Fall 2012
History of the Spanish Language (LET126H)
Course Description:
Stratum, substratum, and adstratum of the Spanish language, loans, derivation, composition and parasynthesis. Classic and vulgar Latin. Latin from Spain. Age of Visigoth: Structural and lexical characteristics. Arabic elements of Spanish. Primitive and archaic Castellano. Age of Alfonso X: the prose: Structural and lexical characteristics. From medieval Spanish to classic Spanish, observable changes. Modern and contemporary Spanish. Extension and varieties of Spanish. The jew-spanish. Spanish from the Americas.
Course Reflective Narrative:
This course focused primarily on explaining the roots of Spanish, the changes it went through, and where it has come today with such an extensive reach in terms of the amount of countries that speak it. Spanish is a romantic language, therefore its roots are deeply embedded in Latin. Over the course of the semester we saw how these changes occurred looking at the transformation of words like "DORMITE" in Latin and seeing how and why, over the course of time and with the evolution of language, it changed to "DORMIR" in Spanish. Other concepts such as verbs, subjunctive, imperative, and indicative were explained as well.
Spanish Sociolinguistics (LET070E)
Course Description:
The course challenges students knowledge of sociolinguistics of the Spanish language, by means of, profoundness of the terms and techniques that sustain them. The study focuses on the description and the analysis of the language in use, in its social context, and special attention will be placed on Spanish from Chile and America. The student will also be familiarized with the methods and applications there are to achieve a particular sociolinguistic analysis.
Course Reflective Narrative:
This course highlighted a number of things that we as human beings experience on a daily basis. It sheds light to the linguistic world of language in the socially diverse contextual situations we come into. The concepts wrapped around this field of study include: why certain people speak the way they do, how language, according to society, can determine one's social class, the grammar of the rich, middle, and lower class, different intonation patterns between men and women, younger and older etc. In our final project we were required to perform a normal basic interview on someone without them knowing that the recording was being done. That way there is no interference or change in how the speaker would normally talk. All in all this course advanced my knowledge of real life situations, issues and key points in daily life.
Advanced Spanish
Course Description:
Reviews all phases of communication skills with practice in understanding, speaking, and writing grammatically correct Spanish. Teaches specific components of Spanish grammar: the Spanish verbal system, the subjunctive, ser versus estar, and other problematic aspects of grammar. For students planning to teach Spanish.
Course Reflective Narrative:
This course was taken while abroad in Santiago, Chile, while going to school at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. In this class we focused mainly on spoken communication, forming a well-rounded individual who is able to communicate effectively and in a manner that is relative to the student. We focused a lot on the typical errors that second language learners of Spanish make the most, centralizing on the concepts of the subjunctive, imperative, past subjunctive, pronunciation and other difficult grammar concepts. The one area that helped me the most was being able to identify the main concept of an article or other specific reading. The professor did a good job in giving out coursework that would make us focus on the central idea of a text to better prepare to write an essay or give a short presentation.
Course Description:
Stratum, substratum, and adstratum of the Spanish language, loans, derivation, composition and parasynthesis. Classic and vulgar Latin. Latin from Spain. Age of Visigoth: Structural and lexical characteristics. Arabic elements of Spanish. Primitive and archaic Castellano. Age of Alfonso X: the prose: Structural and lexical characteristics. From medieval Spanish to classic Spanish, observable changes. Modern and contemporary Spanish. Extension and varieties of Spanish. The jew-spanish. Spanish from the Americas.
Course Reflective Narrative:
This course focused primarily on explaining the roots of Spanish, the changes it went through, and where it has come today with such an extensive reach in terms of the amount of countries that speak it. Spanish is a romantic language, therefore its roots are deeply embedded in Latin. Over the course of the semester we saw how these changes occurred looking at the transformation of words like "DORMITE" in Latin and seeing how and why, over the course of time and with the evolution of language, it changed to "DORMIR" in Spanish. Other concepts such as verbs, subjunctive, imperative, and indicative were explained as well.
Spanish Sociolinguistics (LET070E)
Course Description:
The course challenges students knowledge of sociolinguistics of the Spanish language, by means of, profoundness of the terms and techniques that sustain them. The study focuses on the description and the analysis of the language in use, in its social context, and special attention will be placed on Spanish from Chile and America. The student will also be familiarized with the methods and applications there are to achieve a particular sociolinguistic analysis.
Course Reflective Narrative:
This course highlighted a number of things that we as human beings experience on a daily basis. It sheds light to the linguistic world of language in the socially diverse contextual situations we come into. The concepts wrapped around this field of study include: why certain people speak the way they do, how language, according to society, can determine one's social class, the grammar of the rich, middle, and lower class, different intonation patterns between men and women, younger and older etc. In our final project we were required to perform a normal basic interview on someone without them knowing that the recording was being done. That way there is no interference or change in how the speaker would normally talk. All in all this course advanced my knowledge of real life situations, issues and key points in daily life.
Advanced Spanish
Course Description:
Reviews all phases of communication skills with practice in understanding, speaking, and writing grammatically correct Spanish. Teaches specific components of Spanish grammar: the Spanish verbal system, the subjunctive, ser versus estar, and other problematic aspects of grammar. For students planning to teach Spanish.
Course Reflective Narrative:
This course was taken while abroad in Santiago, Chile, while going to school at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. In this class we focused mainly on spoken communication, forming a well-rounded individual who is able to communicate effectively and in a manner that is relative to the student. We focused a lot on the typical errors that second language learners of Spanish make the most, centralizing on the concepts of the subjunctive, imperative, past subjunctive, pronunciation and other difficult grammar concepts. The one area that helped me the most was being able to identify the main concept of an article or other specific reading. The professor did a good job in giving out coursework that would make us focus on the central idea of a text to better prepare to write an essay or give a short presentation.