Spanish I

Course code: SPA100

Semester and year: Spring 2025

Day and time: Tuesday and Thursday 08.00h-9.15.00h

Instructor: Ana Alonso

Instructor contact: ana.alonso@aauni.edu

Consultation hours: Daily by appointment

 

Credits US/ECTS	3/6	Level	Introductory
TOEFL iBT 71	15 weeks	Pre-requisite	TOEFL iBT 71
Contact hours	42 hours	Course type	BachelorRequired/Elective

 

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to provide students with the necessary tools in order to communicate in written and oral form and to complete the level A1.1 of Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). This course has been designed for absolute beginners in Spanish.

The course main objectives are to:

• Introduce students to the language of the Spanish speaking countries.
• Promote the development of students' communicative competence of oral and written Spanish.
• Develop students’ intercultural competence and understanding. 

 

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

• Understand and use very elementary vocabulary and phrases to satisfy basic needs.
• Interact using everyday expressions in basic formal and informal situations.
• Introduce themselves and others and provide personal information such as nationality, age and preferences.
• Understand and fill in basic forms, as well as understand and write short texts such as postcards or letters.
• Interact with others in a simple manner provided a sympathetic speech partner who, speak slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.

 

Reading Material

 

Required Materials

• Textbook: “Aula Internacional Plus 1. Libro del alumno” + MP3 descargable. VV. AA. Difusion. 2020. ISBN 9788418032189

You can purchase the textbook in Oxford Bookshop, Neo Luxor Knihkupectví and major bookshops in Prague. It is also available online in www.megabooks.cz http://www.difusion.com and www.klett.cz

 

Recommended Materials 

• A Spanish-English Dictionary of your choice or online dictionary:  www.wordreference.com https://www.deepl.com/en/translator https://search.seznam.cz/?q=slovn%C3%ADk https://es.glosbe.com/

 

Teaching methodology

 

We will follow a communicative approach in our course. The fundamental aim of this approach is to help the student learn to communicate in Spanish within a variety of contexts and situations. With this purpose in mind, we use a method which is based on carrying out tasks and projects from the very first day of class and this will allow the student to manage personal and public situations successfully.

Course Schedule

 

Date/Week	Class Agenda
1 30/1	Introduction & Unit 0. Topic: "En el aula". Description: Introduction to the subject, criteria for evaluation and deadlines. Alphabet, presentations, exchanging basic personal information.  Assignments/deadlines:p. 141, n. 1,2.
2 4/2 6/2	Unit 0. Topic: "En el aula" & Unit 1: "Nosotros". Description: Classroom vocabulary, basic questions, number and gender Assignments/deadlines: p. 142-143, n. 3,4,5, 8,9, 13
3 11/2 13/2	Unit 1. Topic: "Nosotros". Description: Talking about hobbies and free time. Present tense. Regular verbs.  Assignments/deadlines: p. 143-145, n. 10,11,12, 17.
4 18/2 20/2	Unit 1. Topic: "Nosotros". Description:  Profession and nationalities, sharing personal information with classmates. Assignments/deadlines: p. 145-147, n. 18, 20, 22, 24.
5 25/2 27/2	Unit 1 & Unit 2. Topic: "Nosotros", "Quiero aprender español" Description: Our contact list, sharing personal information, quiz. Images of Hispanic culture. Assignments/deadlines: p. 148-150, n. 1, 2,3,11,12 & [Final task 1]: Poster "Las personas de la clase”.
6 4/3 6/3	Unit 2. Topic: "Quiero aprender español" Description: Gender of words. Talking about languages and hobbies. Assignments/deadlines: p. 148-151, n. 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 15, 16.
7 11/3 13/3	Unit 2. Topic: "Quiero aprender español" Description: Regular verbs in present tense. Subject personal pronouns. Giving reasons “Por” vs. “Para”. Assignments/deadlines: p.151-154, n. 21, 22, 26.
8 18/3 20/3	Unit 2. Topic: "Quiero aprender español" – review and mid-term exam. Description: Fixed structures to express preferences, creating “Course objectives list”. Spanish and you, quiz. Assignments/deadlines: [Final task 2]: El español y yo & Mid-term test.
9 1/4 3/4	Unit 3. Topic: “¿Dónde está Santiago?” Description: Description of a place. “Estar” vs. “Hay”. Interrogative pronouns.  Assignments/deadlines: p. 155, n. 1,2,3,4,5,6.
10 8/4 10/4	Unit 3. Topic: "¿Dónde está Santiago?" Description: Gathering information. “Cuál” vs. “qué”, expressing location, quantifiers "muy, mucho". Assignments/deadlines: p.157-158, n. 8,9,10,11,12
11 15/4 17/4	Unit 3. Topic: "¿Dónde está Santiago?" Description: my city, my country, describing climate and geography. Understanding and writing postcards. Assignments/deadlines: p. 159-160, n. 15,16,17,18
12 22/4 24/4	Unit 3. Topic: "¿Dónde está Santiago?" Description: Class contest on Latin American countries. Assignments/deadlines: p. 159-160, n. 21,22,23 & [Final task 3]: “Un país hispano interesante”.
13 29/4 1/5*	Unit 5. Topic: "Tus amigos son mis amigos" Description: Family and possessive pronouns. Assignments/deadlines: p. 172-173, n. 13,14,15,16,17,18.
14 6/5 8/5*	Unit 5. Topic: "Tus amigos son mis amigos" Description: Personal data and likes/dislikes. Assignments/deadlines: p. 169-171, n. 1,7,9.
15 13/5 15/5	Unit 5. Topic: "Tus amigos son mis amigos" Description: Describing personality, physical appearance. Stereotypes. Assignments/deadlines: p. 174-175, n. 19,20,21,22 & [Final task 4]: Presentation or video “Mi familia”.
16 20/5	Topic: Final class. Description:  Final exam.

