MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO

SPANISH 2223 (on-line course) (Formerly 223)
BUSINESS SPANISH

Prerequisite(s): Spanish 1030, 1030W/X or Grade 12U Spanish or the former OAC Spanish or the former Spanish 002 or 002w/x with a minimum standing of 60%, or permission of the Department.

Please note: You are responsible for ensuring that you have successfully completed all course prerequisites (or have special permission from your Dean to waive the prerequisite) and that you have not taken an antirequisite course. If you are not eligible for the course, you may be removed from it at any time, and it will be deleted from your record. In addition, you will receive no adjustment to your fees. These decisions cannot be appealed.

REQUIRED MATERIALS

o Juan, Olga, Marisa De Prada y Ana Zaragoza. En equipo.es 2. Edinumen (2003)
o Libro de ejercicios to accompany En equipo.es 2
o Bonell, Pablo, Marisa de Prada, Carlos Schmidt y Ana Señor. Negocio a la vista (2004)

I. COURSE DESCRIPTION

Business Spanish 2223 provides students who already posses a knowledge of basic grammatical structures with a more advanced training in the uses of Spanish language in the business world. The primary emphasis is upon effective written and oral expression, so as to permit students who have completed this course to communicate their ideas and opinions with clarity in a variety of business situations. The companion videos on business in the Spanish world are designed to familiarize the students with the vocabulary and intercultural contexts of the Spanish language, and to provide examples of authentic usage in the Spanish business world.
THIS COURSE IS TAUGHT IN SPANISH.

II. PREREQUISITES

Upon beginning this course you should be able to: handle survival situations, maintain a conversation in daily life context (about weather, daily routine, relationships, student life, news, etc.), relate past experiences, give and ask for information, express feelings and opinions, describe a person, a thing or an event in the present and the past.

III. OBJECTIVES

Upon completing this course you should be able to:

Oral Comprehension: - understand main ideas on a variety of topics, mainly those related to the business world

Oral production: - converse in a clear and participatory fashion (be understood without difficulty by native interlocutors) about business topics
- be able to satisfy the requirements of everyday situations and business work
- handle with confidence complicated business tasks and social situations such as elaborating, complaining and apologizing
- report speech, express and defend opinions and ideas

Reading Comprehension: - understand authentic business documents as well as cultural texts and newspapers

Writing Expression: - produce a two-page descriptive and argumentative business report
- write simple social correspondence, take notes, write cohesive summaries and resumés as well as narratives and descriptions of a factual nature

Grammar: - control the verb and pronoun systems
- follow the sequence of sentences
- master the rules of gender, number and agreement
- use all grammatical constructions easily and accurately enough so you do not disturb native speakers or interfere with communications, even in formal or professional settings

Vocabulary: - expand your business-related vocabulary
- effectively use a more precise and varied vocabulary to communicate a broad range of social and business related topics
- expand your passive vocabulary

Culture: - express yourself according to social and business circumstances
- learn more about different types of social relations and institutions
- find out more about the business Spanish world

IV. STRUCTURE OF THE COURSE

This on-line course is divided into 26 weeks (week 1 to 13 correspond to the first semester and week 14 to 26 correspond to the second semester).
Under "contenido del curso" you can find what you are supposed to do week by week. Everything must be done during the week, by Sunday at the latest all the work must be completed. Weeks are considered to start on Mondays and end on Sundays.

V. CLASS MANAGEMENT

o Classes are conducted in Spanish.

o Work (assignments, assessments, quizzes, expositions, tests, presentations, projects) should be done on time (refer to Absenteeism policy).

o Exercises from el libro de ejercicios should be done during the week marked on the course program. The exercises must be corrected by the student, answers for that exercises are in el libro de ejercicios pp. 92 to 105. Audition transcriptions for the oral exercises are in el libro de ejercicios pp. 124 to 133.
el libro de ejercicios includes a CD with all the Student book auditions and another CD with all the libro de ejercicios auditions.

o Video Reports: These are video fragments about Spanish companies, interviews with different people in the company, strategies followed by that company, etc…. There are 5 video reports (reportajes) distributed through the course, which are compulsory viewing. Topics for the expositions will be based on those reports. In the course program is indicated when you are supposed to watch the report and you also must do the exercises on the "Negocio a la vista" book that refer to the video that you just saw.
All the other video reports about the companies presented in "Negocio a la vista" book, will be available for you but the only ones that are compulsory for the course are the ones marked in the course program. (There are 9 video reports but only 5 of them are compulsory).

o Expositions: students must write two versions for each exposition. Your instructor will correct the first draft following a correction grid that will be available to the students. There will be suggestions on how to improve the content, the organization and the grammar. The student should re-write the exposition implementing the suggested changes. Making the changes could improve your grade up to 10%, on the other hand if you decide not to do the corrections your mark will drop automatically 5%.

o Participation: students must participate in all class activities (discussions, team work, etc.) as well as do all the homework required (exercises, assessments, group activities, etc..).

o Oral exams: one oral exam per semester (instructions will follow).

o TAREA FINAL - (each unit): there is a TAREA FINAL at the end of each unit. This TAREA consists on a presentation that must be handed in the last week of each unit.

o Final Project: each student will choose a Spanish-speaking country (countries can't be repeated). The student will be responsible to read about the country and learn about the institutions, business, etc… He / she would read the country newspapers for a period that the instructor establish it and present during 2-3 weeks some interesting news of that country to the rest of the students for discussion. As a final project the student should prepare a presentation about that country (business in general, a specific company …). The presentation should be posted on the assigned date (the instructor will let all the students know when their presentation is due). It is expected to have some discussion and questions after the presentation. The final project must be done individually.

Cheating: It is the obligation of the student to be informed of the University's regulations on plagiarism and academic honesty. Students are expressly forbidden to have their compositions read by native speakers or any other person. If an instructor believes that a composition is not entirely the work of the student who has submitted it, the instructor may request that the student rewrite the composition in his/her presence. If the composition appears to be the work of another person, the student will receive a 0. (Please check your calendar for rules on cheating)

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a major academic offense (see Scholastic Offense Policy in the Western Academic Calendar). Plagiarism is the inclusion of someone else's verbatim or paraphrased text in one's own written work without immediate reference. Verbatim text must be surrounded by quotation marks or indented if it is longer than four lines. A reference must follow right after borrowed material (usually the author's name and page number). Without immediate reference to borrowed material, a list of sources at the end of a written assignment does not protect a writer against the possible charge of plagiarism. The University of Western Ontario uses a plagiarism-checking site called Turnitin.com.

EVALUATION

Participation (discussions, assignments, assessments, …) 15%
Quiz (2x2%) 4%
4 Test (4x4%) 16%
4 Expositions ( 250-500 words) ( 4x4%) 16%
2 Oral Exams (2x5%) 10%
Tarea final -(each unit) (8x2%) 16%
Final Project 8%
Final exam 15%
100%

PROGRAMA DEL CURSO*
*Este programa puede cambiar. Es la responsabilidad del estudiante mantenerse al día.

Absenteeism
Students seeking academic accommodation on medical grounds for any missed tests, exams, participation components and/or assignments must apply to the Academic Counselling office of their home Faculty and provide documentation. Academic accommodation cannot be granted by the instructor or department.

UWO's Policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness (https://studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/index.cfm)

Downloadable Student Medical Certificate (SMC): https://studentservices.uwo.ca under the Medical Documentation heading