Course Title: Spanish 1

Part B: Course Detail

Teaching Period: Term1 2009

Course Code: LANG5493

Course Title: Spanish 1

School: 365T Global Studies, Soc Sci & Plng

Campus: City Campus

Program: C1051 - Certificate I in Language (Spanish)

Course Contact : Dr. Glenda Meja

Course Contact Phone: +61 3 9925 3732

Course Contact Email:glenda.mejia@rmit.edu.au


Name and Contact Details of All Other Relevant Staff

Nominal Hours: 108

Regardless of the mode of delivery, represent a guide to the relative teaching time and student effort required to successfully achieve a particular competency/module. This may include not only scheduled classes or workplace visits but also the amount of effort required to undertake, evaluate and complete all assessment requirements, including any non-classroom activities.

Pre-requisites and Co-requisites

No previous knowledge of the Spanish language.

Course Description

This certificate is completed over one semester. Through closed and then open-ended learning activities students establish a basis for development of communicative skills in the spoken and written language, emphasizing the former, and practical knowledge of the culture, in a wider range of personal and social situations and contexts. Student-centred drilling, practical and communicative activities and tasks encourage learners to be responsible for their own learning, to be creative and critical in their application of knowledge of the language in order to communicate with people of a different cultural tradition.


National Codes, Titles, Elements and Performance Criteria

National Element Code & Title:

LOTE 589 Spanish 1


Learning Outcomes


Upon completion of this course it is expected that students will be able to:
1. Participate in a short, basic conversational exchange
2. Provide basic personal information and elicit similar information from others
3. Participate in a simple transactional exchange to provide or obtain a product or service
4. Give spoken information about a person, place, product or service
5. Demonstrate understanding of spoken information
6. Complete a simple form
7. Write a short note or message
8. Identify key information on common signs or simple notices
9. Read a short, simple information text


Details of Learning Activities

Classes are conducted in Spanish and in a tutorial face-to-face format. Grammar and vocabulary are taught through the use of communicative methods such as guided or improvised conversations and hypothetical situations. New grammar is presented regularly through model dialogues, videos and supplementary material. Students practice structure and expression through spoken and written exercises. Cultural understanding is also introduced to further enhance the ideas of language and behaviour and their interrelationship as expressed in the aims of the course.

We will be doing many pair and group activities in which you are expected to participate actively and to use only Spanish. Therefore, regular class attendance is essential for successful completion of the course.

Please note that class attendance is crucial both for your success in mastering the Spanish language. There will be no time to go back over a class because someone missed it. You will be required to catch up at home yourself. Please try to attend all classes and please arrive on time!


Teaching Schedule

TENTATIVE CALENDAR OF CLASSES
Week 1 (2-6 March) (Unidad 1) - Saludos y despedidas
• Introducción
• Nosotros
- Datos personales
- Los números
- El género
- Las nacionalidades

Week 2 (9-13 March) - Quiero Aprender Español (Unidad 2)
Labour Day
- El verbo querer
- Presente del Indicativo
- El artículo determinado

Week 3 (16-20 March) - ¿Dónde está Santiago? (Unidad 2 & 3)
- El verbo estar
- Ubicación
- El superlativo (más...de)
- El clima
- Usos del hay

Week 4 (23-27 March)- ¿Cuál prefieres? (Unidad 3 & 4)
- Descripciones
- Los colores
- Los demostrativos
- El verbo tener que
- El verbo ir

Week 5 (30 March-3 April) - Tus amigos son mis amigos (Unidad 4 & 5)
*Quiz I (Unidades 1-3)
- El verbo preferir
- El verbo gustar
- Aspecto y carácter
- La familia (uso de los posesivos)

Week 6 (6-9 April) - Tus amigos son mis amigos (Unidad 5)
- Verbos reflexivos
- Verbos irregulares en presente

++++++ EASTER ++++++++++++ BREAK ++++++++

Week 7 (20-24 April) - Día a Día (Unidad 6)
*Quiz II Unidades 4-5/*Oral Presentation
- La hora
- Los días de la semana/los meses

Week 8 (27 April-1 May) - Día a Día (Unidad 6 & 7)
*Oral Presentation

- Bares y restaurantes
- Información sobre comida
- Los verbos poner/traer
- Las comidas del día
- La forma impersonal con se

Week 9 (4-8 May) - ¡A Comer! (Unidad 7)
*Oral Presentation

- Describir pueblos, barrios y ciudades
- Expresar gustos de lugares
- Cuantificadores
- Pedir información sobre direcciones
- Dar información sobre direcciones

Week 10 (11-15 May) - El Barrio Ideal (Unidad 8)
*Written exercise/*Oral Presentation

