STUDENT GUIDE
¡Hola! Are you ready to immerse yourself in the diversity and richness of the Spanish-speaking world while also connecting with New York and the NYU community? This open educational resource will help you navigate your journey to learn Spanish as it is used around the world. These materials will be used as a complement to what you will be practicing in class with your instructor and peers.
What can you expect from your Spanish class?
The flipped-classroom model. As your instructor will explain on the first day of class, our program follows a flipped-classroom model, meaning that you will review the grammar and vocabulary sections along with the homework activities assigned by your instructor before class, and then, in-class time will be used to put in practice what you have studied and interact with your peers and instructor in an immersive manner. Of course there will be time for grammar check-ins, brief explanations, and addressing questions, but do not expect this language class to be a lecture with lengthy grammar explanations. The point of this method is that you come to class with a notion of the topics and apply them by completing interactive activities with your peers and instructor.
Communication, communication, communication… and in Spanish! As mentioned above, class-time will be mostly devoted to practice communicative activities as you would do in real-life situations. Participation, therefore, is crucial, and it is also very important to note that the class will be conducted mostly in Spanish for a more immersive experience. You can expect to be doing a lot of pair and group work, so you will get to know your peers well!
Needing extra help? Please don’t hesitate to reach out to your instructor and take advantage of their office hours and other resources in case you need more practice or if you have specific questions about the grammar or any other component of the course.
How to navigate this book? It is structured as follows:
Gramática and Vocabulario. These sections will cover a variety of topics and will serve as a foundation to build up on your knowledge of the language. As mentioned above, they will be assigned for you to read outside of the class, and at the end of each section there will be a not graded check-in activity to make sure you understood what you studied. After reading these sections, you should complete the assigned homework in our learning management system before each class meeting.
Para leer. In this section you will find a reading related to the chapter’s topics, and it will be assigned to read before class. Later, in class, you will complete other activities related to the readings with your peers.
Para explorar. This is a multimedia section to be explored in class, in which you will typically find text, clips, images, to further learn about some current cultural aspects of the Spanish-speaking world.
Para escribir. Here you will find some prompts to practice your writing on your own by creating small compositions that cover the grammar and vocabulary studied in the chapter. These won’t be the exact prompts for your graded writing assignments, but they are a good way to prepare for them.
Recomendaciones. Each chapter includes a small compilation of cultural artifacts (songs, movies, videos, podcasts, additional readings) for you to explore on your own outside of the classroom (not for homework!), in the hopes that you will keep exploring Spanish language and culture beyond the course and explore those aspects that interest you more, be it music artists, cinema, literature… you name it!
In-class Activities. You will find these at the end of each grammar and vocabulary topic, but you may also find them altogether at the end of each chapter. At the discretion of your instructor, these activities will be completed in class (not homework!) to practice the topics of the lesson in hand.
In addition to all these sections listed in each chapter’s table of contents, throughout the book you will find notes on cultural topics and lexical variety that reflect the diversity and complexity of the Spanish-speaking communities. Furthermore, under the section “¿Sabías qué?”, you will be able to learn about and practice some of the most challenging sounds to pronounce in Spanish.
We hope you enjoy your new adventures in Spanish! 🌈
