Applied Spanish 4: Language and Culture in Context module (PS40002)

Develop comprehensive linguistic knowledge, cultural insight and intercultural competence, and transferable cognitive and advanced communication skills which will be of use in your personal and professional lives. You will develop an understanding of the major artistic movements of the 20th Century and concepts of identity. You will work within language skills at a level of C1 (most skills and topic areas) as described in the Common European Framework for Languages.

By recognising, understanding, and applying accurately and confidently the main vocabulary and advanced grammatical structures of Spanish, you will communicate very competently across the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Skills will be developed in creative writing, translation into English and translation theory, bilateral interpreting, team negotiation and problem-solving (group role play), and analysis and comparison of the vision of society presented through Spanish-language cinema and art of the 20th and 21st Century.

What you will learn

In this module, you will:

• use a standard bilingual English-Spanish dictionary skilfully and a monolingual dictionary proficiently
• listen to, read, speak, and write Spanish critically, coherently, creatively, sensitively, and effectively, individually and as part of a team, in a wide range of complex social and work-related contexts
• provide accurate and readable English translations of a range of complex texts in Spanish and perform effectively as interpreter during discussions between Spanish and English speakers
• research, analyse, and synthesise effectively Hispanic material from a wide range of printed, web-based, and audio-visual resources, including film and painting
• engage in informed critical discussion in Spanish and in English about contemporary social and cultural issues from an intercultural perspective

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate accuracy and high levels of competence in virtually all the structures of Spanish language across the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing
• demonstrate the ability to use metalanguage to describe aspects of Spanish in relation to your first language
• demonstrate deep and extensive knowledge of the Spanish-speaking cultures and societies studied
• communicate confidently and sensitively in Spanish in a wide range of complex situations
• switch smoothly between Spanish and English

Assignments / assessment

• oral skills (10%)
• written coursework 1 (10%)
• culture coursework 1 (15%)
• written coursework 2 (10%)
• culture coursework 2 (15%)
• oral exam (20%)
• written exam (20%)

To pass the module, both aggregate written and aggregate oral components of the coursework must be passed.

Teaching methods / timetable

• in-person lectures and workshops
  • 40 hours of specialised Spanish language tutorial teaching (2 hours per week), normally delivered in part by a native speaker
  • approximately 10 hours of lectures/seminars on Spanish film, culture, and society delivered normally in the target language
• regular film screenings
• independent study