The approach used in this program takes the position that much classroom time must be spent in helping you to develop abilities to communicate and interact in Spanish. We will also spend much time giving you the opportunity to understand what others say when they introduce themselves, refuse invitations, describe others, suggest and express opinions. We believe it is equally important to develop your academic skills in Spanish. We will thus spend classroom time in helping you to comprehend written texts in Spanish, to understand academic presentations in Spanish, and to present information on academic topics in which you have a special interest. Finally, we will attend to structure and to form as well.
Linguistic knowledge is important.
It is not, however, the principal subject matter of language classes in the Stanford Spanish Language Program. We have found that because Stanford students are very competent academically, they have little trouble understanding and learning key grammatical rules. Much study of formal grammar is, therefore, assigned to be done outside of class. Classes in the second-year sequence meet 4 hours per week. Typically, you will spend greater and greater amounts of time per class listening to spoken Spanish, such as news broadcasts, documentary and feature films without subtitles, videos of guest lectures, and live lectures presented by your instructor or by visitors to your class.