SPANISH 140 – READING, WRITING, AND CONVERSATION

SPANISH 140 – READING, WRITING, AND CONVERSATION

This course is designed to introduce students to a series of readings, conversation, grammar review, and directed compositions. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to reach the following objectives:

Interpretive Listening

Interpretive Reading

Interpersonal Speaking

Presentational Speaking

Presentational Writing

I can understand extended speech and follow complex lines of argument provided the topic is reasonably familiar. I can understand sources such as TV news, current affairs programs, and films in standard language.

I can read texts such as articles and reports that are concerned with contemporary problems written from a particular viewpoint or perspective. I can understand contemporary literary prose.

I can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible. I can take an active part in discussion in familiar contexts and support my views.

I can present clear, detailed descriptions on a wide range of subjects. I can explain a viewpoint on a topical issue and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various options.

I can write clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects related to my interests. I can write texts such as an essay or report that conveys information or gives reasons in support of or against a particular point of view. I can write texts such as letters highlighting the personal significance of events and experiences.

Goals for Cultural Competence

The goals for cultural competence are not organized hierarchically as are the linguistic goals for the course. By the end of the semester, I will be able to say that I can:

  • Identify, discuss, and analyze such intangible products of the culture I am studying, as social, economic, and political institutions, and explore relationships among these institutions and the perspectives of the culture;
  • Give examples of social behaviors that express the target cultureÕs underlying value system;
  • Interpret social phenomena within the context of the target culture;
  • Describe instances of major change within the culture I am studying.

Fall 2007 Textbook(s)

Como agua para Chocolate
Laura Esquivel
Random House, Inc., New York, 1992.
ISBN: 0-385-72123-4

Repase y escriba: Curso avanzado de gramática y composición
Dominicis & Reynolds
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003.
ISBN: 0-471-20213-4