Progressive Spanish for English-Speaking Students

OBJECTIVES
This Course is aimed at English-speaking students who already have a basic knowledge of Spanish. Its key objective is to improve their communication skills by means of the consolidation of their grammar competence and of the introduction of practical vocabulary so as to enable them to cope with the usual communication situations of everyday life. On the one hand, teaching methodology will be based on the assimilation of grammatical rules and their practical application via specific activities and, on the other hand, will involve the gradual and progressive use of Spanish as a vehicle for communication within the classroom.

CLASSES: THE SET-UP
The Lecturer will provide students with xeroxed material containing the grammar content to be studied with regard to each section of the Course syllabus. However, this does not mean that class sessions will be organized in terms of formal lectures on Spanish Grammar. In a key way, teaching will be practice-based: using specific grammar exercises as points of departure, explanations will be provided of those issues arising from the use of the Spanish language which tend to cause students most difficulty. Other activities within the Course will include: (a) dictations; (b) listening comprehension exercises; (c) reading comprehension exercises; (d) exercises in writing; and (e) vocabulary exercises. Use will also be made of representative works of literature with a double objective in mind: (a) their use as tools by which to improve students? communication skills, and (b) to give students the opportunity of accessing Spain?s literary heritage. With this in mind, students will be expected to read the prose work Lazarillo de Tormes (in an edition adapted to their level of knowledge of Spanish), while extracts from the movie version of Don Quijote de la Mancha will also be screened.

COMPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES
Two programmed activities will be undertaken so as to complement those carried out in the classroom:
(e) a city walk which will involve touring those places to which Miguel de Cervantes makes reference in his works. During the tour extracts from Don Quijote will be read so as to provide students with their first approach to Spanish Literature?s most representative work.
(f) a visit to Triana Market, with two aims in mind: getting students used to the vocabulary linked with the consumption of foodstuffs in Sevilla on a day-to-day basis; and providing them with a context within which to practice common communicative structures as employed by those who normally use this kind of commercial establishment.

COURSE SYLLABUS
Each of the syllabus points indicated here contains a grammar-based component, as well as a lexically-based or/and communicatively-based component.

1. Grammatical Sentences: Basic Sentence Constituents. Sentence Structure in Spanish: the Order of Sentence Constituents and its Effect upon Sentence Structure during Communication. Expressions to aid Classroom Communication.
2. The Noun Phrase: Gender and Number in Nouns and Adjectives. The Use of Articles, Demonstratives, and Structures involving Possession. The Grades of Adjectives. Ser and Estar: Description and Location. Nationalities, Countries and Professions.
3. Personal Pronouns: the Use of Subject Pronouns within Sentences. Tú and Usted. Object Pronoun Forms. The Verbs gustar, encantar and doler.
4. The Present Indicative Tense. How it is Formed. Its Uses. Reflexivity in Spanish. Pronominal Verbs in Spanish. Everyday Activities and Leisure.
5. The Future Indicative Tense. How it is Formed. Uses of the Future Indicative. The Periphrastic Configuration ir a + infinitive. Planning Activities.
6. The Imperative. Its Different Forms. Issuing Instructions and Giving Advice.
7. The Conditional Tenses. How they are Formed. Uses of the Conditional. Sentence Structures involving the Conditional: the Main Types. Expressing the Wish to Do Something.
8. How to Express the Past. The Imperfect and the Past Perfect Tenses. How they are Formed. Uses of the Imperfect and the Past Perfect Tenses. Telling the Time, the Days of the Week, the Parts that Make Up a Day.
9. The Subjunctive Mood. Verb Tenses and the Subjunctive Mood. Basic Uses of the Subjunctive. Expressing Prohibition.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Butt, J. & Benjamin, C. A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish. London: Edward Arnold, 1989 (varias eds.).
Gómez Torrego, L. Hablar y escribir correctamente: gramática normativa del español actual. Madrid: Arco/Libros. 2006.
Real Academia Española, Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española. Nueva gramática de la lengua española: Manual. Madrid: Espasa, 2010.
Whitley, M.S. Spanish/English Contrasts: a Course in Spanish Linguistics. Georgetown University Press. 2002.
www.cvc.cervantes.es/aula/didactired/didactiteca (The Instituto Cervantes Didactics Library)
www.cvc.cervantes.es/aula/pasatiempos (Interactive didactic activities aimed at students of Spanish)
www.cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/refranero (A selection of proverbs and proverbial phrases in Spanish with their equivalents in a range of other languages.)
www.rae.es (Diccionario de la Real Academia de la Lengua Española)
www.wordreference.com (Diccionario inglés-español-inglés)

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
Final Grades will be calculated with the following distributive basis in mind:
- Regular class attendance: 10%
- Classwork undertaken: 15%
- Active participation in class sessions: 25%
- The successful completion of an assignment based on the prose work, Lazarillo de Tormes: 15%
- A final exam which will involve testing all Course-content: 35%
- Grading on a scale of 10 as maximum: Fail (0-4?9); Pass (5-6?9); Very Good (7-8?9); Excellent (9); With Distinction (10).