SPAN2006_Syllabus_Fall2011 - THE GEORGE WASHINGTON...

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE, GERMAN AND SLAVIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
SPAN 2006
ADVANCED SPANISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURES II
FALL 2011
PROFESOR/A
SECCIÓN
HORAS DE OFICINA
CORREO E
TELÉFONO
Carefully review the Course Guidelines, Learning Goals, and Weekly Syllabus. Please let me know
if you have any questions regarding the goals of this course, its contents, and the ways in which
you will be evaluated. Once you have read these documents, please sign at the bottom of the
GWU Academic Integrity Statement and give it back to me during the first week of class.
REQUIRED MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY
• Reading package from University Readers (GWU bookstore)
• Access to Internet, to iTunesU, media player
• Laptop computer with microphone and camera
GENERAL COURSE GOALS
This course is based on the premise that deep cultural knowledge and linguistic competence are equally
necessary in order to understand the Spanish-speaking cultures. The course is the second part of a two-
semester sequence that aims to bring your Spanish language ability to an Advanced level of proficiency
in all four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking), while increasing your cross-cultural
competence and awareness, i.e. your ability to critically understand, reflect on and analyze historical,
political, economical, social, and cultural events and manifestations of Spanish speaking societies, and to
relate them to your own society and culture. All activities and tasks contain audiovisual and written
materials with relevant and non-trivial information, as they intend to raise your linguistic and cultural
awareness, and stimulate critical analysis of the themes.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1) Acquisition of advanced oral and written communication in Spanish : you will demonstrate
developing Advanced linguistic competence: i.e. your ability to communicate as a capable interlocutor
with educated native speakers in Spanish. This includes presentational and interactional
-argumentative- modes of speaking and writing. This will be accomplished through continuous
engagement in whole-class discussions, group collaborative tasks, a series of debates,
presentational/interactional tasks, and regular work on an online blog. All these tasks represent the
oral and written discourse found in academic and social contexts.
2) Acquisition of cross-cultural competence : you will demonstrate knowledge and understanding of
the practices, products, and perspectives of the Spanish cultures studied. This will be achieved by
engagement –via class discussions, debates, blogs, presentations, and other homework- with
historical, economical, political, social, and cultural topics related to the Spanish-speaking societies
that we study. It involves understanding and interpreting authentic written and spoken texts or
narratives (film and documentary, news, literature, music, art, etc.) Many of the activities involve

cross-cultural comparisons (from the US to the Spanish societies and back) on areas such as political