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 prerequisite 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.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Upon successful completion of SPAN 1010, students will be able to 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. Upon successful completion of SPAN 1010, students will be able to understand some familiar words and characters, phrases, and simple sentences.
3. Upon successful completion of SPAN 1010, students will be able to interact with help using words, phrases, and memorized expressions. They will be able to answer simple questions on very familiar topics.
4. Upon successful completion of SPAN 1010, students will be able to provide information about themselves and their immediate surroundings using words, phrases, and memorized expressions.
5. Upon successful completion of SPAN 1010, students will be able to provide some basic information on familiar topics in lists, phrases, and memorized expressions.
6. Upon successful completion of SPAN 1010, students will be able to demonstrate a basic knowledge of cultural traditions, customs, and values in one or more Spanish-speaking countries.
7. Upon successful completion of SPAN 1010, students will be able to seek opportunities to learn about and experience new cultures.

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.