2009 Summer Language Session - California


Intensive Language Courses: Seven-Week Session
Schedules, texts, and staffing are subject to change

Daily activities normally include four hours of classroom instruction plus additional work in the language and computer laboratories. Each level is an integrated program and students must take all parts for a total of three undergraduate units.

SPAN 3103 Beginning Writing
Quarles

This course is designed to develop writing skills through a process approach that includes strategies and techniques such as composing, revising, paraphrasing, editing, and using a bilingual dictionary. Students will produce writing of various kinds, such as messages, descriptions, comparisons, and brief narratives that integrate the content areas, tasks, and structures from the other courses in the program. (1 unit)

SPAN 3104 Beginning Reading and Culture
Quarles

This course is designed to develop reading strategies by providing abundant opportunities to read a variety of authentic text types, such as newspapers and magazine articles, realia, and brief literary selections. In addition to expanding the vocabulary base, the topics presented will serve as a springboard for listening, speaking, and writing activities. The information presented in the readings will offer a broad foundation in Hispanic cultural knowledge. (1 unit)

Required text for Level 1: Alicia Ramos & Robert L. Davis, Portafolio (McGraw Hill, 2008). This is a special package created for Middlebury College's Spanish School.

SPAN 3151 Communicating in Spanish (High Beginner)
Amigo Silvestre

Designed for students with some previous study of Spanish or another Romance language, this course builds on and rapidly expands control of basic grammatical structures and vocabulary. Students consolidate their ability to negotiate basic survival situations in the target-language cultures, and prepare themselves for continued study of the language. New language functions will be presented in meaningful activities that emphasize all four language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Cultural knowledge that will build a deeper understanding of how Spanish-speaking peoples communicate is a crucial component of the course content. This course meets two hours a day. (1 unit)

SPAN 3153 High Beginner Writing
Serrano

This course is designed to develop existing writing skills through a process approach that includes the techniques of composing, revising, paraphrasing, editing, and using a bilingual dictionary. Students will integrate previous knowledge and the content areas, tasks, and structures from the other courses in the program to produce descriptions, comparisons, narratives, and other types of written texts. (1 unit)

SPAN 3154 High Beginner Reading and Culture
Serrano

This course is designed to develop and consolidate reading strategies by providing abundant opportunities to read a variety of authentic text types, such as newspapers and magazine articles, realia, and brief literary selections. The topics presented will integrate vocabulary and functions from other courses in the program, in addition to increasing cultural proficiency and knowledge. (1 unit)

Required text for Level 1.5: Alicia Ramos & Robert L. Davis, Portafolio (McGraw Hill, 2008). This is a special package created for Middlebury College's Spanish School.

SPAN 3203 Intermediate Writing
Gamboa

In this class, students improve their written expression in Spanish by studying models of good writing in Spanish and producing a variety of text types; the course also serves as an introduction to academic writing. The language functions covered include past and future narration, extensive descriptions, comparisons, expressing opinions, and hypotheses. Students will expand on previous knowledge of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world and integrate other content areas into their work. (1 unit)

SPAN 3204 Intermediate Culture and Civilization
Gamboa

Students expand on existing knowledge of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world to arrive at a deeper understanding of the concepts of cultural identity and nation. Topics include traditions, customs, and artistic manifestations of culture from Spain and Latin America, as well as a basic outline of the history of these regions. Materials include extensive readings (literary and journalistic texts) and audiovisual sources (film). Class activities include in-class discussion, interviews with native speakers, and compositions. (1 unit)

Required text for Level 2: Foerster, Lambright, & Alonso-Pino, Punto y Aparte, 3rd ed. Text: ISBN 0073124486 (McGraw-Hill); Foerster, Lambright, & Alonso-Pino, Punto y Aparte, 3rd ed. Workbook/Lab Manual: ISBN 0073211885 (McGraw-Hill).

Students will be placed in 3301 or 3401 but should also choose 2 (two) Advanced-Level Electives from the listing below – one from the area of Writing and one from the area of Literature/Culture/Arts – at the time of pre-registration. Class size is limited and registrations will be handled in the order in which they are received by fax, up to the limit for the section.

SPAN 3301 Advanced Intermediate Spanish in Context
Staff

This course will stress the expansion of the student's active vocabulary and language skills at the third-year level. Classroom activities will center on a thorough review of the most important aspects of Spanish grammar, as well as active oral use of the language. The oral exercises will expose students to extended discourse and will develop content and context as appropriate for students moving from the intermediate to the advanced proficiency levels. The grammar explanations will be complemented by extensive oral and written exercises in contextualized and communication-based activities. This approach, together with the other courses taught at the third-year level as well as the linguistic experiences the student has outside of the classroom, will provide immediate reinforcement of new structures and are intended to maximize the student's linguistic competence. This course meets for two hours each day. (l unit)

Required text: Concha Moreno, Avance. Curso de español. Nivel intermedio-avanzado. Libro del alumno (Madrid, SGEL, 2003).

