Introductory description

This module in Modern Spanish Language for post beginners follows the first year Module HP102 and seeks to consolidate the language skills gained in students’ first year of study. It covers the main linguistic (oral, aural, written, spoken) skills, and seeks to promote the continued acquisition of grammatical awareness and essential communicative competences.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Classes integrate the four skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – with an emphasis on
form by targeting some essential structures for intensive practice within a communicative
context. Students will also practice some intermediate-level translation. All these activities will
entail students´ self-study to broaden vocabulary and aural understanding. The students will
consolidate grammar learned in their first year of study, and extend their range of vocabulary and
functional aspects of Spanish.

Further information

Translation: into English/Spanish; texts will cover a series of registers from formal to
conversational, and will range from the literary to the popular and journalistic.

Essay and discursive writing: building through the year, students will produce a series of
discursive texts in a variety of registers and styles, involving prior reading, research and peer-
review, emphasis is placed on the acquisition of a broad range of vocabulary and the use of
complex grammatical structures.

Oral: students will research and prepare a series of oral presentations, focused on developing
appropriate argumentation and discussion structures and vocabulary, as well as peer learning and
group work. The final exam will, however, be individual and draw upon not only the material
covered by the class across the year but other topics related to the Spanish speaking world.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• To further develop individual skills in translation, writing, reading in Spanish
• To further develop skills of aural comprehension and oral communication
• To further develop knowledge of grammar and syntax

Indicative reading list

Gramática de uso del español. Teoría y práctica. B1-B2

Reading lists distributed at the beginning of the course.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

International

All modules delivered in SMLC are necessarily international. Students engage with themes and ideas from a culture other than that of the UK and employ their linguistic skills in the analysis of primary materials from a non-Anglophone context. Students will also be encouraged to draw on the experiences of visiting exchange students in the classroom and will frequently engage with theoretical and critical frameworks from across the world.

Subject specific skills

This module will develop students’ linguistic skills through engaging with primary materials in the target language. It will build students’ capacity to engage with aspects of Hispanic culture through analysis of this primary material and through seminar discussion aimed at deeper critical thinking. In particular, students’ awareness of the modern Spanish language will be enhanced through lectures and seminars which engage in scholarship in the field.

Transferable skills

All SMLC culture modules demand critical and analytical engagement with artefacts from target-language cultures. In the course of independent study, class work and assessment students will develop the following skills: written and oral communication, creative and critical thinking, problem solving and analysis, time management and organisation, independent research in both English and their target language(s), intercultural understanding and the ability to mediate between languages and cultures, ICT literacy in both English and the target language(s), personal responsibility and the exercise of initiative.