SPAN320

This course will foster students' learning about the Spanish syntax, that is, "the department of grammar which deals with the established usages of grammatical construction and the rules deduced therefrom," according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The course will reinforce and expand students' knowledge of the system of rules underlying the Spanish language. Students will practice grammar rules through controlled and communicative exercises, especially in areas of particular challenge to Anglophone and heritage speakers such as the use of the preterit versus the imperfect and ser versus estar as well as the subjunctive mode, prepositions and diacritical marks. While the study of isolated grammar structures will be an important part of the course, we will emphasize grammar in context as well as the learners' reflection on language through the examination of short texts and the comparative framework supported by translation. Students will see how grammar functions in short stories by well-known writers, newspaper articles, and through the scrutiny of their own postings on the Web.