Speaking and Writing in Spanish

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 5. Gender equality

Objectives

Language will be your work tool in the future, and the fundamental objective of this subject is precisely to improve your communication skills in Spanish. To do this, we approach its contents in order to improve expression, both oral and written, and avoid errors in its daily use.

The objectives we must achieve are the following:

1. Express yourself correctly orally and in writing in Spanish.
2. Master the Spanish language at an advanced level.
3. To delve deeper into the most controversial and conflictive aspects of the language.

Learning outcomes

• Discuss situations and cases in the field of study based on the interpretation of the historical, political, cultural and socioeconomic framework, and its evolution over time.
• Demonstrate motivation, creativity and initiative in the development of academic and professional projects, as well as commitment to quality, rigor and ethics.
• Manage your own training process to acquire comprehensive training that allows you to develop personally and professionally in a context of respect for linguistic, social, cultural and gender diversity.
• Master written, oral, audiovisual, graphic, hypertextual and multimedia languages to present information in an effective journalistic manner, both in Catalan and Spanish as well as in English, and with adaptation to the medium and audience.

Content

1. The feminine exists! Shall we talk about quantities?
2. Let's personalize: the pronominal enigma
3. Do we conjugate blindly?
4. Determiners and conjunctions, the poor relatives
5. By hook or by crook or how to avoid the misuse of adjectives and adverbs
6. Prepositions? Phew! A minefield

Evaluation

There is a continuous assessment that involves the submission of writing exercises and questionnaires related to the contents of the subject.

There is also a punctual evaluation, which consists of two partial exams throughout the course, approximately towards the middle of the semester (first partial) and at the end of the semester (second partial).

The percentages applied to obtain the final grade for the subject of Oral and Written Communication in Spanish are as follows:

• Essays and questionnaires: 40% of the final grade. To pass the course, students must complete at least 80% of the activities.
• Two midterm exams: 40% of the final grade. The course will only be averaged if the average grade of the two exams is 5.0 or higher.
• Observation of participation: 10% of the final grade.
• Monitoring of work completed: 10% of the final grade.

The compulsory activities, which must be submitted throughout the course, i.e. those corresponding to continuous assessment, cannot be recovered. In the complementary assessment period (determined by the head of studies), known as "Final exams", only those exams that have been failed or those that the student has not attended can be taken. Only students who have failed previous partial exams can take the recovery exam.

Methodology

Lectures are given, there are complementary exercises and group practices, oral presentations, reading discussions, evaluation tests, etc. Likewise, tutorials can be carried out, previously requested by the students, and a personalized follow-up of the students is carried out.

Bibliography

Key references

• Bosque, I. & Monte, V. de (1999). Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española. Espasa.
• Gómez Torrego, L. (2007). Gramática didáctica del español. SM Real Academia Española.
• Gómez Torrego, L. (2011). Hablar y escribir correctamente. Arco Libros.
• Real Academia Española (2009). Nueva gramática de la lengua española: (También consultable en línea: https://www.rae.es/gram%C3%A1tica/). Espasa.
• Real Academia Española (2024). Diccionario Panhispánico de dudas: También consultable en línea:https://www.rae.es/dpd/. Espasa.