Practicum: Spanish Language in Context ** (4 US Credits)

Please see note below.

DESCRIPTION AND GOALS

The course aims at improving students’ communicative competence in Spanish by allowing
them to use the language in an interactive environment where they will all be both providers and
recipients of in-context, meaningful input. Task performing activities will be the basis of the
course, where students will have the chance to practice and improve their Spanish by enhancing
their lexicon, grammar resources, and communicative strategies and, therefore, their fluency.
There are two sections to the Practicum: Spanish Cuisine (2 U.S. credit) and Spanish Through
Drama (2 U.S. credits):
- On the Spanish Cuisine workshop, students will learn how to prepare some of the most
representative dishes of Spanish and Basque cuisine, and also participate in the process
of elaboration of the dishes, while learning vocabulary and idioms specific to the field.
They will also become familiar with cultural links between food and social relations in
Spain.
- On the Spanish Through Drama workshop, students will work on group and pair
activities involving body and oral expression, such as roleplays, characterization and
creative story-building exercises, pronunciation and intonation issues... Cultural notes
involving daily life situations in Spain (e.g. exchanges at the supermarket, at the bar...)
will also be addressed.

METHODOLOGY
For the Spanish Cuisine workshop, instructors will show the process of cooking a particular dish
while they explain the different steps and comment on the vocabulary and expressions, as well
as cultural notes relevant to the context of cooking and eating in Spain. At the end, students will
need to prepare their own recipe of a dish and do a presentation in class. In the Spanish Through
Drama workshop, ice-breaking, trustwork and group dynamic-building exercises will lead to
more acting-related exercises including work on actual excerpts of Spanish plays. In the end,
students will work on the script of their own brief play or sketch, which they will perform for
their fellow students at the end of the semester.

Both workshops will therefore encompass the four language skills: listening, speaking, writing
and reading.

Important: Students do not need to have previous experience in cooking or drama to take the
course. All students are welcome. Please notice the goal of the course is not to turn students into
cooks or actors; cooking and drama will be used as tools for students to improve their Spanish
language skills.

ASSESSMENT
Students’ grades will be calculated according to the following breakdown:

Spanish Cuisine (1/2 of final grade): Class activities: 45%

Participation: 10%
Final presentation: 45%

Spanish Drama (1/2 of final grade): Class activities: 30%

Participation: 10%
Homework: 25 %
Final project (script writing, rehearsals, mini-tasks): 35%

 FEE
Fee for class materials (not included in tuition fees): 150 €
** The student must be registered for Spanish II or have an equivalent level of Spanish.

Note: Class attendance is essential in all courses. Therefore, it will be checked daily. Missing
classes will negatively affect the student’s final grade.