Discusses the need to take enough time to properly teach second-language students grammatical rules and outlines major points in a first-year Spanish curriculum that stresses reviewing grammatical concepts throughout the four semesters. (18 references) (GLR)

It is proposed that college second-language students can increase understanding of the nature of fiction and film in a carefully planned upper-level course combining genres. One Spanish teacher's experience illustrates that this improves students' appreciation of Hispanic values, specific literary and cinematographic techniques, and use of…

A college course in commercial Spanish is described. The course objectives are to: build a solid foundation of business and professional vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and punctuation; prepare for oral and written communication with commonly-used Spanish business phrases and terminology; expose students to the different types of written…

Projects in which university students of Spanish develop their language skills by serving as tutors to Spanish-speaking students in elementary and junior high schools are described. The university students develop and teach mini-courses in Spanish in their disciplines and offer health, nutrition, and consumer information courses to the community.…

This packet of materials describes and documents an integrated curriculum of Spanish second language and art instruction offered to freshmen at St. Charles High School (Illinois). The model is the first step in development of other interdisciplinary programs in the school district. The course is designed to improve students' international…

An adult continuing education course in introductory Spanish is described. In planning the course, special attention was given to making course objectives realistic for the target population; rather than undertake a traditional college-level syllabus, academic and grammar-oriented in nature, the course was designed to provide students with basic…

A collaborative effort of the business community and Kennesaw College (Georgia) resulted in the development of and implementation of an introductory commercial Spanish course that has been successful in introducing students to business practices in a Spanish-speaking environment. Previously, a translation service had been developed by the…

A college second language program compared the effectiveness of traditional second language instruction and a communicative approach in second year French, German, and Spanish courses. The communicative classes used only authentic materials, thematically organized and prepared for classroom use by the instructors. Similar topics were addressed in…

One teacher's experience in developing and teaching a college-level business Spanish course is described. The discussion contains information about the choice of content, level, cultural content, and objectives, and includes examples of instructional activities and class projects. The course was designed to focus on business correspondence and…

A commercial Spanish course offered at Marywood College (Scranton, Pennsylvania) serves both Spanish majors and majors in international business. In addition to language proficiency activities common to most commercial language courses, students have identified two projects as most functional and challenging: (1) a "carpeta" or file into…

The Spanish Intensive Courses sequence at the University of South Carolina, first offered in fall 1982, has become well received and highly visible in the university. The sequence has grown to three courses in fall 1983, all exceeding minimum enrollment requirements despite selective admission criteria. The success of the sequence has inspired the…

Second language classroom techniques and activities promoting oral proficency are suggested and discussed. The suggestions are based on a course organization that focuses on basic communicative goals and uses frequent conversation between paired students. The activities include retelling partner responses and situational role-playing. Approaches…

An Eastern Michigan University course in Spanish for special purposes with an emphasis on technology was intended to serve students of business, international trade, and technology, but the actual enrollment came largely from the department of foreign languages and bilingual studies. However, significant diversity in scientific preparation and…

The materials describe Kentucky's strategy for reforming the state standards for introductory Spanish second language instruction. They begin with a course description outlining the shift in orientation from grammar instruction to development of communicative competence. A subsequent section suggests ways in which the teacher might identify…

An exploratory course was designed to give secondary school students exposure to all languages in the foreign language curriculum, in sequence, so they may decide which, if any, to enroll in. This course was begun in 1979 to counter an elitist image of foreign language courses. Course topics encouraged students to explore the languages fully by:…