Summer Language + Culture

LOCAL UNIVERSITY COURSES:

A final list of Institute courses is available a few months prior to the start of the program. Students should refer to the course registration form in their acceptance materials for a final list of courses.

SESSION I

Advanced Spanish
The course is aimed at students who wish to broaden their communication skills in Spanish. To achieve this goal, new grammatical structures will be introduced and others already acquired by the student will be strengthened. This course requires students to have passed level B (intermediate level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) in order for them to be able to learn without difficulty the contents explained in class. The contents of the course will include four skills: speaking, writing, listening, and reading comprehension. Thus, students will acquire greater confidence and independence enabling them to express themselves in Spanish fluently. Cultural and social aspects will also be integrated into the communication process.

Business Spanish
This course is aimed at students who are interested in improving their language skills in a business scenario. The course, its activities, assignments, and assessments have a communicative approach, and real-life and business situations are proposed. It focuses mainly on the acquisition of company-specific terminology, oral expression and communication, written expression in letters, resumes, and other specialized documents, without forgetting the essential elements involved for a correct cultural and linguistic expression.

Cervantes: The Adventures of Don Quixote
This course examines the literary masterpiece of Miguel de Cervantes, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha. It explores the novel’s place in Spanish and world literature, its importance as a model for the novel, and the use of language and the realities it portrays. A previous class in Golden Age Literature is recommended.

Contemporary Spain through Films
Cinema is one of the most popular artistic representations due to its expressive power and narrative ability. Films allow us to gain knowledge of and come closer to the Spanish reality from two perspectives: as a historical document and as an aesthetic expression. In this course, students will learn about the Spanish by filming speech, taking as reference important directors and films in the history of Spanish cinema, including the history of Spain from the Civil War until today.

History of Spanish Painting: The Great Painters
The course provides an overview of Spanish art history from the early days (Cave of Altamira) to the avant-garde of the twentieth century. While the course offers a general panoramic overview, more emphasis is placed on the great masters of painting such as El Greco, Velázquez, Goya and Picasso, whose skills and abilities set the course of pictorial art by turning Spanish painting into the soul of modern art.

Masterpieces of the Spanish Literature through Film
The course is aimed at students who wish to have a comprehensive knowledge of Spanish literature and, more specifically, the Spanish works that have passed from books onto the big screen due to their literary quality and universality. The course uses texts within a literary, historical and sociocultural context and evaluates the aesthetic representation of the work adapted to a modern audience. Students learn to reinterpret and integrate texts of the past while also considering methods of technology and interpretation of the present. Students will identify the essential stylistic features of each author, situate them within a particular period or movement, read excerpts from their most important works and view the film representation of some of them.

Spain and its Gastronomy
Gastronomy reflects the cultural identity of a country. This course evaluates a cultural and gastronomic map of Spain, in order to know and understand its culinary characteristics and variety, and the special role of gastronomy in the Spanish culture and society. Through gastronomy, students will learn historical, cultural and social aspects of Spain. The instructor asks the students to read, discuss, and write about Spanish gastronomy and its cultural impact. They will point out the cultural diversity of the main Spanish communities, the main products of each region, its most outstanding dishes, its history, its regional characteristics and recipes.

Spanish Culture and Civilization
Students gain an ample understanding of Spain’s past and present by understanding contemporary Spain in its geographic and political context. Participants analyze the nation’s intellectual, artistic, social, and human development as manifested in contemporary literature, art, music, folklore, national and regional celebrations, and group and individual activities. The final objective is to help students identify a Spanish cultural spirit in a broad sense.

Spanish for Health Care Professionals
This course is designed for future health professionals (doctors, nurses, medical assists, paramedics’ EMT, administrators, etc.) who need to use Spanish at their workplace. The course has an especially practical approach that includes learning medical terminology, understanding the most commonly used grammatical structures, and learning culture aspects that every health care professional should know. The objectives of this course are to:

Improve students’ ability to communicate in a medical context
Understand the differences between medical terminology in Latin American and Spain
Understand the principle cultural differences between the United States and Spain
Guide the student through the health field in Spain

Traditions of Spain: Oral Communication
This course aims to think about students’ linguistic and cultural needs. The course provides both linguistic and cultural knowledge. To this effect, units follow a linguistic progress that goes from the verb to be; ser / estar / haber; prepositions; reflexive verbs; direct and indirect pronouns; irregular verbs; past perfect / imperfect / indefinite; simple future; the conditional tense and the present subjunctive. These grammar points are studied in a context related to cultural aspects in Spain. Thus, we will see topics such as the parts of the house, giving directions, using public transportation, food, fashion, a doctor’s visit, cultural festivals: Fallas, bulls, Christmas, and Easter among others.

Translations and Interpretation in a Bilingual Context
This course is aimed at students with level B (intermediate CEFR). It is basically a practical course whose main objective is for students to develop and acquire a translation methodology and improve their language skills in Spanish. It is a dynamic and interactive course in which students will translate texts with general and specific subjects using different methods and strategies. Furthermore, we will also start in many aspects of the field of interpretation, from how to speak in public, to consecutive interpreting with note-taking and simultaneous interpretation.

