Summer Language Institute for Spanish Teachers

Coursework

Through courses on language acquisition and pedagogy as well as language and culture courses, you will improve both your language proficiency and cultural understanding while becoming a better teacher. The Institute leads to a Master of Arts in Spanish Language Teaching.

• Overview
• Courses / Master's Degree
• 2013 Courses

Overview:

In the Summer Institute for Spanish Teachers (a banner program of the SOU Center for Language Studies), you will perfect your language skills and enhance cultural understanding while receiving the most current training on language pedagogy and methodology. You will expand your linguistic and professional skills and go home ready to apply your new knowledge directly to lessons and materials for your classroom.

The Institute is specifically designed to meet the needs of middle school, high school and community college Spanish teachers. The program builds on the National Standards for Language Learning and incorporates recommendations for language teacher training developed by NCATE and ACTFL.

The Institute offers you the opportunity to earn a Master of Arts in Spanish Language Teaching over three summers. The program is also appropriate for teachers who are not seeking a master's degree but who need additional credits to retain or renew their certification. Space permitting, non-Masters candidates may attend individual sessions.

The SOU Center for Language Studies was developed after eight years of successful cooperation between Southern Oregon University and high school teachers through the Southern Oregon Foreign Language Articulation project (SOFLA). One of only eight projects selected nationally to participate in the Modern Language Association High School to College Articulation project, SOFLA has sponsored an average of 2-3 workshops a year for language teachers since 1998, bringing in nationally recognized language educators and creating links with ACTFL and other professional organizations.

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Master's Degree:

The Summer Institute for Spanish Teachers offers you the opportunity to earn a Master of Arts in Spanish Language Teaching (a total of 45 credits) over three summers. You may earn up to 18 credits each summer. NOTE: The Oregon University System is on a "quarter credit" system. For those of you NOT pursuing an MA through the SLI, and are taking courses simply to meet licensing requirements, make sure your licensing agency will transfer the correct semester credits. 

Course Work includes:

Five 3-credit required core courses:

#1 FL 511, Second Language Acquisition: Theory and Practice
#2 FL 512, Teaching for Proficiency: Methods and Strategies
#3 FL 513, Foreign Language Assessment: Principles and Strategies
#4 FL 514, Action Research
#5 FL 515, Technology in the Foreign Language Classroom

Core courses are taught in English. While we recommend you take core courses 1-3 in the above numbered order, they may be taken in any order. Action Research must be taken after core courses 1-3 and before your final summer. The Technology course is offered during the winter quarter (Jan-March) and may be taken any time.

A minimum of thirty credits of Hispanic Language and Culture courses:

Language and culture courses vary each summer. Each language or culture course has a companion course on pedagogical practices relative to the language or culture topic. All language and culture courses, as well as companion pedagogical courses, are taught in Spanish. With advisor approval, topics courses may be repeated for credit when the topic changes. A sample of Language and Culture courses and their companion pedagogy courses include the following 

• Communicative Grammar (3 credits) with Teaching Grammar in Context (2 credits)
• Spanish/Latin American Film (3 credits) with Teaching Language with Film (2 credits)
• Topics in Spanish/Latin American Culture (contemporary and historical) (3 credits) with Teaching Language through Culture (2 credits)
• Contemporary Spanish/Latin American Theater (3 credits) with Teaching Language through Theater (2 credits)
• Spanish/Latin American Music (3 credits) with Music in the Foreign Language classroom (2 credits)
• Topics in Spanish/Latin American Literature (3 credits) with Teaching Language through Literature (2 credits)
• Topics in Spanish/Latin American Art (3 credits) with Teaching Language through Art (2 credits)
• Topics in Spanish Linguistics: Spanish Pronunciation (3 credits) with Teaching Correct Pronunciation (2 credits)

At least ten (10) credits must come from Spanish 516, which may be repeated for credit as topic changes.  Up to six graduate credits can be transferred from other accredited institutions.  

Masters candidates must take all but the conversation/grammar class during a three-week session. The conversation/grammar class is an additional option which may count toward three of your nine elective credits.  Note: students who are admitted at the intermediate high OPI level, will be required to take these normally optional conversation/grammar courses.  They must complete 5 credits of SPAN 507/510 and will need a total of 47 credits to graduate.

