Why Spanish language should be learned

Since 600 million people in the world are native speakers of Spanish; by learning Spanish, it is possible to communicate with a minimum of 600 million people.

As a native language, Spanish is the most spoken language after Chinese. Spanish is the official language of 21 countries. As a second language, Spanish  is the most spoken language after English. It is a well-known fact that Spanish is used as a second language in 18 countries.

Besides, Spanish has many similarities with Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian. So, after you learn Spanish, you can learn the aforementioned languages more easily.

In addition, it is the official language of many international institutions such as the European Union, UNESCO or WTO.

Last but not least, it is the language of music, dance, movies and TV series, fine arts and poetry. Spanish is definitely the language of passion.

One who speaks only one language is one person, but one who speaks two languages is two people.

Learning Spanish means opening up to the world!

General Information

ISP 101 is for beginner-level students. Therefore, students who will register for the first time are kindly requested to enroll in ISP 101. Those students who did not pass the previous course are not allowed to register in the following level. 

ISP 102, 201, 202, 301, and 302 are not suitable for beginner-level students. However, students who wish to accredit their Spanish level to begin at a level higher than ISP 101, should contact the coordinator to take a placement test before the beginning of the course. Students may register at a higher level according to the obtained score.

According to ITU regulations, students must attend 75% of classes. This means that students cannot miss more than 12 hours of the course. Additionally, students who do not attend the class for 3 consecutive days will automatically fail the course, losing their right to be evaluated. Students who are more than ten minutes late for a lesson are marked absent for that hour.

Assignments must be turned in on the day they are due, during class time. Failing to present an assignment on the due date, at the specified time, will result in a ZERO for that assignment. Students who do not attend the midterm exam (it might be a workshop) will receive a zero as a mark; therefore, cannot pass the course.

Objectives

The objective of the lessons is not only to develop the four basic language skills (listening-speaking-reading-writing) by the help of the communicative approach. It also aims at:

• Helping students gain cultural and intercultural awareness,
• Developing students’ capacity to become autonomous learners based on reasoning and creativity, not on memorization,
• Developing students’ social competence.

Some of the projects carried out in the course in order to achieve these objectives are:

Second Spanish Workshop

Third Spanish Workshop

Intercultural Project

Meditation through Spanish Culture

Sixth Spanish Workshop: Culture of Spanish Speaking-Countries

Istanbul Spanish Culture Workshops

Assessment Criteria

Midterm Exam/Workshop: 30%

Final Exam: 50%

Attendance, participation and homework: 20%

Elective Foreign Language Courses, which are taught in the lesson plans of undergraduate programs, have been added to the ITB group as 3 credits as of the spring semester of the 2018-2019 academic year, in accordance with the decision of the University Senate dated 29 November 2018 and numbered 689.

In case of participation in the aforementioned courses, the marks that the student will receive at the end of the semester will be recorded on the transcript with a letter system and therefore will affect the graduation credits and grade point average (GPA).

As of the 2018-2019 spring academic term, the grading system below will be taken as a basis for ITU Elective Foreign Language Courses:

AA 100-95 

BA 94 – 85

BB 84– 75

CB 74– 65

CC 64 – 60

DC 59 – 55

DD 54 – 50

FF <50

Course Book

• https://campus.difusion.com/
• Jaime Corpas, Eva García, Agustín Garmendia (2020). Aula Internacional Plus 1. Curso de Español. Difusión. S.L. Barcelona.
• Jaime Corpas, Eva García, Agustín Garmendia (2020). Aula Internacional Plus 2. Curso de Español. Difusión. S.L. Barcelona.
• Jaime Corpas, Eva García, Agustín Garmendia (2020). Aula Internacional Plus 3. Curso de Español. Difusión. S.L. Barcelona.
• Alonso, R. Castañeda, A. Martínez, P. Miquel, L. Ortega, J. y Ruiz, J.P. (2005). Gramática Básica del Estudiante de Español A1-B1.  Ed. Difusión. S.L. Barcelona.
• Palencia del Burgo, R. y Aragonés Fernández, L. (2014) Gramática de Uso del Español. B1-B2: Teoría y práctica con solucionario. Ed. Difusión. S.L. Barcelona.

Coordinator:María Victoria Gálvez Frutos

E-Mail: galvezfrutos@itu.edu.tr