COURSE SYLLABUS: SPEAKING & WRITING SKILLS

Location: Granada, Spain

Partner Institution: University of Granada

Course Title (English): Speaking & Writing Skills

Course Title (Spanish): Producción oral y escrita

Sessions Offered: Fall Semester, Spring Semester

Instructional in: Spanish

Classroom Contact Hours: 45 contact hours

College Credit (Semester Credit Hours): 3 credit hours

College Credit (Quarter Units): 4 quarter units

Pre-requisites: Advanced Spanish Level

Local Department: Hispanic Studies (CEH)

Course Code: CEH 374

Course Description

The student will test into one of the following Spanish levels at which this course is taught:
Advanced I, Advanced II, Superior I, or Superior II

Advanced I

This course aims to be of fundamental linguistic support in areas of difficulties the students may have at this level. The aims are to enable the student to understand and express him/herself in a variety of situations which may be unfamiliar, and which require exchanging information and personal opinions using complex linguistic structures.

Advanced II

Understand and express oneself in different situations not necessarily familiar to the learner and which require information and opinions to be exchanged using complex linguistic structures.

Superior I

Understand and express oneself correctly and fluently in familiar situations and communicate adequately in situations which are unfamiliar to the learner by means of complex linguistic structures.

Superior II

Understand and express oneself correctly and fluently in familiar situations and communicate adequately in situations which may be unfamiliar to the learner by means of complex linguistic structures.

Program Schedule

Advanced I

1- Vocabulary and expressions related to experiences and personal characteristics: personality and physical description.

2- Other uses of ser/estar.

3- hacerse, volverse, ponerse, llegar a ser, terminar de

4- Me gusta, me molesta, me pone nervioso... + noun / infinitive / subjuntive.

5- Correlation of tenses with the Past or Conditional: Me gustaría que + Imperfect Subjunctive.

6- Formulas of giving advice: Conditional, Imperative, poder, tener que, deber de and es mejor que in advice. Correlation of tenses with the subjunctive.

7- Vocabulary, phrases and discourse markers to comment on surveys: figures, structures of identification, orders, introduction connectors and item changing, opposition connectors.

8- Basic conditions: Si + [present indicative/imperative. subjunctive./past perfect subjunctive. Correlations with the conditioned verb.

9- Marked conditions: con tal de que, a menos que / en caso de que / siempre que, siempre y cuando / condition with gerund.

10- Conversational strategies of offering and asking. Uses of the subjunctive with: ¿quieres que...?

11- Relative phrases with preposition. Use of the subjunctive in relative phrases. Correlation of tenses.

12- Use of the subjunctive in the formulation of wishes. Correlation of tenses.

13- Paradigm of the imperative and of the stressed and unstressed personal pronouns. Placing pronouns. Reduplication of the CD and CI.

14- Vocabulary for the description of social types: pijo, progre, carca, don nadie, etc.

15- Vocabulary and expressions for the description of interpersonal relationships: llevarse, caer, ser un pedazo de pan, etc.

16- Expressions of agreement and disagreement. Uses of the related subjunctives.

17- Use of the subjunctive in the formulation of opinions: creo que, me parece que, está claro que, pienso que. Correlation of tenses.

18- Use of the subjunctive in the formulation of assessments of facts: es lógico que, está claro que, me parece imprescindible que, etc. Correlation of tenses.

19- Global functioning (interrelated) of the preterits.

20- Mechanisms to mark perspective. Use of the Past Perfect indicative and paraphrasing: estar + gerund, estar + participle, ir a + infinitive, estar a punto de + infinitive.

21- Resources to correct information: no..., sino / sí (que) / es más,... / no solo..., sino (que)....Quien, cuando, donde, como, por lo que in structures of thematisation.

22- Resources to refer to specific times and quantities of time: dates / hace-hacía-hará...(que) / llevo-llevaba-llevaré... / desde... / desde hace.... Use of durar and tardar.

23- Temporal markers which change referring to the past: ahora, en este momento, hoy, esta mañana, ayer, anoche, ayer, mañana, pasado mañana, próximo/que viene, dentro de, hace.

24- Temporal correlations in the refered discourse: changes of all the tenses.

25- Verbs "of the tongue": decir, opinar, repetir, comentar, etc. Basic verbs to resume acts of speech: saludar, despedirse, invitar, negarse, aceptar, etc.

26- Use of the Future, the Future perfect, and the Condicional in the formulation of hypothesis.

27- Uses of the Subjunctive in the formulation of hypothesis: es probable que, es posible que, puede ser que, puede que, quizás, tal vez, probablemente, posiblemente.

28- Hypothesis with indicative (supongo que, seguro que, etc.).

29- Conversational strategies of(im)possibility and (im)probability.

30- Temporal particles: cuando, en cuanto, antes de (que), después de (que), desde, hasta, mientras. Uses of the subjunctive and past-present-future contrast.

Advanced II

- Express conditions I: Condition the future fulfillment of an action. Express the subjective probability of that condition (complete, medium, low or none).

- Express conditions II: Set the real time upon which the condition has effect in improbable or impossible conditions.

- Express subjective sensations, impressions and feelings. Evaluate subjectively. Express and recognize differences in register.

- Express and recognize agreement, disagreement or evasiveness in conversation. React to affirmations and proposals.

- Recognize specific language of journalism, written and oral. Reproduce journalistic texts.        

- Give arguments and make objections and react to them: give information about the objection, recognize or reject its existence. Set differences of registers.

- Relate actions in time. Write instructions.

- Recognize specific language of advertising. Formulate analyses. Recognize and produce word-play and its connotations. Convince.

- Compare different versions of a story. Formulate artistic criticism.

- Specific tasks according to the group’s necessities.

Superior I

- Exchange and evaluate personal information.

- Exchange and evaluate general information.

- Assess the attitude of others.

- Express acceptation, rejection, and evasion with different degrees of enthusiasm.

- Persuade and convince.

- Justify oneself and make excuses.

- Maintain diverse types of interpersonal relationships.

- Present accurately point of view on an event.

- Comment in detail on the intentions of what others have said.

- Make arguments with differing degrees of implication on the topic of a conversation.

- Formulate and reject statements of certainty, necessity and obligation.

- Ask and give explanations about cause, consequence, finality and manner.

- Express what one considers possible or probable.

- Reject and accept an expression of probability.

Superior II

- Condition the fulfillment of an action.

- Advise, suggest and recommend.

- Express the will to do something.

- Express surprise or wonder.

- Express compassion.

- Express resignation.

- Express satisfaction.

- Express agreement and disagreement.

- Express indignation.

- Express indifference.

- Understand and give information in linguistic registers: formal, informal, familiar and vernacular.

- Understand the diverse socio-linguistic and dialect varieties.

- Understand and reproduce intonation in statements.

Course Evaluation

80% class attendance is compulsory in order to receive an end-of-term mark. The final mark will be based on:

• The average mark obtained in the two exams, which will constitute the base mark.
• Work assigned by the teacher which will add to or subtract up to one point from the base mark depending on the work handed in.
• The number of classes attended and the student’s attitude in class, which will add to or subtract up to one point from the base mark.

Bibliography (Text and Materials)

Abanico, published by Difusión.

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