UMass Boston

Latin American and Iberian Studies has identified the following as the Learning Objectives for students who complete courses at the 100-level in Spanish and Portuguese.

In Span 101 and Port 101, students will develop the following five skills:

• Interculturality:  Identify some common practices related to home and community life of other cultures and their own; interrogate identity (transnational, intercultural, etc.)
• Reading: Understand keywords and cognates, formulaic phrases across highly contextualized texts; understand predictable language and messages after they have learned the relevant vocabulary; derive meaning from short, non-complex texts that convey basic information for which there is contextual or extra-linguistic support.
• Writing: Meet limited basic practical writing needs using practiced materials such as lists, short messages, postcards, and simple notes. (Students’ writing assignments will cohere with cultural contents in textbook chapters, culminating in the production of a text of 300 words in length.)
• Listening: Understand information from sentence-length speech, one utterance at a time, in basic personal and social situations where there is contextual support, and after learning the relevant vocabulary.
• Speaking: Give information pertaining to basic areas of communication such as introductions, preferences, and immediate needs, using short and sometimes incomplete sentences.

In Span 102 and Port 102, students will develop the following five skills:

• Interculturality: Identify common patterns in the products and practices of a culture; compare familiar cultural beliefs and values.
• Reading: Understand some information from short texts written in the target language dealing with a limited number of personal and social needs, readings will challenge students to derive meaning from context. 
• Writing: Create statements and formulate questions based on familiar material, writing corresponds to an introductory level of formal style. (Students will complete two writing assignments culminating in the production of a text of 500 words in length.)
• Listening: Understand information from sentence-length speech, one utterance at a time, in basic personal and social contexts.
• Speaking: Successfully handle a limited number of uncomplicated communicative tasks by using the language in social situations, students will engage in conversations restricted to concrete exchanges and predictable topics necessary for culturally appropriate communication.