Intermediate Spanish II

This intermediate course builds on your proficiency with the four basic skills (reading, speaking, writing, and understanding) through a direct exposure to Spanish language and Argentine culture. It exposes you to new and more complex grammar and communicative structures so that you will have more opportunities of interacting accurately and expressively with some degree of fluency with the host community. You will also be able to write articulated texts and express opinions on current topics, expressing pros and cons as well as talking about cultural elements of Argentine society.

The course combines several integrated approaches intended to develop your skills. Most in-class time - driven by the structure of the textbook - is devoted to speaking and practicing Spanish through a combination of group-based and individual activities, focusing on grammatical structures, language functions, and vocabulary. Lessons also focus on a wide range of contemporary cultural themes through the use of varied materials such as newspaper articles, songs, short readings, and short film clips. Onsite activities will require involvement with the local community, which will give you a unique chance to rapidly implement your linguistic development in real-life. In addition, you will be encouraged to read a great variety of real-life materials such as newspaper articles, advertising material, and literary texts to foster your comprehension of written sources and to enrich your vocabulary.

Special extra-curricular activities - such as music concerts, cooking classes, exploring museums and parks, Argentine movie night, or possible language-exchange opportunities - will be announced and your instructor will help you identify which activities would be most useful for you. These and other cultural components of the course will also promote your knowledge of Argentina and the Spanish language as you learn about Argentine society, and thus learning Spanish gives you a privileged opportunity to develop sensitivity towards cultural differences and to understand the ways in which culture and language interlock. In this sense, you will be encouraged to exploit the value of these lessons not just as a useful aid to your progress in other courses at the Study Center, but as a set of tools for unlocking a wide range of intercultural discoveries whilst living and studying abroad.

By the end of the course, you are expected not simply to be able to demonstrate mastery of the grammar and lexical structures studied during the course, but also the growing ability to conduct demanding conversations to express personal ideas and opinions, hypothesis in the present and the past, emotions, feelings, interests, desires, and agreement and/or disagreement with a well-elaborated argument.