You may attend one or both of the three-week summer sessions. Masters candidates expecting to complete the program in three years must take both sessions at least two of the three summers. Space permitting, non-masters candidates may attend individual sessions.

During the school year prior to your final year in the program, if you are a masters candidate, you will conduct an action research project with your own students/at your own school. You will write a paper documenting the project and make a presentation about this action research project during your final summer. Based on feedback from your advisor, you may be expected to modify and resubmit the paper after your final summer. The action research project, presentation and paper take the place of a thesis project.

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2013 Courses

On-line Core Course, Winter Quarter

FL 515, Technology in the Classroom (3 credits) - Dr. Dennie Hoopingarner

Transforms knowledge into practice about Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and pedagogy, while focusing on the use of technology in the foreign language classroom. Fosters professional development as students formulate critical skills for creating, integrating, and assessing technology into the classroom. Topics may include interactive and non-interactive hypermedia technologies, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), language testing and technology, distance learning, online discussions, and software selection.

Core Courses Summer Session 1

*  1. FL 511, Second Language Acquisition (3 credits) - Dr. Joshua Thoms (syllabus)

Provides students with an overview of the most current theories of second language acquisition and the teaching methodologies that result from these approaches. Students will detail differences between and similarities among the various models of second language acquisition as they learn how to identify and integrate them into the foreign language classroom.

** 2. FL 513, FL Assessment (3 credits) - Dr. Susan Hildebrandt (syllabus)

Explores the many ways to assess foreign language proficiency. Compares traditional testing measures with more recent performance-based assessment methods and portfolio assessment models. Students study various assessment instruments and resources, as well as learning how to integrate assessment practices with foreign language standards.

* New students

** Returning students

Electives Summer Session 1 (Students choose both a and b of one grouping)

3a. SPAN 521, Mirrors, Ghosts, and Memory: Readings on Carlos Fuentes (3 credits) - Dr. Adriana Gordillo (syllabus)

This course will focus on the works of Carlos Fuentes, one of the greatest Mexican storytellers and social critics of the 20th and 21st centuries. We will discuss the various genres and topics that Fuentes explored during more than half a century, such as theater, short stories, novels, novellas, essays, and even an opera. Through a selection of some of these texts, we will engage in discussions that deal with the importance of art, myth, and literature in today’s society, as well as notions of race, immigration, gender, and environmental issues, while establishing connections with worldwide literary traditions.

3b. SPAN 516,  The Role of Classroom Discourse in L2 Teaching & Learning (2 credits) - Dr. Joshua Thoms (syllabus, NOTE: this course requires students to videotape/transcribe their classroom in April or May. The assignment must be completed BEFORE arrival in Guanajuato. See syllabus for more details.)

This course will explore a number of issues related to classroom discourse in the second language classroom. Possible themes/concepts to be investigated include the identification of distinct patterns of teacher talk in classroom discourse, the effects of teacher questions on whole-class discussions, the role of student-student oral interactions in L2 learning, the assessment of students’ speaking abilities, among other topics.

4a. SPAN 520, Celluloid Indians: Conceptualizing Indigenous People in Mexican film  (3 credits) - Dr. Ariel Tumbaga (syllabus)

This course deals with the ways indigenous people have been represented in Mexican film.  Despite their cultural and historical diversity, indigenous nations have seldom possessed control over their national representation.  The post-Revolution impetus to include indigenous groups participating in the Revolution, either as individuals or as ethnic nationalities, results in their inclusion in Mexico’s national cinema, a largely nonindigenous, mestizo undertaking.  These representations turn from cultural nationalist to anthropological as state Indigenismo acquires political prestige, then to comical in the 1970s.  Students will learn about the ideologies behind filmic depictions and read some of the texts that inspired them.  Beginning with Sergei Eisenstein’s ¡Que Viva México!, we will consider early 20^th Century conceptions of indigenous people as a generalized social type.  Benito Alazraki’s award winning Raíces (1953) and short story collection El diosero will provide examples of anthropologically inspired text and film.  We will also study the melodrama Maclovia by Emilio “el indio” Fernández, based on his previous films and depicting the Purépucha nation of Michoacán.  Comical representations by Mario Moreno “Cantinflas” and la “India” María Elena Velasco will serve to examine whether racial and gender stereotypes and pejorative beliefs have prevailed in mainstream culture.  The course ends with Cochochi (2007), a film that proposes a new way of conceptualizing the Rarámuri indigenous people.  

