Certificate Degree - Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language

Module: Introduction

1. Classroom Management Techniques and Practice Reflection (3 credits)

   Identifying the basic characteristics of the classroom and how to manage it, how to correct, teamwork and the first language usage. Analyzing the current theories on learning in groups with different capacities and on classroom discipline. The subject deals with a very important task for the teacher: reflection on actions.

2. Observation and Research in the classroom (3 credits)

   Most influential traditional ways of investigation and philosophy of the skill on which they are based. Current approaches of investigation in the classroom like, for example, the theory that observation is selective and a cultural construct. This subject gives a solid skills and techniques foundation that enable to approach the Report and the Research Project.

Module: Acquisition and learning

1. Second Language Acquisition (3 credits)

   Second language acquisition’s main models and their influence in the classroom. First language acquisition is taken into account and the parallelisms between both processes are shown. Analysis of the context’s influence in second language acquisition. Consideration of the factors that may affect the student’s language acquisition in a real classroom context in which the teaching staff works.

2. Individual Factors in Learning (3 credits)

   All classrooms include a group of people, and each person has a unique life experience, linguistic patterns, emotional and intellectual development and learning style. Current investigations highlight the role of individual factors in the student’s linguistic development. This subject investigates the cognitive, affective, physical and psychological factors that influence individual learning and critically examines concepts like intelligence, ability, motivation and personality.

3. Learning Strategies (3 credits)

   Analysis of the current investigation projects in the learning strategies field and the many ways to encourage students to develop them. Classification of the diverse learning strategies and their relationship with the current trends on textbooks.

Module: Social Aspects of the Language

1. Communication and Pragmalinguistic Proficiency (3 credits)

   Communication as animal and human phenomenon. Communicative functions. Components: participants, context, code. The communication process as a model of interaction. Basic concepts in the pragmatic and sociolinguistic adequacy.

2. Language, Culture and Bilingualism (3 credits)

   Language and culture: factors of the cultural component. Historical perspective. Interculturality. Intercultural communication. Contrastive analysis: methodology. Bilingualism: psicolinguistic and linguistic aspects. Bilingualism and education. Educational policy and bilingual education programs.

Module: Spanish as a Foreign Language

1. Spanish Grammar for ELE Teachers (3 credits)

   The role of grammar in the ELE classroom. Basic grammar topics: the present tense, past simple, the future and the conditional, the imperative, the subjunctive, the indirect style, ser and estar, the personal pronouns.

2. Spanish Language and its varieties

   The current situation of the Spanish language in the Hispanic world: unity and diversity. Spanish or Castilian: Terminological issues? Characterization of the diatopic varieties of Spanish. Description of the sociocultural and diaphasic varieties. The Spanish ideal as a model for the teaching of E/LE.

3. Vocabulary Teaching (3 credits)

   On the words: some fundamental notions of lexicology: the lexical unit, its relationships, and structure. Which words must be taught: "fundamental” lexicon, "aerolite” words, levels and linguistic registers. How to teach those words: playing with the lexicon; correcting and evaluating. More than words: idioms. The use of dictionaries in teaching E/LE. Other channels: cinema, television, music, the Internet.

Module: Methodology

1. Methodological Bases (3 credits)

   Main methodological approaches of language teaching and its historical evolution: grammar translation, audiolingual and direct. This course examines modern approaches such as the humanistic, communicative and lexical, the one which is focused on the student and the method concept is analyzed in detail.

2. Developing language skills in the classroom (3 credits)

   Detailed analysis of the different learning approaches in listening, reading comprehension, writing and speaking. Current research on this abilities and assessment of different classroom tasks and learning techniques, so that students improve in their Spanish language usage.

3. Assessment, Adaptation and Creation of Materials and Sources (3 credits)

   Assessment of the materials for English learning (textbooks and complementary materials) that are used nowadays. Weaknesses and strengths of that material regarding the characteristics of each context and curriculum design. Material assessment principles and priorities when applying them. The creating, testing and reviewing processes in specific learning contexts.

4. Educational technology in language learning (3 credits)

   Ways of using computers to develop the language skills and the relationship between technology and learning methods. Implications of using computers as learning tools. Software assessment is encouraged, including multimedia software innovations and Internet apps.

5. Projects and Tasks (3 credits)

   Learning based on projects and tasks. Examination of a task’s structure and its components. Structuring a didactic unit based on tasks. Criterion for the assessment of tasks and current discussion on the need to focus on the form of the examined tasks. Analysis of the implications of learning based on tasks in curriculum designing and programming, especially in the context of working with projects.

6. Evaluation of the Language Learning Process (3 credits)

   Assessment foundations: formal and informal assessment, language learning, assessment phases and components. Main topics: what to assess, prospective, perfective and perfect variables, to whom, when, for whom (audience). Assessment tools: observation, test Criteria to assess the tools. Data collection Data analysis. Conclusions and proposals.

7. Programming and Curriculum Development - Theory and Practice (3 credits)

   Curriculum language designing. Curriculum E/LE designing. Status analysis and setting objectives: at a ministerial level, international (Instituto Cervantes curriculum) and local. Programming: methodology at the three levels. Assessment.

Practicum

The Practicum consists in presenting a paper about one of the theoretical aspects addressed during the course from a practical perspective.

The paper is carried out during the third and fourth quarter of the course and must be submitted in the fifth quarter.

One possibility is to carry out an action-research work on the own professional context and the application in actual class sessions of the knowledge acquired during the course. This enables the students to become aware, analyze and improve their teaching skills and abilities of self-analysis, reflection, observation and participation in the classroom work; skills that they may continue to apply after the course.

Master’s Degree Report

Once completed the subjects of the course and submitted the practicum, the student must carry out the Master’s Degree Report.

This work may be theoretical, practical or a combination of both. In addition, for the implementation of the Master’s Degree Report, the student also has the option to take as a basis the submitted Practicum and broaden the research carried out in it.

The Master’s Degree Director of each university - or, as the case may be, the Program Coordinator in cooperation with the Director - helps the trainee teacher in the election of the topic and is responsible to advise and oversee the work development.

Note: The contents of the academic program may be subject to slight modifications, depending on the updates or the improvements made.