COURSE OUTLINE
Course Title: Spanish Language for Business
Course Code: SPAN1009
Credits: 3
Level: 1
Course Description
This course is designed to introduce learners to the Spanish language and to develop related listening, speaking, reading and writing skills necessary for a business context. The communicative language teaching method is used as opposed other traditional methods. Using this approach, learners will be guided through the use of appropriate words, phrases, sentences and ultimately conversations. These interactions, although mainly oral, will include some written expression. Learners will have the opportunity, through authentic exercises, to develop their communicative competence in Spanish. At the end of the course, they will have developed the ability to communicate in the Spanish language in situations of immediate relevance to the business industry. Learning will be facilitated through the use of interactive web conferencing tools, pod casts, online images and the voices of native speakers.
Course Competencies
At the end of the course, participants will be able to:
Knowledge
1. Correctly handle basic grammatical structures in simple conversation.
2. Use vocabulary pertinent to carrying out basic functions when meeting someone, operating in the office, interacting on the telephone, moving around the city, dining at a restaurant, transacting business at the bank, or preparing for a trip.
3. Reproduce memorised formats in response to questions asked and/or when producing their own language.
4. Identify some basic features of the foreign culture studied (for example, geography).
5. Identify fundamental similarities and differences between their own and the foreign culture through a comparative analysis of some cultural values and behaviours.
Skills
6. Understand spoken (or recorded) texts in Spanish in limited survival contexts.
7. Utter basic expressions and express themselves orally in Spanish in limited survival contexts.
8. Produce and respond orally to language stimuli (such as statements, suggestions, questions, commands, requests, and expressions of gratitude and appreciation) provided within a limited business context.
9. Read and understand basic authentic texts written in the Spanish language in limited contexts.
10. Write minimally in the target language as a means of reinforcing concepts grasped in the reading, listening and speaking domains.
11. Perform at the level of A21 based on the Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages (CEFR).
12. Demonstrate some accuracy with respect to pronunciation and stress when using the
Spanish language.
Attitudes
13. Appreciate that foreign language proficiency is critical to the pursuit of business relations in multi-lingual and multi-cultural contexts.
14. Value diversity through discovery and appreciation of how persons from other cultures think and communicate.
15. Develop an appreciation for the practical value of the Spanish language and culture and act on the resulting desire to increase knowledge and proficiency through further study.
1 *Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.
