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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "SPAN 201"
COURSE NAME: "Intermediate Spanish I"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Fall 2024
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Rossana Marchiaro
EMAIL: [email protected]
 HOURS: TTH 4:30 PM 5:45 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: Prerequisite: Placement or SPAN 102 (As of Fall 2022: Placement or SPAN 102 with a grade of C or above)
OFFICE HOURS: Monday and Wednesday by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
A continuation of SPAN 102. This course focuses on consolidating the student’s ability to use Spanish effectively. Emphasis is given to grammar review and vocabulary expansion. Selected readings and films acquaint students with Spanish and Hispanic culture.
SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:

Students be taught to communicate satisfactorily in most everyday situations with both native and non-native Spanish speakers using verb tenses in the indicative mode (present, future, past). Emphasis is given to contrast between three indicative past tenses (perfecto, indefinido and imperfecto). Introduction to the Present subjunctive and how to use it to express feelings, surprise, interest or indifference, annoyance or irritation. Development of skills to express dreams and wishes and to give opinions.

Group discussions, role play and conversation in the classroom, all help to improve oral communication, vocabulary knowledge and sentence structure.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Upon completing this course, students will posses the following abilities:

- Express orally or in writing: opinions, surprise, interest or indifference, encouragement, annoyance or irritation, agreement or disagreement with someone or about something

- Offer to do something; invite someone to do something; order someone to do something; ask for, give or deny permission; express prohibition; express an intention to do something and ask someone what they intend to do.

a) Speaking

Improve their level of accuracy in pronunciation and intonation in Spanish; use conventional forms to ask for permission and to ask for a favour; request and give information; talk about projects or future intentions.

b) Reading comprehension

Understand in general terms information about general subjects; understand and extract specific information from authentic documents (posters, advertisements, informative leaflets, events listings, press articles, etc.)

c) Writing

Narrate in writing, past, present or future events, organasing the content adequately; write letters, personal notes and postcards in an informal style; situate an event or a story in time by ordering the parts (ask and say when something happened and in what order the events took place)

d) Listening

Understand the main ideas of quite complex dialogues on actual topics; gather the mood and feelings out of a speech and react appropriately. 

 
TEXTBOOK:
Book TitleAuthorPublisherISBN numberLibrary Call NumberCommentsFormatLocal BookstoreOnline Purchase
AULA INTERNACIONAL 3 Corpas-Garmendia - SorianoDifusion9788415640110  Hard Copy  
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
NONE
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
2 TestsDesigned to evaluate the student's knowledge of the grammar, vocabulary covered, their reading and listening comprehension and written ability.20%
Midterm ExamDesigned to evaluate the student's knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary covered up to this point, their reading and listening comprehension and written ability.20%
Oral ProficiencyThe type of tests will be: conversation between two students, monologues, role playing. Conversations, monologues, role playing and oral presentation will be elicited by visual stimuli, texts, or questions from the instructor.20%
Final ExamReading comprehension: Students will have to answer in writing several questions that test their comprehension of what they have read. Writing ability: Students will have to answer written questions and produce written texts of increasing length, formality and complexity on diferents topics Listening comprehension: Students will have to answer in writing an increasing number of questions that test their comprehension of what they have heard. Oral Profiency: conversation between two students, monologues, role playing 30%
Attendance, Participation, and HomeworkStudents are expected to come prepared to class and participate in all activities. Active participation is crucial, since the learning process requires considerable practice.10%
   

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the
BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:

Students attending classes, either in presence or remotely, are supposed to come prepared to class and participate in all activities. Active participation is crucial, since the language learning process requires considerable practice. 

During the course, students are allowed four absences. The final grade will be lowered by 2 points for each additional absence. Make sure your travel plans do not interfere with the class schedule. 

 MAKE-UPS

Individual arrangements for make-ups will be done only for students with medical emergencies or any other valid reasons. The Midterm and Final Exam can only be made up with approval from the Dean of Academic Affairs  (Please see the John Cabot University Catalogue and Student Handbook).

GRADES

A

100 – 94

A-

93 - 90

B+

89 - 87

B

86 - 84

B-

83 - 80

C+

79 - 77

C

76 - 74

C-

73 - 70

D+

69 - 67

D

66 - 64

D-

63 - 60

F

59 - 0

ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.
STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
SCHEDULE

WEEK 1 

Tasks: Writing a letter of presentation for a job position. 

Talking about past experiences, competences and education. Expressing completed actions in the past. Verbal periphrasis (empezar a +infinitive, dejar de+infinitive, llevar y seguir+gerundive)

Grammar: past tenses: Present Perfect (Pretérito perfecto), Past simple (Pretérito indefinido), Past continuous (Pret. Imperfecto y Pluscuamperfecto). Tense markers.

WEEKS 2-3

Tasks:  Writing a text about the future.

Talking about actions and future situations. Expressing conditions and hypotheses.

Grammar: Future tense. First conditional: if+present+future. Future tense markers.

TEST 1

WEEKS 4 -5

Tasks: Discussing different points of view on differents matters: expressing opinions, agreement and disagreement; judging facts and opinions. 

Grammar: Subjunctive with verbscreer, pensar, imaginar (think, imagine) and structures as es+adjetivo+que (it is+adjective+that)

WEEKS 6 - 7

Tasks: Giving and sharing advice. Describing an advertisement.

Grammar: Reflexive pronouns. Direct and indirect pronouns. Imperative affirmative and negative with pronouns. First conditional: If+present+imperative

Midterm Exam (week 7)

WEEK 8 - 9

Tasks: Talking about interests, feelings and emotions,  relationships among persons. Talking about persons, good and bad qualities.

Grammar: I like, I hate + infinitive/nouns or present subjunctive and past (pretérito perfecto) subjunctive

WEEKS 10 -11

Tasks: Giving opinions about behaviours and actions. Judging situations and facts.

Grammar: Subjunctive with verbsme parece bien/mal/injusto + present subjunctive  and structures as es+adjetivo+que (it is+adjective+that). Conditional Tense.

TEST 2

WEEKS 12 -13

Tasks: Making, accepting and refusing a request. Reporting what someone said (commands and questions).

Grammar: Indirect speech. Reporting clauses. Periphrasis: empezar a, estar a punto de, volver a, llegar a.

WEEK 14

Oral presentations and Final Review