This course offers intensive practice in the spoken language at an advanced level of proficiency, particularly in more formal registers. Students will participate in guided conversations and discussions, but the focus will be on public discourse, such as debates and speeches. Special emphasis is placed on enrichment of vocabulary and development of rhetorical strategies rooted in real-world, practical forms of public discourse and oral communication, such as podcasts, films, YouTube videos, and newscasts. We will also engage in frequent self-reflexive activities geared toward refining our own best practices in public speaking and oral communication.

• Prerequisite: SPAN 202 (4th-Semester Spanish)

• Required for Spanish minor

• Elective for Spanish major

• Prerequisite for Bilingual Authorization Multiple Subject Program

Face-to-face instruction

Class sessions will be very interactive, focused primarily on discussion, debates, vocabulary games, skits, and other group activities.

Students will be allowed three absences in this class, no questions asked. After that, absences will result in a deduction of their attendance and participation grade by five points each. Excessive absences (more than 8) will result in automatic failure of the course.

The course is organized into four thematic units that correspond to real-world forms of public discourse. Students will listen to, watch, and analyze sample forms of media from the Spanish-speaking world and then use them as a model for their own audiovisual projects.

For each unit, students will also contribute to a collaborative vocabulary list using the wiki tool on Blackboard. We will have periodic vocab days where students will practice using the words in context through mnemonic games, analytic exercises, and creative skits.