Spanish for Specific Purposes - Business

NAME OF COURSE Spanish for Specific Purposes - Business
HOURS 45 contact hours
CREDITS 03
COURSE CODE PIIE 3445-1

Course description
Theoretical practical course oriented specifically at the communication contexts as well as
the topics and roles that characterize the institutional-labor framework of business in
Valparaíso ?Viña del Mar. The course will have an emphasis on the development of both
oral and written comprehension, expression and interaction through formal and informal
communicative activities with authentic texts related specifically to business.

Main objective
Improve the intercultural communicative competence from a pragmatic-descriptive
perspective.

Specific objectives

• Develop the skill of oral expression and interaction based on authentic, diverse, varied, and functional texts related to business in Valparaíso ? Viña del Mar
• Develop the skill of understanding authentic, diverse, varied and functional oral texts related to business in Valparaíso ? Viña del Mar
• Develop the skill of understanding authentic, diverse, varied, and functional written texts related to business in Valparaíso ? Viña del Mar.
• Develop the skill of written expression and interaction through authentic, diverse, varied, and functional texts related to business in Valparaíso ? Viña del Mar.
• Involve the students with the concept of interculturality through communicative activities and fieldworks where they must interact in different scenarios in the field of business from a pragmatic-descriptive perspective.

ContentsUnit I: Immersion in a New Environment: Business Travel
Situation: simulated situation where the student needs to request information in Valparaíso and /or Viña del Mar (transport, business, banks, lodging, etc.)
Functions: request general information, such as times, prices, means of transportation, register in hotel, etc.)
Language: interrogative pronouns, prepositions, formal and informal register

Unit II: Human Resources: Job Search
Situation: simulated situations in which the student wishes to enter the labor market in a regional company.
Functions: description of the position, curriculum vitae, request job position and oral interview.
Language: passive reflexive, references to the past and subjunctive

Unit III: Family Business versus Mega Companies.
Situation: observations, visits and interviews to representatives of family businesses and mega companies of Valparaíso and Viña del Mar.
Functions: comparative description of yesterday?s and today?s businesses
Language: past tenses, interrogative forms, personal appreciations with the use of the subjunctive.

Unit IV: Valparaíso and Viña del Mar: Future Challenges
Situation: identification and analysis of problems related to future commercial plans and activities in the region.
Function: description of future plans and activities, suggestions, and advice.
Language: use of the future indicative tense. Conditionals. Subjunctives.

Unit V: Advertising Campaign for a Local Product or Service
Situation: hypothetical situation in which the student must launch and advertise his or her own product or service in Valparaíso or Viña del Mar.
Function: description of the product and elaboration of a brief for the concretion of the advertisement campaign.
Language: use of the subjunctive, imperative mood, description techniques.

Activities

• Theoretical and expository lessons.
• Individual oral presentations
• Fieldworks.
• Conversation and debates.
• Reading comprehension and analysis.

Evaluation
This course includes successive formative assessments (class and out-of-class work) and summative assessments that result in a final grade. The teacher will present a calendar of evaluations and the instruments that will be used when assessing different skills.

Bibliography
Programa de la Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD). Desarrollo Humano en Chile, Género, los desafíos de la igualdad. Santiago, Chile, 2010.
Calsamiglia, H., & Tusón, A. (1999). Las cosas del decir. Manual de análisis del discurso. Barcelona: Ariel.