Course Syllabus

SPAN 1010 Elementary Spanish I

Course Description

This course provides an introduction to the Spanish language and the cultures of Spanish-speaking peoples. It is designed for students with no previous Spanish study. During the course, students develop basic oral and listening communication skills by participating in activities that require them to use Spanish in a variety of situations. As a result of developing these skills, they also acquire the ability to read and write Spanish at a basic level. Students learn to communicate about topics that are most familiar to them (e.g., self, family, home, school, daily and recent activities), and they learn to appreciate ways of life different from their own. This course is interactive with a focus on learner participation and basic conversation practice in Spanish.

Justification

This course is a pre-requisite for SPAN 1020, which satisfies the foreign language requirement for the Associate of Arts degree at Snow College. It is also a prerequisite for intermediate and advanced study of the language. Students are introduced to the language, cultures, and values of Spanish-speaking peoples, one of the largest linguistic groups in the world and a major contributor to Western thought and culture. Learning Spanish, particularly in combination with studies in other fields, such as art, music, philosophy, history, business, medicine, political science, social science, and technology, can provide a valuable and employable life resource.

General Education Outcomes

1. A student who completes the GE curriculum has a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world. Students demonstrate fundamental knowledge of hispanophone cultures through in-class presentations that include research on specific cultural topics or practices and a description/demonstration of an aspect of one or several of these cultures (e.g., cooking, music, games, dance, art, architecture).
   
2. A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. Students are exposed to Spanish language and hispanophone cultures through video, text, and audio sources on the Internet and through music. They demonstrate their ability to read and interpret Spanish texts through structured online tasks, as well as written homework assignments and written quizzes and exams, and subsequently evaluate its meaning and cultural significance.
3. A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. Students are introduced to perspectives different from their own and learn through readings, discussions, and their own research how people from other countries and regions of the world address problems in unique ways that meet their needs. These experiences allow students to draw on international perspectives when facing complex problems. Students are assessed during in-class discussions, on homework assignments, and on written quizzes and exams.
4. A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively. Students develop critical thinking skills as they learn Spanish, where they must draw clues based on their own experience from the aural and visual input they receive. Students complete verbal and written assignments that demonstrate the ability to reason analytically and creatively evaluate the cultures, facts, and values of hispanophone peoples. Students are assessed during in-class discussions, on homework assignments, and on written quizzes and exams.

General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes

1. Integrated Explorations: Students must work with partners at least three times a week to complete brief conversation exercises in Spanish during class. Students have pair/group work and presentation(s) for the Spanish language and cultures on a regular basis, in class, to learn the skill of effective team work. Students demonstrate this skill throughout their pair/group activities and presentations in class. Integrated Explorations: Students must work with partners at least three times a week to complete brief conversation exercises in Spanish during class. Students have pair/group work and presentation(s) for the Spanish language and cultures on a regular basis, in class, to learn the skill of effective team work. Students demonstrate this skill throughout their pair/group activities and presentations in class.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Interpretive Listening: Students will understand some everyday words, phrases, and questions about themselves, their personal experiences, and their surroundings, when people speak slowly and clearly or there is repetition.
2. Interpretive Reading: Students will understand some familiar words and characters, phrases, and simple sentences.
3. Interpersonal Spoken: Students will interact with help using words, phrases, and memorized expressions. They will be able to answer simple questions on very familiar topics.
4. Presentational Spoken: Students will provide information about themselves and their immediate surroundings using words, phrases, and memorized expressions.
5. Presentation Written: Students will provide some basic information on familiar topics in lists, phrases, and memorized expressions.
6. Cultural Opportunities: Students will seek opportunities to learn about and experience new cultures outside of class.
7. Cultural Understanding: Students will demonstrate a basic knowledge of cultural traditions, customs, and values in one or more of Spanish-speaking countries. They will demonstrate this through in-class presentations.

Course Content

Functions covered in Spanish 1010 include but are not limited to: Basic interactions like greetings, asking and answering questions, describing people and things, expressing preferences, inviting, accepting, refusing, making purchases, giving directions, requesting information, telling time, and recounting past events; interpretations of basic or simplified texts (e.g., calendars, biographical information, menus, cultural information, poems/songs, maps, advertising film reviews, instructions, schedules, websites, surveys); Basic expressions and vocabulary (e.g., greetings, school, home, family, possessions, numbers, days, months, public buildings, food, weather, sports); regular and irregular verb forms in present and preterite; agreement (e.g., subject-verb, adjective-noun); cultural practices and products of Spain and Latin America (e.g., food, music, transportation, film, housing, media); cultural perspectives in Spain and Latin America; diversity in Spain and Latin America; regional identities; and daily life in Spain and Latin America. This content is delivered through interactive lecture, multimedia presentation, partner and group work, and instructor modeling of concepts. This course addresses cultural issues overtly during lessons (see topics above) and indirectly via images presented to the class during everyday lessons that represent Spanish-speaking people from different ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, etc.