Class Schedule for Spring 2024

This course belongs to the Herencia Latina series (with SPAN 218), courses designed to integrate heritage learners of Spanish into the curriculum of the Spanish-language program at UO. The target audience is defined as students with at least Intermediate Low oral proficiency for whom Spanish is a community/home language and whose oral communication skills may be more developed than their literacy skills. The completion of this series (SPAN 228) is one means of satisfying the UO BA language requirement.

As the title suggests, course content focuses on the use of Spanish as a vehicle of communication in the U.S. and around the world and serves to help students establish a personal connection between their Spanish-language heritage and the wider Spanish-speaking world. Course work is designed to develop a range of bilingual abilities, improving their oral production in informal and formal contexts and preparing them to use Spanish in academic/formal contexts (similar to the SPAN 202-203 sequence for monolingual English speakers), through expansion of vocabulary and exposure to normative (standard) Spanish. Course content will also include issues of linguistic and cultural prejudice by examining the connections between language, power, and social inclusion.

The courses in the Latino Heritage series (SPAN 218, 228) have an obvious focus on the development of Spanish-language proficiency. However, they use the approach known as “content-based instruction” in language teaching: language ability is developed through the study, in Spanish, of content that is typically included in humanities courses across campus. These new classes will cover the basics of human and cultural geography and ethnography, necessary for an understanding of the origins and demographics of Latino heritage communities in the U.S. and their relationship to the communities of origin. But the bulk of coursework leads students through an examination of cultural production (music, literature, and plastic arts). Course content will also include issues of linguistic and cultural prejudice by examining the connections between language, power, and social inclusion. This multi-faceted study of the make-up and dynamics of Latino communities in the U.S. therefore satisfies the Arts and Letters area requirement.