*days: these lessons will be re-scheduled.

Course Requirements and Assessment (with estimated workloads)

 

Assignment	Workload (average)	Weight in Final Grade	Evaluated Course Specific Learning Outcomes	Evaluated Institutional Learning Outcomes*
Class Participation and attitude	60	10%	Participation will be graded according to active involvement, not mere  contribution when called on. Arriving on time and with all the required materials will be graded as part of the segment “Attitude”.	2, 3
Homework	40	5%	The textbook activities and writing assignments will be graded holistically (communicative effort and productive skills)	2, 3
Final tasks	10	20 %	Presentation skills, ability to explain the studied topic to peers, identify key issues, subject knowledge, …	2 , 3
Mid-term exam	20	20 %	Control on vocabulary, grammar rules and lexicon on selected domains	2, 3
Quizzes	30	15%	Multiple choice questions on vocabulary, grammar and culture content.	2, 3
Final exam	10	30%	Language control on short essays, correction of answers on reading and multiple choice grammar questions.	2, 3
TOTAL	150	100%

*1 = Critical Thinking; 2 = Effective Communication; 3= Effective and Responsible Action

 

Detailed description of the assignments

 

[Final task 1]: Poster “Las personas de la clase”.

You are going to make a poster using information about a classmate. Add a photo, drawing, etc.

Assessment breakdown

Assessed area	Percentage
Content	25 %
Language control	50 %
organization and presentation skills	15 %
Visual aid	10 %

[Final task 2]: "El español y yo".

You will create a video in Voki to speak about your relationship with the Spanish language and Hispanic culture.

Assessment breakdown

Assessed area	Percentage
Content	25 %
Language control	50 %
Organization and presentation skills	25 %

 

[Final task 3]: “Un país interesante del mundo hispano”

Make a presentation (Power point or Canva): What interesting monuments are there? Where is it? What is the climate like?

Assessment breakdown

Assessed area	Percentage
Content according to unit 3	25 %
Language control	50 %
Organization and presentation skills	15 %
Visual aid	10 %

 

[Final task 4]: Presentation “Mi familia”

Imagine you can invite someone you know to class (a relative, friend, etc.). Introduce this person to the rest of the class. Your classmates will listen and then choose the person they want to meet. They might ask questions.

Assessment breakdown

Assessed area	Percentage
Content covering most of the course	35 %
Language control	50 %
Organization and presentation skills	15 %

 

General Requirements and School Policies

 

General Requirements

All coursework is governed by AAU’s academic rules. Students are expected to be familiar with the academic rules available in the Codex and Student Handbook and to maintain the highest standards of honesty and academic integrity in their work. 

Electronic Communication and Submission

The university and instructors shall only use students’ university email address for communication. It is strongly recommended that any email communication between students and instructors take place in NEO LMS.

Each e-mail sent to an instructor that is about a new topic (meaning not a reply to an original email) shall have a new and clearly stated subject and shall have the course code in the subject, for example: “COM101-1 Mid-term Exam. Question”.

All electronic submissions are carried out through NEO LMS. No substantial pieces of writing (especially take home exams and essays )can be submitted outside of NEO LMS.

