Spanish Language II: Advanced (Lengua Española II: Nivel Avanzado)

Lengua Española II (nivel avanzado)
(Spanish Language II)
Cursos de Estudios Hispánicos

COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS THAT WILL BE ACQUIRED AND LEARNING RESULTS:

This course is aimed towards advanced Spanish-speakers who will develop their language skills in both written and spoken Spanish. Specific relevance is given to the use of language in context, and therefore the course will particularly focus on cultural aspects of its use in Spain. The course aims to:

1. Develop the student's capability to think about the language and apply strategies that allows for the improvement of the learning process.
2. Easily understand a conversation or presentation on general topics, gathering the main ideas and recognizing basic differences of registry and attitudes and intentions of the speaker.
3. Intervene in conversations, debates or presentations about general topics, adequatly using the formal or informal registry with an appropriate use of the Spanish language.
4. Understand information from different types of texts, identifying characteristics and specific aims.
5. Write with clarity, coherence and correct grammar events related to their environment using the appropriate registry, vocabulary, particles and stylistic resources of the language

COMMUNICATIVE AND GRAMMATICAL CONTENT:

Section 1. Communicative functions of day-to-day interactions indispensable in an immersion context according to varying degrees of formality: meeting up with friends, bars and restaurants, ask for things and favors; ask, give and deny permission; delegate the decision to another person.

Section 2. Give instructions, beg, order, advise, invite, give permission. Morphology and uses of the imperative. "Vosotros" form. Imperative with pronouns.

Section 3. Describe objects: materials, parts, utility, properties. Asses objects according to utility, appearance. Refer to objects present in communication using pronouns. Direct and Indirect Object pronouns. Uses of "se" for the impersonal form.

Section 4. Talk about and assess past experiences. Talk about the beginning and duration of an action. Locate an action in time. Contrast between past perfect and past indefinite (curent and not current spaces). Periphrasis with infinitive and gerund.

Section 5. Talk abou the past. Resources to organize a story: time particles and speech organizers. Resources to react to other people's anecdotes: interjections and exclamations. Combination of past times in a story ("pretérito indefinido, pretérito imperfecto, pretérito pluscuamperfecto").

Section 6. Uses and meaning of indicative and subjunctive. The concept of matrix. Declare what we know or think or question information. Express desires and goals. Comment and assess information. Identify or not identify identities. Present, past perfect and past imperfect subjunctive.

Section 7. Express conditions: - Possible. Present indicative/future/imperative. - Less likely or against current reality. Imperfect subjunctive. Simple conditional.

WRITTEN SPEECH:

1. Extract essential information from real informative documents, such as press articles, news, etc. to make a summary.
2. Write informal and formal letters and use the appropriate vocabulary, particles and stylistic resources for the type of text.
3. Write a narrative text about real events or imaginary ones in the past.
4. Write an explanatory text about a topic from an objective perspective and with the intention of presenting it in front of others, coordinating and organizing elements of the speech with coherence, cohesion and adequacy.

THEMES:
The course will explore different themes related to Spanish culture and its social reality, according to their relevance and interest from the students, with the aim of expanding their knowledge, stimulating thought and confronting the contrast with their own reality.

ASSESSMENT SYSTEM:

The course evaluation is the following:
- Two midterms (40%).
- Final exam on the whole course content (45%).
- Daily homework, participation and attendance (15%).

CEH attendance policy:
Full attendance is required, including the last day. Absence justifications should be directed towards the Carlos III International School for their approval by the student's program coordinator. Absences that are not justified have the following penalizations:
- First unjustified absence subtracts 0,3 points.
- Second unjustified absence subtracts 0,5 points.
- Three unjustified absences entail failing the course.