their most immediate needs. Content continues to refer primarily to basic personal background and needs, social conventions and somewhat more complex tasks, such as lodging, asking for directions, transportation and shopping. The students will be able to produce most Spanish sounds and sound sequences correctly with good stress and intonation patterns. Listening goal is: SPAN 202 students will be able to understand sentence-length utterances, particularly if strongly supported by the situational context. Listening tasks not only pertain to spontaneous face-to-face conversations but also to short routine telephone conversations and some deliberate speech, such as simple announcements and reports over the media. Understanding continues to be uneven.
Reading and writing goals (standardized ACTFL proficiency criteria): Students will have sufficient control of the reading system to derive meaning from material at a higher level where context, vocabulary aid, and/or extra-linguistic background knowledge are supportive. As regards writing, students will be able to meet most practical writing needs and limited social demands; take notes in some detail on familiar topics and respond in writing to personal questions; write simple letters, brief synopses and paraphrases, summaries of biographical data, work and school experience. Ability to describe and narrate in paragraphs is emerging. SPAN 202 students will be understood by native speakers used to the writing of non-natives.
Students will achieve a degree of competence in a foreign language and culture.
Students will be able to:
a. demonstrate language skills appropriate to the level of study
b. analyze similarities and differences between their own and the target cultures
c. explain contemporary international issues from the perspectives of their own and the target culture
Assessment Measures
Speaking progress is evaluated in class and in conversational practice. In addition, each SPAN 202 student is required to pass two oral interviews. Written homework assignments provide a basis for the evaluation of writing progress. Listening and reading comprehension and grammatical accuracy are tested in homework assignments, hourly exams, chapter tests, and on the final exam. In most of these testing situations, SPAN 202 students will also either demonstrate or further expand their familiarity with cultural topics and current global issues. Students鈥� success in using Spanish will therefore reveal not only their linguistic abilities but also their cultural competence to anticipate and to simulate the use of different cultural perceptions and behaviors through the new language.
Other Course Information
To supplement linguistic and cultural encounters in class, students are expected to participate in some extracurricular activities such as conversations with native speakers, watching Spanish movies, and inquiring about Spanish-speaking cultures by means of the multitude of media available as informational resources. Additional taped materials, representing Spanish speakers from different areas and authentic video materials accompanying the subject matter of the text鈥檚 lessons are available in the language laboratory. The Foreign Language Department鈥檚 Homepage contains links to newspapers from every Spanish speaking country and to the most important newspapers published in Madrid, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires.
A student who earns a GPA of 2.4 or better in Spanish 202 and Spanish 300 may request and be granted credit for six additional hours of Spanish at the elementary level.
Approval and Subsequent Reviews
Date Action Reviewed by
August 2001 Revised Leonor A. Ulloa