Understanding Europe: Present and Future of the European Union
This course offers students an overview of the European Union, its structure and functioning, analyzing the rights and freedoms of its citizens. The European Union is one of the most important players in the international arena, so special emphasis will be placed on the analysis of current issues, problems and challenges they are faced with as an institution. The first part of the course will consist of an introduction to the study of the European Union from its inception to the present, with particular attention to the entry of Spain and the transformations that occurred at an economic, political, social and legal level. We will also examine the challenges currently facing the European Union, particularly the severe economic and institutional crisis that it is faced within the 21st century.

SESSION II

Advanced Spanish
The course is aimed at students who wish to broaden their communication skills in Spanish. To achieve this goal, new grammatical structures will be introduced and others already acquired by the student will be strengthened. This course requires students to have passed level B (intermediate level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) in order for them to be able to learn without difficulty the contents explained in class. The contents of the course will include four skills: speaking, writing, listening and reading comprehension. Thus, students will acquire greater confidence and independence enabling them to express themselves in Spanish fluently. Cultural and social aspects will also be discussed.

Contemporary Spain through Films
Cinema is one of the most popular artistic representations due to its expressive power and narrative ability. Films allow us to gain knowledge of and come closer to the Spanish reality from two perspectives: as a historical document and as an aesthetic expression. In this course, students will learn about the Spanish by filming speech, taking as reference important directors and films in the history of Spanish cinema, including the history of Spain from the Civil War until today.

Contemporary Spanish Literature
This course follows the development of Spanish literature during the 20th century and relates the works to the literary currents that influenced contemporary literature. Students study the essential stylistic features of each Spanish author and situates them in a particular period or movement. The aim is to integrate different art forms into the most recent historical development, in order for students to identify them in the literary texts of each period.

Composition and Conversation: Spain in the Media
The aim of this course is to help students develop communicative competence through grammatical, cultural, and social-linguistic means, as well as through discourse. Class lectures are supplemented with multimedia communication from present-day Spain, including publicity, radio, television, press, and the cinema.

Introduction to Latin American Literature
The course introduces a panoramic overview of the Latin American literature up to the latest trends of the 21st century. It explores the most significant literary movements, contextualizing the life and work of different authors. The readings integrate the different world views of their history and culture of that geographical region, showing the diversity of voices that make up the Latin American Literature.

Introduction to Literary Analysis
Based on analysis of and commentary on major texts of Spanish and Latin American literature, this course emphasizes the practical issues of textual commentary as opposed to the study of critical theory alone. Students work with a literary text and all conclusions must be based on solid references to the text.

Medical Translations
This course is intended for students with an advanced level of Spanish who have specific knowledge of medicine given that medical translation, like any specialized translation, requires specific definitions and terminology. The course will have a theoretical and practical approach. On the one hand, students will approach the figure of the medical translator, they will analyze specific English and Spanish medical texts and they will translate from Spanish into English and from English into Spanish. Moreover, students will be introduced to interpretation and intercultural mediation in a medical context through different exercises.

Spanish Art: Theory and Practice
The course provides an overview of the history of Spanish pictorial art developed from prehistory (Cave of Altamira) to the avant-garde of the 20th century relating it to the cultural coordinates that created it. Students must acquire general knowledge of art styles, their features, and the most representative works. Although the outlook offered tries to have a generalist approach of the three major arts: architecture, sculpture and painting, it places more emphasis on the great artists (such as Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Dali and Gaudi among others) given that their works influenced the course of art history of Spanish art turning it into one of the most original and richest in Europe.

Spanish Culture and Civilization
Students gain an ample understanding of Spain’s past and present by understanding contemporary Spain in its geographic and political context. Participants analyze the nation’s intellectual, artistic, social, and human development as manifested in contemporary literature, art, music, folklore, national and regional celebrations, and group and individual activities. The final objective is to help students identify a Spanish cultural spirit in a broad sense.

Spanish for Health Care Professionals
This course is designed for future health professionals (doctors, nurses, medical assists, paramedics’ EMT, administrators, etc.) who need to use Spanish at their workplace. The course has an especially practical approach that includes learning medical terminology, understanding the most commonly used grammatical structures, and learning culture aspects that every health care professional should know. The objectives of this course are to:

Improve students’ ability to communicate in a medical context
Understand the differences between medical terminology in Latin American and Spain
Understand the principle cultural differences between the United States and Spain
Guide the student through the health field in Spain

Traditions of Spain: Oral Communication
This course aims to think about students’ linguistic and cultural needs. The course provides both linguistic and cultural knowledge. To this effect, units follow a linguistic progress that goes from the verb to be; ser / estar / haber; prepositions; reflexive verbs; direct and indirect pronouns; irregular verbs; past perfect / imperfect / indefinite; simple future; the conditional tense and the present subjunctive. These grammar points are studied in a context related to cultural aspects in Spain. Students focus on topics such as the parts of the house, giving directions, using public transportation, food, fashion, a doctor’s visit, cultural festivals: Fallas, bull tradition, Christmas, and Easter among others.