High Advanced

Prior to enrolling in courses at this language level, students must have completed or tested out of a minimum of five semesters (or seven quarters) of college-level Spanish at their home university in the U.S.

Español académico (only Winter Semester)
Nivel avanzado alto �" se centra en cuestiones académicas y es un curso intensivo de corta duración que prepara a los estudiantes para seguir los cursos con estudiantes españoles.

ACADEMIC SPANISH (only Winter semester)

Description:
The aim of the course is to develop practical aspects related to academic writing. It is specially aimed at students who have completed their Spanish requirements (and therefore have a high-advanced level of Spanish), and wish to consolidate their knowledge of the language in order to achieve a high degree of linguistic competence at the university level. It is an intensive three-credit course specially recommended for students planning on taking regular University of Deusto courses outside CIDE. It starts in January and ends in mid-February.

Aims:
To recognize general elements of the structure of a text, and its main and ancillary ideas.
To identify the essential information in academic texts, as well as to overcome information gaps.
To enable the student to create descriptive, narrative and argumentative texts about topics of general interest.
To provide the student with resources to structure, quote and introduce references.
To enable the student to command spelling and punctuation rules.

SYLLABUS

INTRODUCTION: USE OF THE DICTIONARY
-Types of dictionaries:
- RAE dictionary
- Dictionary of usage of Spanish
- Thesaurus
- Dictionary of difficulties of the language
- Other dictionaries

ORGANIZATION OF THE TEXT
Argumentation and exposition
1.1.1. To introduce, to announce the topic, enumerate the arguments, to conclude
1.1.2. To describe, to compare, to express causes and consequences
1.1.3. To approve of or reject the arguments of the other
1.1.4. To express reservation, concession and opposition
1.1.5. To express an alternative and a hypothesis
To justify one´s argumentation
1.2.1 To justify arguments with examples
1.2.2 To justify with arguments of authority

PERSONS OF THE DISCOURSE AND “DEPERSONALIZATION”
First person singular
First person plural
“Depersonalization”

FORMAL ADEQUACY IN ACADEMIC TEXTS
State of the matter
Notes and papers
Bibliographic quotations
Bibliography

SPELLING AND PUNCTUATION
Spelling rules
Accent marks
Punctuation

LEXICAL AND STYLISTIC MATTERS
Main lexical improprieties: foreign words, loanwords, vulgarisms, colloquial expressions
Stylistics: Adjectives, order of elements, gerund ...
Set phrases and figurative expressions

METHODOLOGY
The professor will explain the topics by means of examples with different academic texts. Students will do the following tasks, which will help them practice the topics covered:

Practical exercises for the use of the different types dictionaries.
Reading of academic texts in which they will need to recognize the different parts of the argumentative textual structure.
Brief compositions
Different exercises of the cloze test type in order to practice spelling, accent marks and punctuation
Exercises of error recognition in notes and bibliographic references
A final paper: an argumentative, academic essay

BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY

BENITO LOBO, José A., Manual práctico de puntuación, Madrid: Edinumen, 1992.
CASARES, Julio, Diccionario ideológico de la lengua española, Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 1994.
CASSANY, D., Describir el escribir. Cómo se aprende a escribir, Barcelona: Paidós, 1995.
G�"MEZ T�"RREGO, L., Manual de español correcto, Barcelona: Arco Libros, 1994, 2 vols.
GONZÁLEZ HERMOSO, Alfredo y ROMERO DUE�"AS, Carlos, Curso de PUESTA A PUNTO en español, Madrid: Edelsa, 1998.
MARTÍN VIVALDI, G., Curso de redacción, Madrid: Paraninfo, 1990.
MOLINER, María, Diccionario de uso del español, Madrid: Gredos, 1977.
R. A. E., Diccionario de la lengua española, Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 2001.
�", Ortografía de la Lengua Española, Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1999.
SECO, Manuel, Diccionario de dudas y dificultades de la lengua española, Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1993.
VÁZQUEZ, Graciela (coord.), Actividades para la escritura académica, Madrid: Edinumen, 2001.

EVALUATION
The final grade will be calculated according to the following percentages:

Participation and attendance: 15 %
Homework: 10%
Composition: 20 %
Tests: 20 %
Final Exam: 35 %