Notes regarding credits...

This course consists of 40 hours of instruction. However, students may earn 45 hours by attending supplemental sessions and completing additional coursework. Please check with your home university to find out whether you need 40 or 45 hours to earn course equivalents.

Note: A placement exam will be required when you arrive on site.

High Advanced

This course is designed for students who have completed or tested out of a minimum of five semesters (or seven quarters) of college-level Spanish. However, students must take a placement exam to determine the course level into which they will be able to enroll.

1. Introduction
This class studies the understanding of the oral and written use of the language by the student. The goal of this class does not only deal with the expressive dimension but also the receptive.
A. With regard to speaking and writing:
The objective of this course regarding production is to put into practice the formal grammatical structures already learned by the student.
B. With regard to reading and listening:
Our objectives are directed to helping the students look at authentic texts in the target language. Our students are obligated to use these texts (e.g. real conversations, the press, radio programs, television, literature, etc.) in their daily life and in the rest of the classes within the Hispanic Studies Program. The fundamental objective is to help the student handle the information that these texts give them and be able to process it with the ultimate objective of using it in the production of the target language.
2. Content
This class is not designed with a preconceived agenda on the part of the professor, rather it is presented in blocks of comprehensive units that are structured as follows:
A. Classroom work:
A.l. Assessment test.
The professor will give an assessment test, and depending on the results, (s)he will determine the order and emphasis given to the following units.
A.2. Example of comprehensive units:
1. The press (written and oral texts will be used: newspapers, magazines, sitcoms…)
2. Administrative language (how to make a curriculum vitae, commercial letters, petitions…)
3. Love (how to talk about your feelings, tell sentimental stories, narrate events and anecdotes, write informal letters.
4. Spanish myths (a look at myths within Spanish culture: Carmen, Don Juan, the bulls, etc.)
B. Homework:
The objective of homework is to use of the different styles in both oral and written situations. The techniques used will be: summarize, synthesize, and argue. Also studied are the distinct registers of spoken Spanish (e.g. colloquial language).
C. Techniques:
The models of work followed inside and outside of the classroom: debates, oral exhibitions, surveys, written work, résumés, radio and television role-play programs. D. Materials:
Videos: movies, television programs (informational, sitcoms…). The press: newspapers, magazines, etc. Radio programs. Literary texts. Other materials (published brochures, advertisement etc…).

3. Evaluation
The evaluation is up to the discretion of the professor and also depends on the make-up of the class. There will be at least two exams given throughout the duration of the course.

4. Bibliography
The professor will suppy a bibliography necessary for the themes in the class.