SPAN 103
Spanish Review for Beginners
1. Catalog Entry
SPAN 103
Spanish Review for Beginners
Credit hours (3)
Prerequisites: 2-3 years of previous study of the language in secondary school
Accelerated course that covers SPAN101 and 102 for students with previous study of Spanish. Upon successful completion students will enroll in SPAN 201. Aural comprehension, listening, speaking, reading, and writing and culture are stressed in that order. This course has been approved for Core Curriculum credit in the College B in Foreign Languages. Offered in Fall and Spring.
2. Detailed Description of Course
Spanish Review for Beginners (3). This is an accelerated three-credit hour course designed to reinstate Spanish language for those students who have had a gap between their last language course in high school and the first course at Radford University. Using both an online instructional program developed by a language publisher and in-classroom activities, this course presents the essential structure of the Spanish language from present tense to subjunctive mood and a basic and transitional vocabulary in a four-skill approach: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Aural comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing are stressed in that order. Independent laboratory and online practice required.
Communicative functions focus on describing people, analyzing similarities and differences between their own and the target cultures, talking about emotions; asking and giving directions; talking about activities in the past.
Grammatical functions include: using proper verbs to describe people, professions and events; using present tense; using the imperfect and preterit tense verb forms to indicate tense aspect; using the present perfect to discuss past events; providing more practice with reflexive constructions; using formal and informal commands; and using subjunctive mood.
Task functions focus on: writing brief compositions; reading authentic materials (i.e. produced for native speakers) for information and pleasure; listening to and following directions.
Cultural sections include information on Spanish and/or Spanish-American countries; shopping hours; city profiles; family structure; leisure activities; food, weather, music, literature and art; economy and politics.
3. 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 textbook assignment based on taped materials in the laboratory, workbook online sources, recordings and brief elementary compositions summarizing noncomplex texts dealing with cultural readings and videos conducted on the WEB. Class is taught primarily in the target language.
4. Goals and Objectives of the Course
Students will be able to demonstrate language skills appropriate to the level of study. Speaking and listening goals (standardized ACTFL proficiency criteria): Students will be able to speak Spanish by relying heavily on learned utterances but occasionally expanding these through simple recombination of their elements. Students will be able to ask questions or make statements involving learned material. There will be some spontaneity, but speech will continue to consist primarily of learned phrases. Students will be able to pronounce nearly all Spanish sounds accurately when uttered in isolation and a growing number even in rapid speech. As regards listening skills, students will be able to understand short, learned phrases and some sentence-length utterances, particularly where context strongly supports understanding and speech is clearly audible. Reading and writing goals (standardized ACTFL proficiency criteria): Students will be able to identify an increasing amount of learned material without assistance and to understand a limited amount of new material when supported by context or dictionary assistance. In writing, students will be able to reproduce a variety of learned phrases and some basic sentences by recombining learned material. Students will be able to meet a number of practical writing needs and write short, simple letters.
Students will be able to analyze similarities and differences between their own and the target cultures. Students will achieve a degree of competence in a foreign language and culture. Students will, in learning another language system and its cultural centeredness, understand the interrelatedness of language and culture in the perceptions and values of other cultures. They will instill in students an awareness of the diversity of cultures beyond the United States and analyze similarities and differences between their own and other cultures that affect perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors.
Students will be able to explain contemporary international issues from the perspectives of their own and the target cultures. Students will be able to analyze a number of basic cultural similarities and differences between the United States and the regions where Spanish is spoken. These comparisons students make between their own and other cultures will help students realize the diversity of culture. Students will, in class conversations, acquire knowledge about some historical, but mostly current global issues that are in the news and that are having a significant social, economic, or political impact.
5. Assessment Measures
Speaking progress is evaluated in class and in conversational practice. In addition, each 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 103 students will also either demonstrate or further expand their familiarity with cultural topics and current global issues. Students’ 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.
6. Other Course Information
This intensive course has been designed for those students who have had a gap between their last language course in high school and the first course at Radford University. Students who take SPAN 101 and SPAN 102 at Radford University may not take SPAN 103.
To supplement linguistic and cultural encounters in class, students are expected (1) to do all require practice provided by the online instructional program developed by a language publisher and (2) to participate in some extracurricular such as conversations with native speakers, to watch Spanish language movies and to inquire about Spanish 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’s lessons are available in the language laboratory. The Department of Foreign Language and Literature's Homepage contains links to newspapers from every Spanish speaking country and to the most important newspapers published in Madrid, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires.
Review and Approval
June 20, 2015