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MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE

Escuela Española

Verano 2016

Span 3153 C–High Beginning Spanish: Oral and Written Communication

Room number and time: Mahaney Center for the Arts 232- 11:00- 11:50 p.m.

Instructor: Belkis Barrios

E-mail:

DESCRIPTION

Designed for students with some previous study of Spanish, experience in a Spanish-speaking country, or study of another Romance language, this course is designed to develop existing writing and speakingskills. Students will develop their writing skills through a process that includes the techniques of collecting information in written and oral form, organizing information, composing, revising, paraphrasing, and editing. Speaking skills will be developed by practicing discussions, information-gap activities, brainstorming, interviews, reporting, and other oral techniques that help students express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative act or circumstance. In connection with the linguistic and cultural content provided in other courses at the same level, students will integrate previous knowledge, tasks, and structures to produce descriptions, comparisons, narratives, and other types of written and oral texts that expand on different cultural topics.

OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES

By the end of the course students will be able to:

1.Discuss and write about topics grounded in interpersonal cultural experiences.

2.Overcome typical syntactical errors in oral and written communication.

3.Discuss and compose texts that describepersonal information, daily routines, vacations, holidays, etc. using present, past and future time frames.

4.Use writing processes including brainstorming,defining and restricting topics, creating topic sentences, developing supporting information, formulating conclusions, revising and editing, and developing cohesion.

5.Create independently with the language, ask and answer questions, and participate in simple conversations following the socio-cultural rules relevant to different contexts.

6.Participate in conversations in different culturally determined situations using some standard expressions attempting to compare, analyze and critically reflect on them.

REQUIRED MATERIALS

  • Puentes: Spanish for Intensive and High Beginner Courses.6th edition (2010). Marinelli, Patti J. and Laughlin, Lizette Mujica. Heinle.
  • Puentes: Student Activity Manual. 6th edition (2010). Marinelli, Patti J. and Laughlin, Lizette Mujica. Heinle.

Recommended materials:

A compact Spanish-English, English-Spanish dictionary, such as:

  • Diccionario Oxford Compacto
  • Microsoft Word with Spanish proofing tools installed (spell-checking dictionary and thesaurus).
  • On-line Spanish dictionary, such as:
  • Wordrefence on-line dictionary:

METHODOLOGY

This class has a communicative approach to writing and speaking. Thus students will be doing a great deal of writing and speaking in this class to communicate meaningfully with others. Work will be done individually, in pairs, and small groups, and with the whole class. All activities are designed to help students learn and practice writing and speaking in Spanish in various effective ways. Some activities may be new to you. Don’t be afraid to try them.

Coming to class well prepared is also essential to your learning. All the activities assigned by your instructor for each class should be done in advance outside of class. If you have any questions about the class work, please ask your instructor.

NOTE: Research shows that language learning is best accomplished by integrating all four skill areas: speaking, reading, writing, and listening. Neglecting any one area will jeopardize your language development.This course will coordinate the acquisition of skills with Resources for Communication in Context, and students will practice the three modes of communication according to the ACTFL’s World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages: Interpersonal, Interpretive, and Presentational.

Please consult your teacher or the program Assistant Director, Manel Lacorte (), if you have any questions or concerns about the course expectations and methodology.

COURSE POLICIES

Attendance

Your attendance, punctuality, and active participation in class are crucial to the successful completion of this course. Daily class attendance is mandatory. If you must miss class due to illness, please notify your instructor as soon as possible. In case of any crisis or emergency, please talk to your instructor, or to the Assistant Director of Non-Academic Affairs, Roberto Veguez. You are required to obtain formal permission in order to leave campus for the weekend (see Student Handbook for details). Unjustified absences, including lack of punctuality in arriving to class, will affect your grade: two (2) points will be deducted from your final grade for each unexcused absence.

Self-plagiarism

A written work (or paper) submitted to meet the requirements of a particular course is assumed to be work completed for that course; the same written work (or paper), or substantially similar papers, may not be used to meet the requirements of two different courses, in the same or different terms, without the prior consent of each faculty member involved. Students who break this rule will fail the second course. Students incorporating similar material in more than one paper are required to confirm each professor's expectations in advance in order to avoid any inadvertent transgression of the rule.

