Universidad Pública de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain
DESCRIPTION
A 90-hour course directed towards students who wish to increase their knowledge of the Spanish language and to improve their linguistic skills in a first contact with the country.
The course offers a double dimension (linguistic and socio-cultural) in order to facilitate the immersion of the foreign students in the Spanish society. At the same time they acquire a linguistic knowledge which ensures an acceptable level of communicative competence in the country.
This approach agrees with the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL, 1996). It specifies that in order to become competent in a second language, development of communication skills is not enough. The students must also understand the practice, the products and the perspective of the target-language and compare these components with the ones in their own language. Then, the best way to acquire this competence (grammatical, discursive, sociolinguistic and strategic) is through a program which includes linguistic and socio-cultural contents.
Combining both types of content, the students get a first view of the Spanish language and culture, and achieve an intermediate level of communicative competence. They also obtain sufficient knowledge to decide whether to continue in the Spanish university.
LEVEL
Intermediate (Equivalent to Levels A2 / B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference)
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the course is the students’ consolidation of the communicative and understanding skills in Spanish which enables them to follow a university lecture in that language. As well as covering grammatical and communicative aspects of the language, the students get an ample scope of the Spanish culture, history and society. This knowledge is very useful in their daily life in Spain.
CONTENT
The content of the course is focused on:
a. Grammatical matters: Contents presenting special difficulties for English speaking students (past times distribution, subjunctive mood, prepositions, verbs “ser” and “estar”).
b. Communicative activities: An approach to the topics of interest and social interest in Spain working the language simultaneously in different situations, dialogues, readings, understanding and exhibition activities, and debates.
c. Cultural aspects of the country: Including general information about the Spanish geography, main historical landmarks, and influence of the different people in the Spanish culture and the multilingual situation of the country.
CERTIFICATE AND CREDITS
The students with a minimum of 70% class attendance will receive a course progress certificate.