SPAN420

This course presents an opportunity for you to reach a more advanced level of ability, ease and confidence in speaking and writing Spanish through volunteering with an organization serving Spanish speaking communities. In order to support your success in this experience, you will participate in intensive practice of negotiating meaning, expressing emotion and abstract concepts, hypothesizing and other advanced communicative skills. To be able to engage with others authentically, we must understand the dynamics of power and privilege and identify and move beyond ethnocentric views we receive from our culture. In order to help us consider these complex issues and the various approaches to them, the thematic focus of this course is social justice, that is, questions of equity, human rights, and access regardless of class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other category of identity. We will study current and historical contexts, exploring examples of oppression and activism originating from the Spanish-speaking world. Each student will be given an unofficial rating in speaking based on the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, a nationally recognized assessment. The coaching around this oral interview will be especially helpful to those seeking teacher certification, as it is required by the state, and for anyone interested in obtaining the rating for the job market.