Spanish 202 Syllabus

MEHodge's Website http://www.nvcc.edu/home/nvhodgm

E-Mail: nvhodgm@nvcc.edu

 

Libro de Texto: Destinos, VanPatten, Marks, Teschner (Alternate Edition),
McGraw-Hill

Cuaderno: Destinos, Workbook II - Lessons 37- 52 (Alternate Edition)

Recommended: University of Chicago Spanish/English Dictionary, or equivalent
Classroom/Lab:  clean/good quality audiotapes for Destinos workbook (90 minutes)

Materials:
3 x 5 cards
floppy disk (Maxell brand with plastic case)
Highlighters and Red pen
Loose leaf notebook
Plastic Inserts for 8 ½ x 11 handouts

Course Description: SPA 202 is the second part of the Intermediate Spanish I & II sequence. The purpose of this course is to enable the student to acquire greater proficiency in the four skills in a greater variety of situations. At this level, students should be able to narrate and describe in present, past, and future time and handle many survival situations. Since the focus is on developing the conversational skills, much listening and reading is needed to help develop speaking. The writing skill will be developed using a process--approach to include discourse modes of narrative, descriptive, expository, and argumentative styles. It is assumed that the intermediate student is able to understand authentic aural and written texts as used by native speakers to narrate and describe personal and factual information. An intermediate student is able to pronounce Spanish clearly, handle many survival situations, can ask and answer questions, and create with the language on familiar topics. The learner has a grammatical basis to be able to express ideas in speaking and writing using complete sentences and paragraphs.

Lecture is three hrs. per week (16 week session) or seven and one-half hrs. (six week summer session). Class activities center around a video-based course in which the student continues to develop skills for understanding spoken and written authentic texts. Classroom time is devoted primarily to developing speaking. The student continues to develop writing at the paragraph level using correct sentence structure. The class will be conducted mostly in Spanish.

Foreign Language Teaching Method: The Natural Approach is an inductive method of language teaching, developed by Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terrell, that has among its hypotheses that language is acquired in stages, that comprehension precedes production, and that language is best learned in a low anxiety atmosphere.

Evaluation:

Course grades will be based upon:

Attendance/participation/homework preparation    25%
Grammar quizzes                                                       25%
Language Lab Workbook/Listening Tests              10%
Mid-term and Final Oral Proficiency Interviews     30%
Notebook and Writing Portfolio                                10%

Laboratory Requirement:

Auditory Practice:

Students are required to listen to audiotapes, either in the laboratory or on their own home players. In order to complete the audio portions in the Destinos workbook, several methods can be of help:

• Bring a quality, sealed, blank audiotape to the Learning Resource Center, Rm. 332 and request that the appropriate lesson be copied. Students can find request forms right outside of Rm. 332, drop off their request with their audiotapes, then pick up their duplicated audiotapes inside of Rm. 332.

• Audiotapes (Lessons 37-52) are also available for purchase in the bookstore. You need to purchase Book II Set.

• There are audiocasette tapes that can also be borrowed to play on a tape player in Rm. 332. To borrow audiotapes, show a NVCC ID card and request the audiotapes that you wish to listen to in the designated booths.

Students need to view the accompanying video for each episode/chapter. Ideally each video should be viewed three times. There are several ways of completing this video viewing:

• The videos will often, but not always be viewed during class time.

• The Extended Learning Institute (ELI) airs Destinos videos which students can view on different cable networks that carry the NVCC ELI broadcasts. Check for video schedules on your cable network in the Schedule of Classes.

• Students may check videos out from the library for an hour (for use within the library only). There are VCR viewing stations on the first floor. Students will need their NVCC Student I.D. Card in order to check the videos out. Videos can be also be checked out for a week or more, but there are very few copies. (Also check your local public library, e.g., Arlington County's Quincy Library.)

• Students can make arrangements with the instructor to view video before or after class in the classroom.

Spanish Materials

• Hodge's Webpage - Classroom notes, grammar and vocabulary practice, PowerPoint classroom presentations, Internet links

• Internet
• Destinos Software
• Spanish Ace - Verb Practice
• Spanish Now - Reading and Listening Practice
• MS Word -- (Spanish Spellcheck & Thesaurus pending)
• Éxito - Vocabulary, Grammar & Functional Situations
• Spanish Triple Play Plus - Vocabulary & Situations
• Hola Español - Vocabulary & Verb Practice
• The Rosetta Stone - Listening practice for Vocabulary & Grammar
• Carmen - Grammar Practice

Attendance:

It is not possible to succeed in this course without regular class attendance. Only one (summer six wk. program) /two classes (16 wk. regular semester) of unexcused absences are permitted.

If you find it necessary to miss a class session due to circumstances beyond your control, it is your responsibility to complete all assignments you miss by the time you return to class.
Please e-mail your instructor or another fellow students for assignments.  Late arrival may be counted as a partial absence, at the discretion of the professor. Make-up work can be arranged after the student and the professor have mutually agreed on an assignment.

Withdrawal and Audit:

Withdrawal without grade penalty, or change from credit to audit must be completed at the Office of Admissions and Records. The student is held responsible for this change in academic status. A student who does not complete the course, but who fails to withdraw officially, will have all uncompleted work averaged as F.

Good Language Learners

1. Good language learners are willing and accurate guessers. They use all the clues which the setting offers and are thus able to narrows down what the meaning and intent of the communication might be.

2. Successful language learners have strong motivation to communicate. They will do many things to communicate: paraphrase, use gestures, circumlocute, etc.

3. Good language students are often not inhibited. They are willing to take a chance and make mistakes in order to learn to communicate.

4.  Good language learners are prepared to attend to from and pattern. They are constantly looking for patterns in the language they constantly analyze and categorize the linguistic material.

5.  Good language learners monitor.

Field Trips to Wolf Trap, National Gallery of Art
Video and Spanish written summary of Spanish/L.A. movies
Spanish Theatre Plays held in the area
Éxito Software Practice
Spanish Language Exchange Partners
Native Speaker Interview Project
Video Project

The professor assumes that students:

• take responsibility for their own learning
• are serious about and want to learn
• will not miss more than one week of unexcused absences
• will come prepared to class with appropriate materials needed, e.g., pencil, books
• will come prepared for the lesson's assignment
• will make-up any missed tests
• will keep notes in a notebook on class lectures
• will manage time according to personal needs to provide for 5 - 6 study hours per week (2 hrs. per credit hour)
• will make up tardies or absences with extra credit work
• will make use of all learning resources, e.g., library, tutorial services, Learning Resources Center, computer lab to receive help with study aids
• will attempt to join a study group to learn and review concepts
• will confer often with the professor to gauge on-going progress
• will become aware of his/her learning style and make necessary

adaptation to accommodate and enhance foreign language learning skills
• will focus at all times on developing foreign language skills for

communication regardless of foreign language aptitude/ability.
•  will focus on developing multi-cultural sensitivity in a multi-cultural society and world.