SP 347 - Spanish Conversation: Emerging Independent Abroad

This course is designed for students with an intermediate Spanish level to improve oral expression, taking advantage of the linguistic and cultural immersion which is characteristic of study abroad. The SP347 student has already acquired basic linguistic, communicative, and intercultural competences and wants to reinforce them through review and improvement. The student will be able to express them self in a broad array of scenarios, talking about self or others, with precision and a large degree of understanding. Immersion in Spanish daily life, use of authentic materials, and the improvement of oral and written strategies, will favor the acquisition of the necessary linguistic resources to better manage daily life in Spanish society. Research has demonstrated that study abroad can enhance every aspect of language ability. One of the most important general findings of this research is, however, that study abroad is most beneficial for the development of abilities related to social interaction. Students who go abroad can learn to do things with words, such as requesting, apologizing, or offering compliments, and they may also learn to interpret situations calling on such speech acts in ways that local people do…In short, and logically, study abroad has been shown to enhance the aspects of communicative competence that are most difficult to foster in classroom settings.