This is a beginning course with emphasis on grammar, conversation, reading, and Spanish culture. This course introduces the student to the Spanish language through an integrated, interactive system including video tapes, audio tapes, a handbook, a workbook and a textbook. The pronunciation, intonation and syntax of Spanish linguistic structures are introduced. The student learns to communicate in the present and in the past tenses of the language through extensive focus on vocabulary and on verb patterns. The student learns to focus on what is being said by native and near native speakers of Spanish so that he or she may respond clearly and logically.
Vocabulary building is stressed.
The entire series moves from Mexico to Spain to Argentina to Puerto Rico, etc. A contiguous story line keeps the students focused on the cultural material while the linguistic material is subtly woven into the fabric of the various episodes of the history of the main characters. Language laboratory work in required of the student on a weekly basis, and the laboratory material is an extension of the episodic material the class focuses on the four contact hours of the week. Supplementary material is introduced when appropriate. Also, the local language, Chamorro, has been influenced by the Spanish language and culture and is an inherited part of the Chamorro language.