SPA 309: Advanced Spanish Grammar

 

• Course Description

This course is designed to provide students with a foundation on the structure and grammar of the Spanish language while they explore the sociopolitical nature of the language. Students learn to identify Spanish sounds, grammatical categories, and characteristics of linguistic contact by investigating and understanding language variation, language ideologies, and language prestige and prejudice, among other issues, as a way to develop students’ critical linguistic awareness (CLA).

 

• Learning objectives

By the end of the semester, students will be able to:

1. Identify Spanish sounds and understand the relationship between sounds and letters. 
2. Identify morphological grammar categories, as defined in traditional grammar (noun, adjective, article, adverb, pronoun, verb, conjunction, and preposition), their components and how they are classified.
3. Identify characteristics of linguistic contact between Spanish and English  
4. Understand the difference between prescriptive and descriptive approaches to grammar
5. Understand and recognize language variation and linguistic diversity
6. Become aware of language ideologies, language prestige, and language prejudice, among other issues associated with the sociopolitical nature of language, and how these beliefs are rooted in hegemonic practices that perpetuate power dynamics (i.e., develop CLA)

 

• Required material

This is a Zero Textbook class, but here you can find some resources to support your learning throughout the course:

– Potowski, Kim & Naomi Shin. 2018. Gramática española: Variación social. Routledge. 

– Muñoz-Basols, Javier, author.; Moreno, Nina, author.; Taboada, Inma, author.; Lacorte, Manel, author (2017). Introducción a la lingüística hispánica actual: teoría y práctica

– Ashwini Ganeshan, Paige Wison and Margaret Saine (2019). La lingüística hispánica: Una introducción

– Pastor Cesteros, Susana (2004) Aprendizaje de segundas lenguas : lingüística aplicada a la enseñanza de idiomas

 

• Course Requirements

 

Participation & attendance: 10%

• Attendance, participation, and homework are mandatory. You are expected to read the assigned materials as many times as needed in order to fully understand them and to be able to formulate appropriate questions. You are expected to complete the homework before coming to class. 
• You are expected to actively participate in class by having read the assigned material and having completed the homework assigned for that specific day. Your participation should reflect engagement with the readings, the concepts and the materials under discussion. You should always be respectful with others’ ideas and opinions.
• Criteria for class participation:
  • (3) Outstanding contributor: Contributions in class reflect thorough preparation and critical thinking. Contributes but does not dominate.
  • (2) Good contributor. Contributions in class reflect thorough preparation. Contributes and provides useful insights.
  • (1) Unsatisfactory contributor. Contributions in class reflect inadequate preparation. Ideas offered are rarely a constructive direction for the rest of the class. 
  •  (0) non-participant. This person has said little or done nothing in the class. Hence, there is no adequate basis for evaluation.
• You are permitted two absences throughout the semester without penalty.  However, each additional absence will diminish your overall final grade by 2%. 
• Three late arrivals to class equal an absence.
• In the event of a health or family emergency, please do not just stop attending classes without letting your instructor know that you have a problem. You must contact your instructor immediately and inform her of your situation.

 

Discussion board (pre-class): 15%

Every week, beginning the second week onwards, the students must write an opinion or comment according to the session’s readings in the “Discussion board” section of Blackboard. All comments will be written before class, contain at least 100–200 words, and explain 2-3 main ideas/arguments. The students can interact with their classmates’ opinions and give examples using videos, images, quotes, etc. All this to open and widen the dialogue on sociolinguistics.

Note: You need to comment and participate every week in the discussion board to get the total points.

 

Short Writing Assignments: 20%

Students are expected to provide a critical reflection on the content or readings of the course. Short written assignments are 300-400-word compositions to be submitted on time, typed, double-spaced in Times New Roman 12-point font. Topics will be announced in advance.

 

Test/sociolinguistic exercises (analysis, grammar or reading): 20%

There will be 2 test/exercises related to the class topics and concepts. The students are required to respond questions, analyze images, videos or other pieces for this instance. The main objective of this assignment is to achieve critical thinking through class content and to practice writing skills in Spanish. Guidelines for these exercises will be given in advance.

 

Final Project (research project): 25% 

Each student must write a final critical essay on class topics or others previously discussed with the professor along the semester. This essay will be between 7-10 pages (double-spaced) and should cover a topic related to the Hispanic socio-cultural world in United States. This course is aimed at critically understanding the ways in which we perceive and experience the world as Hispanic/Latinx people, therefore one of the purposes of the project is to develop the capacity of “agency” of the students. To complete this purpose, the professor will assign some topics to research, but the students are also free to decide which topics to cover. Dialogue between students and professor is very important to guide the research process, so feel free to use the office hours and email to discuss about the research topics or problems.  Guidelines for this activity will be given in advance.

 

Oral presentation of the final project: 10%

All the students will have to share their final projects with the class in a 5-minute presentation or lecture at the end of the semester. Students will have to submit a pilot/plan for their project four weeks before the end of the semester. Information about the project will be provided during the course and will be available in Blackboard.