4b. SPAN 516, Visual Media and Topics in Language and Culture Pedagogy  (2 credits) -  Dr. Ariel Tumbaga (syllabus)

This course focuses on the use of visual media—television programs and commercials, music video and film—for the purposes of teaching language and culture.  Students will study the use of video in the foreign language classroom from both a conceptual and a practical perspective through research articles and examples from the instructor.  The first part of the course will be devoted to studying the ways in which video media may be employed for skill competency, either for development of narration, vocabulary-building, and/or speculative thinking, for example.  A large part of the course will also be dedicated to understanding video as a lens through which to teach cultural topics, such as gender roles, perceptions of race and class, and the discussion of so-called “border issues.”  Through popular forms of visual media, we will strive to discover ways to give our students a cultural perspective from within the target culture.  

5. SPAN 510, Advanced Conversation (Optional, 1  credit) Carlos Jasso and Depto. de Lenguas Staff

Designed to improve Spanish conversational skills. Students will learn about and discuss a wide variety of current topics, including historical influences on contemporary culture; art and media; and societal, religious, and political institutions. This course may be taken for repeat credit. A total of 3 credits from SPAN 510/507 may be applied to degree requirements.

Core Courses Summer Session 2

*    1. FL 512, Methods: Teaching for Proficiency (3 credits) -  Dr. Kelly Conroy (syllabus)

Explores how proficiency standards can be applied in the classroom in conjunction with state and local standards based on the national standards for foreign language education as established by the American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Students learn how to integrate the five Cs of foreign language education: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities, with clearly defined proficiency standards for foreign language performance.

**  2. FL 514, Action Research (3 credits) - Dr. Susan Hildebrandt  (syllabus)

Introduces students to research methodologies that pursue action (change) and research (understanding) concurrently. Students will learn how to do a systematic inquiry into the teaching/learning environment of a classroom with the goal of developing reflective teaching practices. This course is intended as preparation for an action research project that students will conduct over the course of the following year.

*  New Students   

** Returning students
 
Electives Summer Session 2 (Students choose both a and b of one grouping)

3a. SPAN 541, Cultural Products of the Mexican Revolution (3 credits) - Dr. Craig Bergeson (syllabus, OJO: password = villa1910)

In 1910 political conflicts in Mexico erupted into a revolution that lasted several years and changed the country forever. Many of the effects of the revolution are reflected in its cultural products, such as corridos, murals, films, and short stories. We will analyze some of these cultural products in order to determine what they tell us about revolutionary and post-revolutionary Mexico, and through this study of Mexico’s past we will come to better understand her present.

3b. SPAN 516, Integrating Culture into the Teaching of a Second Language (2 credits) - Dr. Craig Bergeson (syllabus, OJO: password = villa1910)

We will read about, discuss, and practice methods of integrating culture into the communicative language classroom, and our approach will focus on the three “Ps” of culture: products, practices and perspectives. 

4a. SPAN 581, Language Variation in Spanish (3 credits) -  Dr. Rafael Orozco (syllabus)

This course provides a fascinating journey throughout the Spanish-speaking world as we learn about its diachronic and synchronic variation. We explore the origins of the Spanish language to learn about the role played by linguistic variation in its genesis and development. We gain an understanding of the evolution of Spanish and the main contributing factors to its present-day varieties. In addition, we learn about the main manifestations of linguistic variation throughout the Spanish-speaking world. 

4b. SPAN 516, Building Variety in Linguistic Repertoire of the Spanish Language Learner (2 credits) - Dr. Rafael Orozco (syllabus)

We will discuss language variation throughout the Spanish-speaking world as we integrate lexical, phonological and syntactic variation into the communicative language classroom. We will also practice various ways of incorporating language variation into learner’s linguistic repertoire. 

5. SPAN 507, Advanced Grammar (OPTIONAL, 1 credit) - Carlos Jasso

Designed to review and strengthen students' knowledge of problematic Spanish grammar structures. This course may be taken for repeat credit. A total of 3 credits from SPAN 510/507 may be applied to degree requirements.

 

Plan to arrive on Saturday in order to attend the orientation activities on the following Sunday.

Evenings will be spent preparing class assignments and at an occasional special event.

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