Attendance

Attendance is required. The university recommends, as a minimal policy, that students who are absent 35 percent of the course should be failed (or administratively withdrawn from the course if the absences are excused).

Absence Excuse and Make-up Options

Should the student be absent from a class for relevant reasons (illness, serious family matters), s/he needs to submit an Absence Excuse Form supplemented with documents proving the reasons for absence to the Assistant Dean. Should a student be absent during the add/drop period due to a change in registration this will be an excused absence if they submit an Absence Excuse Form along with the finalized add/drop form. The form and documents must be submitted within one week of absence. If possible, it is recommended to inform the instructor about the absence in advance. 

Students whose absence has been excused by the Dean are entitled to make up exams they missed provided that the nature of the exam allows for a make-up. The students are responsible for contacting their instructor within one week from the date the absence was excused, and for making arrangements with the instructor about make-up options as necessary.

Late work: No late submissions will be accepted – please follow the deadlines.

Electronic devices

Any electronic devices (phones, tablets, laptops…) may be used only for class-related activities (taking notes, looking up related information…). Any other use will result in being marked absent and/or being expulsed from the class. No electronic devices may be used during the exams.

Eating is not allowed during classes.

Cheating and disruptive behavior

If a student engages in disruptive or other conduct unsuitable for a classroom environment of an institution of learning, the instructor may require the student to withdraw from the room for the duration of the activity or for the day and shall report the behavior to the Dean.

Students engaging in behavior which is suggestive of cheating (e.g. whispering or passing notes) will, at a minimum, be warned. In the case of continued misbehavior the student will be expelled from the exam and the exam will be marked as failed. 

Plagiarism and Academic Tutoring Center

Plagiarism is “the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.” (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd Edition, Random House, New York, 1993)

Turnitin’s White Paper ‘The Plagiarism Spectrum’ (available at http://go.turnitin.com/paper/plagiarism-spectrum) identifies 10 types of plagiarism ordered from most to least severe:

1. CLONE: An act of submitting another’s work, word-for-word, as one’s own. 
2. CTRL-C: A written piece that contains significant portions of text from a single source without alterations. 
3. FIND–REPLACE: The act of changing key words and phrases but retaining the essential content of the source in a paper. 
4. REMIX: An act of paraphrasing from other sources and making the content fit together seamlessly.
5. RECYCLE: The act of borrowing generously from one’s own previous work without citation; To self plagiarize. 
6. HYBRID: The act of combining perfectly cited sources with copied passages—without citation—in one paper. 
7. MASHUP: A paper that represents a mix of copied material from several different sources without proper citation. 
8. 404 ERROR: A written piece that includes citations to non-existent or inaccurate information about sources 
9. AGGREGATOR: The “Aggregator” includes proper citation, but the paper contains almost no original work. 
10. RE-TWEET: This paper includes proper citation, but relies too closely on the text’s original wording and/or structure.

 

As the minimum policy the types of plagiarism from 1 through 8 results in the failing grade from the assignment and must be reported to the Dean. The Dean may initiate a disciplinary procedure pursuant to the Academic Codex. Allegations of bought papers and intentional or consistent plagiarism always entail disciplinary hearing and may result in expulsion from AAU.

If unsure about technical aspects of writing, students are encouraged to consult their papers with the tutors of the AAU Academic Tutoring Center. For more information and/or to book a tutor, please contact the ATC at: http://atc.simplybook.me/sheduler/manage/event/1/.

Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities are asked to contact their instructor as soon as possible to discuss reasonable accommodation.

 

Grading Scale

 

Letter Grade	Percentage*	Description
A	95 – 100	Excellent performance. The student has shown originality and displayed an exceptional grasp of the material and a deep analytical understanding of the subject.
A–	90 – 94
B+	87 – 89	Good performance. The student has mastered the material, understands the subject well and has shown some originality of thought and/or considerable effort.
B	83 – 86
B–	80 – 82
C+	77 – 79	Fair performance. The student has acquired an acceptable understanding of the material and essential subject matter of the course, but has not succeeded in translating this understanding into consistently creative or original work.
C	73 – 76
C–	70 – 72
D+	65 – 69	Poor. The student has shown some understanding of the material and subject matter covered during the course. The student’s work, however, has not shown enough effort or understanding to allow for a passing grade in School Required Courses. It does qualify as a passing mark for the General College Courses and Electives.
D	60 – 64
F	0 – 59	Fail. The student has not succeeded in mastering the subject matter covered in the course.

*Decimals should be rounded to the nearest whole number.

Reviewed by Ana Alonso, in January 2025.