SPANISH (SPA)

This beginning course offers students the opportunity to acquire communicative skills in Spanish and to develop an awareness and appreciation of Hispanic cultures. The course provides an integrated approach in which listening, speaking, reading and writing are developed. Basic thematic vocabulary and grammatical structures are covered. This course is intended for students with no prior coursework in Spanish. 

This course is the second part of the beginning sequence offering students the opportunity to expand their knowledge of vocabulary and grammatical structures. The course provides an integrated approach in which listening, speaking, reading and writing are developed. The course fosters awareness of Hispanic cultures through short readings and a variety of oral and written activities. 

Continued development of communicative competency in Spanish language and Hispanic culture including a variety of media.

Integration of all skills. Reading skills using contemporary selections are developed through a process approach. Cultural topics present insights into the characteristics of Hispanic people, art, and literature. 

This course helps develop oral language competency in Spanish, while increasing vocabulary and reviewing grammatical structures. The main objective is to enable students to understand lectures in the language, converse on everyday topics, read material of average difficulty, and express points of view on current issues with acceptable correctness.

Designed to develop skills in descriptive, narrative, argumentative, and expository, and creative writing in Spanish, this course emphasizes the process of writing. Students will learn and practice strategies for generating and organizing ideas through pre-writing, composing, writing, revision, and editing. Writing activities help expand and refine grammatically correct expression, vocabulary, and rhetorical techniques. Students will have the opportunity to explore the art of translation and many modalities of personal expression, which may include original poetry, fiction, and non-fiction in the form of short stories, blog entries, travel narratives, memoirs, and autobiographical essays. Faculty may choose to teach the course with a central theme, such as identity and self-discovery, migration and immigration, and other areas of interest, and may include community service-learning. May be taken at the same time as SPA 204 with permission from department chair. 

This course focuses on food in its cultural, historical, political, economic, and social dimensions as a way to gain insights into the Spanish-speaking world and also develop students’ competencies in the Spanish language. Topics will include traditional foods and food-related customs, contemporary culinary trends, popular culture, agriculture practices, and national food policies. We will examine how food and culinary practices express, shape, and revise regional and national identities in countries where Spanish is spoken, and form part of a global world. A selection will be made from among the diversity of culinary traditions and food-related topics in the more than twenty countries in which Spanish is spoken. 

Understanding sport culture through literature, film and essays is one of the finest ways to gain insights into the Spanish-speaking world. Sports, like family, are considered “safe” topics with which to initiate conversation and contact in diverse settings. This course looks not only at soccer, but also at numerous other sports -- such as cliff diving, baseball, polo, wrestling, cycling, swimming, jai alai, tennis, and bullfighting. It explores sports which are unique to specific countries and those which are popular across the Spanish-speaking world.