*For policies regarding plagiarism, see the Student Handbook at:

Diversity statement

The texts and materials used in the course are chosen and sequenced according to informed pedagogical principles. The contents do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the instructor, the Spanish School, or Middlebury College, and they are included in order to foster critical thinking and analysis. Authentic texts from the target culture are an especially rich source of input about the countries where Spanish is spoken.

Remember that in all classes you are bound by the Middlebury College Handbook guidelines (pp. 26-29), and we expect both teachers and students to be civil and open-minded in discussions, respecting the opinions and identities of class members on all topics (race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, political views, etc.).

If at any point you find yourself feeling uncomfortable or offended, here is a useful sequence to follow:

  1. Reflection: Ask yourself if there may be another reading of the text, artwork, or teacher comment that is not offensive or discomforting; reflection may provide you with a new perspective that you had not thought of before.
  2. Discussion: Ask your teacher to explain the context of the material/comment, and express your feelings about the issue.
  3. Clarification and Resolution: If for any reason you are not satisfied with the discussion with your instructor, we invite you to speak to the Assistant Director for Non-Academic Affairs Roberto Veguezabout the material, its use in your class, and possible resolution of the situation.

Tutoring

The Spanish School offers tutoring services in Milliken 201 (Julieta Valencia-Olsen) and 202 (Daniel Sefami) in the following schedule:

Monday to Friday: from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.

Monday to Thursday from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.

To use this service you have to sign up during office hours, and the duration of the tutoring session is 20 minutes. Walk-ins are also possible according to the tutors’ availability. Tutors will help you review grammar points, review oral and written texts and help you improve your pronunciation. They will not do assignments for you.

EVALUATION

PREPARACIÓN:
Participación (15%)
Actividades de escritura– AE (35%) / Your instructor will assess the quality and consistency of your daily participation in class. Participation includes coming prepared to class, volunteering to speak, paying attention to class activities, asking for help when you do not understand, and maintaining a positive, supportive, and respectful attitude towards your instructor and classmates. Effort, enthusiasm, and attention count, so even if your spoken Spanish is not as strong as you would like it to be, you can improve your participation grade if you work at it consistently
Your instructor will give you writing assignments regularly. Take time to organize them in a structured way so that they reflect your thoughts coherently. Your writing assignments will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
10 – 9 (A, A-) Actividad de escritura completa y que muestra un
excelente desarrollo del tema, de las ideas,
excelente organización y buen dominio del
vocabulario, de la gramática y de los signos de
puntuación.
8 (B+, B, B-)Actividad de escritura más o menos completa, pero el desarrollo del tema tiene algunos problemas de organización, de uso de la gramática, de vocabulario, de acentos y de signos de puntuación.
7 (C+, C, C-)Tiene bastantes problemas de contenido y de forma que afectan su comprensión. Requiere mucho trabajo de revisión.
6 (D+, D, D-)Actividad de escritura incompleta y con desarrollo mínimo del tema.
Composiciones y Presentaciones Orales
(40%) / Three compositions will be administered throughout the program to evaluate progression of your writing abilities. Adequate use of vocabulary and grammatical structures reflecting material studied in all current courses should be incorporated. Each first draft will be conducted in class while revised copy will be assigned a due date and must be handed in as indicated by the syllabus. No late drafts or final copies will be accepted. Only the second draft will be graded.
The first two compositions will require a brief oral presentation followed by questions and comments by classmates.
The last composition will have just one version and no oral presentation.
Portafolio (10%) / In this class you will keep portfolios to self assess your progress. Your portafolio is composed of all your writing assignments and compositions.
TOTAL: 100%

GRADING SCALE

A / 94-100 / C+ / 77-79
A- / 90-93 / C / 74-76
B+ / 87-89 / C- / 70-73
B / 84-86 / D / 64-69
B- / 80-83 / F / 0-63

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