SPAN 3401 Advanced Spanish in Context
Carballo Sanchiz

This course is based on a teaching philosophy that considers language as an oral/aural means of communication. The study of grammar is not an end in itself, but rather a means to accelerate language learning and make it a more effective process. The dynamic use of language will be the basis of this approach. Through significant grammar practice that combines both formal and communicative approaches, students will develop and integrate the four language skills: listening comprehension, reading comprehension, oral expression and written expression. The course content will include four main areas that will be integrated in the proposed activities: 1) Functional content: the communicative elements, enumerating the functions which students should know in order to make effective use of the language; 2) Grammatical content: the grammatical elements, and the communicative functions associated with them; 3) Subject content: subjects and situations that facilitate the social use of language and transmit a real and current image of the Spanish-speaking world; 4) Lexical content: vocabulary from texts representing different socio-linguistic and stylistic registers.

Required texts: Español Lengua Viva 3. Libro del Alumno (ISBN 978-84-9713-044-8); Español Lengua Viva 3. Cuaderno de Actividades (ISBN 978-84-9713-042-4); Gramática. Avanzado B2 Anaya ELE EN (ISBN 978-84-667-6433-9).

SPAN 3409/6509 Academic Writing
Cardona López

This course will focus in the communications of ideas and thoughts in specific rhetorical situations, as well as in the reinforcement of the skills developed in previous courses of Spanish grammar and composition. Students will practice the generation of ideas before composing, apply technical strategies and tools to write in a clear and coherent way, familiarize themselves with different type of composition, and improve their vocabulary. At the end of the course the students will be able to produce their own texts suitable for academic purposes.

Required Texts: Guadalupe Valdés et al, Composición: proceso y síntesis, 4th ed. (McGraw Hill, 2004. ISBN 0072953039); Guadalupe Valdés et al, Composición: proceso y síntesis. Cuaderno de práctica, 4th ed. (McGraw Hill, 2004. ISBN 0072864788); materials in electronic format to be made available upon arrival.

SPAN 3410/6510 Spanish Phonetics
Davis

In this class, the students will learn basic linguistic tools to analyze the phonetic and phonological systems of Spanish. Topics include the phonetic alphabet, syllabification, and thorough review of Spanish spelling system and accent marks. Students will use these linguistic tools to diagnose and correct possible deficiencies in the pronunciation of Spanish that give the student a non-normative accent. We will also study the range of regional and social accents and dialects of Spanish. This contextualization of phonetics, within the geographical and social realities of the Spanish-speaking world, makes this class a perfect complement to the study of the cultures and literatures that are the core of the humanities-oriented curriculum.

Required text: Material in course pack and electronic format to be made available upon arrival.

SPAN 3431/6531 Hispanic Culture through Theater/Performance (Mills)
Rivero

In the last twenty years, the use of dramatic techniques has increasingly contributed to foreign language teaching methodology, bringing life and excitement to in-class practice and promoting the speaking of the language outside the class. This course helps the students to elaborate on and improve their knowledge of Spanish language in an unconventional way, as well as to express themselves not only with words but also by means of their bodies. In addition this kind of practice helps them to unfold their creativity and experience the reality of group work. Realizing a performance at the end of the learning process in front of an audience improves significantly their understanding and phonetics. This course is designed to build up language skills through learning dramatic texts and theatre performance. The four major themes of this course are: the linguistic aspect, the communication aspect through the presentation of different styles of acting and voice techniques, the literary aspect presented through the choice of classic and contemporary ibero-latinoamerican writers; and the cultural aspect presented through visits to a variety of appropriate local places.

Required text: Material in course pack and electronic format to be made available upon arrival.

SPAN 3470/6570 Latin American Short Story
Cardona López

This course will be an introduction to the reading and knowledge of one of the major genres of Spanish American Literature developed during the Twentieth Century. It will include an introduction to the theoretical considerations that are fundamental to analyze a short story. This course will be focused on four main Spanish American short story writers: Jorge Luis Borges, Juan Rulfo, Julio Cortázar, and Gabriel García Márquez. The works of these authors will be studied in light of their structure and style, as well as the contexts in which they can be interpreted. In addition to the required texts, other readings and material will be supplied in electronic format.

Required Texts: Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones (Madrid: Alianza. ISBN 8420633127); Juan Rulfo, El llano en llamas (Madrid: Cátedra. ISBN 8437605121); Julio Cortázar, Los relatos I: Ritos (Madrid: Alianza. ISBN 842061615X); Gabriel García Márquez, Los funerales de la mamá grande (Buenos Aires: Sudamericana. ISBN 95007009


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