- El Pretérito Perfecto
- El Participio

Week 11 (18-22 May) - ¿Sabes Cocinar? (Unidad 8/Unidad 9)

*Oral Presentation

- El Pretérito Perfecto
- El Participio

Week 12 (25-29May) - Una Vida de Película (Unidad 9/Unidad 10)
*Oral Presentation
- Pretérito Indefinido
- Marcadores Temporales (pasado)
- El verbo empezar a

Week 13 (1-5 June) • Una Vida de Película (Unidad 10)
*Oral Presentation

- Relacionar acontecimientos del pasado
- Hablar de la duración
- El verbo ir/irse

Week 14 (8-12 June)
Queens’ B’day
• Repaso (All the material covered in the class )

Week 15 (16-20 June)
Oral (All the material covered in the class)
Listening/Writing (Unidades 6-10)



Learning Resources

Prescribed Texts

Corpas, J.,Garmendia, A.and Soriano,C.(2005).Aula Internacional 1. Barcelona: Difusión.


References

RECOMMEND BOOKS  (You can find them in RMIT library)
● Bregstein, Barbara (2005). Easy Spanish step-by-step: mastering high-frequency grammar for Spanish proficiency--fast!. Chicago: McGraw-Hill.

● Batchelor, Ronald Ernest (2006). A student grammar of Spanish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

● Rojas, Jorge Nelson (2003). Gramática esencial: grammar reference and review. Boston: Houghton Mifflin

● Zollo, Mike (2005). Interactive Spanish grammar made easy. New York: McGraw-Hill


Other Resources

RECOMMEND MATERIAL  (You can buy them in RMIT bookshop)
● VerbWheel

● Spanish Verbs & Grammar


Overview of Assessment

Language skills will be assessed via written exams or assignments, oral/speaking and aural/listening exams, as well as end-of-semester oral, aural and writing exams.


Assessment Tasks

Students are expected to complete all of the major assessments. If absent from an in-class assessment task, students will not be permitted to complete such tasks at a later date without legitimate reason, such as submission of a medical certificate. In such circumstances, a re-sit of the task is to be completed at the next scheduled assessment date. Students are required to submit all assessment tasks in the class and keep copies of all works submitted. Work submitted late will be penalised at the rate of 5 per cent of the pertinent mark per day. No work will be accepted two or more days after the scheduled due date.

I. Progressive Assessment (50%)
a) Two Short Quizzes (30%) Quiz I. Week 5 (Mon 30 March) (Unidades 1-3- 15%  ) / Quiz II. Week 7 (Mon 20 April) (Unidades 4-5 - 15%)
b) One written exercise (10%) Week 10 (Mon 11 May) 10%
c) Oral Presentation (10%) Weeks 7-13 (Mon or Wed) 10%

a) The Short Quizzes will consist of short answer questions, short written paragraphs and a listening comprehension passage with true/false short-answers.
b) A Written Exercise will consist of writing a 150 word short written exercise. A question will be given in class for you to answer and write about it.
c) An Oral Presentation you are required to participate in a 4-6 minute presentation in front of the class in Spanish on the topic of your family or friends. Students are not allowed to read the presentation. Each student will be graded individually on their own personal performance (pronunciation, grammar).

II. Final Exams (50%)
1. Listening and Written Exam (week 15) = 30%
2. Oral Exam (week 15) = 20%


Assessment Matrix

Other Information

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
Oral tasks are graded according to the following six criteria, each given equal weight.
1. grammatical accuracy
2. adequacy of vocabulary for purpose
3. intelligibility
4. fluency
5. relevance and adequacy of content
6. interactive skills

Written tasks are graded according to the following five criteria, each given equal weight.
1. relevance and adequacy of content
2. organisation
3. cohesion
4. adequacy of vocabulary for purpose
5. grammatical accuracy

COURSE ASSESSMENT GRADING
High Distinction 80- 100 HD
Distinction 70-79 DI
Credit 60-69 CR
Pass 50-59 PA
Fail NN 0-49% NN
Fail DNS Did not complete either or both of the major components of assessment (i.e. project and class tasks)

PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism may occur in oral or written presentations. It is the presentation of the work, idea or creation of another person, without appropriate referencing, as though it is one’s own. Plagiarism is not acceptable. The use of another person’s work or ideas must be acknowledged. All cases of suspected plagiarism in this course will be referred to the Course Coordinator who will decide on the action to be taken. Plagiarism may result in charges of academic misconduct, which carry a range of penalties including cancellation of results and exclusion from your course.

GRIEVANCES PROCEDURES
Any student, who has a grievance in relation to this course, must first discuss the situation with their tutor and then, if the grievance cannot be resolved at this level, the student should pursue the matter with the program co-ordinator, Dr. Glenda Mejía

Course Overview: Access Course Overview