The student sustains performance in speaking, listening, reading and writing at the Advanced level of language proficiency, as outlined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL):
1.1 Speaking ability: The student is able to satisfy the requirements of everyday situations and routine school and work requirements. Can communicate facts and talk casually about topics of current public and personal interest, using general vocabulary. The student can be understood without difficulty by native speakers.
1.2 Listening ability: The student is able to understand main ideas and most details of connected discourse on a variety of topics beyond the immediacy of the situation. Comprehension may be uneven due to a variety of linguistic factors and topics.
1.3 Reading ability: The student is able to read prose selections of several paragraphs in length, particularly if printed clearly and if prose is in familiar sentence patterns. Reader understands the main ideas and facts but may miss some details. At this level the student can read such texts as descriptions, narratives, short stories, news items and routine personal and business correspondence.
1.4 Writing ability: The student is able to write routine social correspondence and join sentences in simple discourse of at least several paragraphs in length on familiar topics, and is able to express him/herself simply with some circumlocution. Good control of the most frequently used syntactic structures, but makes frequent errors in producing complex sentences. Writing is understandable to natives not used to the writing of non-natives.
The following courses were taken at CSUMB between spring 2015-2017 and allowed me to fulfill the MLO 1: language proficiency
Coming from a Spanish speaking background I strongly believed I had my speaking, listening, reading and writing skills perfectly mastered. Nevertheless, while being in the classroom taking different courses involving these skills, I realized that I was not at the level I believed I was. Therefore, my goal was to improve my speaking, reading, listening and writing skills in Spanish in order to master the language completely. In order to fulfill my first MLO 1: language proficiency, I was involved in various courses throughout my two years at CSUMB. Needless to say that this achievement could not have been possible without the professionalism, enthusiasm and passion of my professors, who were present in every single step of the way and helped me expand my skills in the Spanish language. Therefore, in order to fulfill this particular MLO, I took several courses that satisfy the expectations needed, here are a few courses that I personally enjoyed:
SPAN 301: Composition/Oral practice - This course embodied every single skill needed for MLO1 (1.1,1.2,1.3,.1.4). In order to practice our speaking skills (1.1), we had several group discussions as well as a final group presentation that required a discussion at the end. As far as listening ability (1.2), in class we had to listen very careful to the professors' new vocabulary words and explanation of the meaning and place of origin of such words. Reading was also an important factor in this course, due to the fact that we read (1..3) short stories and then discussed them in groups, as well as then writing (1.4) a reflective essay on those stories. Overall. I believe that this course allowed me to practice my skills in speaking, reading and writing the most.
SPAN 304: Introduction to Hispanic Literature- The reading (1.3) and writing (1.4) in this course were very challenging personally, due to the fact that I had very minimum knowledge about literature in general. Nevertheless, learning about literature from the old days to modern times was very rewarding. This course was personally one of the most interesting courses that I ever took at CSUMB, due to the fact that it made the reading (1.2) engaging and interesting. I can say that this course allowed my reading ability in the Spanish language to increase in a great percentage.
SPAN 345: Literatura Mexicana: This course was also very challenging yet very rewarding. We were asked to read 7 novels throughout the semesters, which is probably the most I have ever read in the a semester for a single course. Nevertheless, the reading (1.3) skills developed in this course were satisfying and not only I learned about new Mexican authors, but also I gained an enormous amount of new vocabulary terms in Spanish. I can personally say that this course was necessary in order to fulfill this particular MLO, because the reading material was intense.
SPAN 306: Culture/ civilization of Latin America- This course in particular allowed me to put into practice my reading (1.3), speaking (1.1) and writing (1.4) abilities in the Spanish language. The course was divided into five sections and at the end of each section we had to write a reflective essay, as well as to present in groups what we had learned. Finally, I can personally say that this course allowed me to prepare for my capstone project, due to the fact the amount of presentations not only presented me with new opportunities to overcome my fear with public speaking, but most importantly to practice my Spanish speaking skills.
1.1 Speaking ability: The student is able to satisfy the requirements of everyday situations and routine school and work requirements. Can communicate facts and talk casually about topics of current public and personal interest, using general vocabulary. The student can be understood without difficulty by native speakers.
1.2 Listening ability: The student is able to understand main ideas and most details of connected discourse on a variety of topics beyond the immediacy of the situation. Comprehension may be uneven due to a variety of linguistic factors and topics.
1.3 Reading ability: The student is able to read prose selections of several paragraphs in length, particularly if printed clearly and if prose is in familiar sentence patterns. Reader understands the main ideas and facts but may miss some details. At this level the student can read such texts as descriptions, narratives, short stories, news items and routine personal and business correspondence.
1.4 Writing ability: The student is able to write routine social correspondence and join sentences in simple discourse of at least several paragraphs in length on familiar topics, and is able to express him/herself simply with some circumlocution. Good control of the most frequently used syntactic structures, but makes frequent errors in producing complex sentences. Writing is understandable to natives not used to the writing of non-natives.
The following courses were taken at CSUMB between spring 2015-2017 and allowed me to fulfill the MLO 1: language proficiency
Coming from a Spanish speaking background I strongly believed I had my speaking, listening, reading and writing skills perfectly mastered. Nevertheless, while being in the classroom taking different courses involving these skills, I realized that I was not at the level I believed I was. Therefore, my goal was to improve my speaking, reading, listening and writing skills in Spanish in order to master the language completely. In order to fulfill my first MLO 1: language proficiency, I was involved in various courses throughout my two years at CSUMB. Needless to say that this achievement could not have been possible without the professionalism, enthusiasm and passion of my professors, who were present in every single step of the way and helped me expand my skills in the Spanish language. Therefore, in order to fulfill this particular MLO, I took several courses that satisfy the expectations needed, here are a few courses that I personally enjoyed:
SPAN 301: Composition/Oral practice - This course embodied every single skill needed for MLO1 (1.1,1.2,1.3,.1.4). In order to practice our speaking skills (1.1), we had several group discussions as well as a final group presentation that required a discussion at the end. As far as listening ability (1.2), in class we had to listen very careful to the professors' new vocabulary words and explanation of the meaning and place of origin of such words. Reading was also an important factor in this course, due to the fact that we read (1..3) short stories and then discussed them in groups, as well as then writing (1.4) a reflective essay on those stories. Overall. I believe that this course allowed me to practice my skills in speaking, reading and writing the most.
SPAN 304: Introduction to Hispanic Literature- The reading (1.3) and writing (1.4) in this course were very challenging personally, due to the fact that I had very minimum knowledge about literature in general. Nevertheless, learning about literature from the old days to modern times was very rewarding. This course was personally one of the most interesting courses that I ever took at CSUMB, due to the fact that it made the reading (1.2) engaging and interesting. I can say that this course allowed my reading ability in the Spanish language to increase in a great percentage.
SPAN 345: Literatura Mexicana: This course was also very challenging yet very rewarding. We were asked to read 7 novels throughout the semesters, which is probably the most I have ever read in the a semester for a single course. Nevertheless, the reading (1.3) skills developed in this course were satisfying and not only I learned about new Mexican authors, but also I gained an enormous amount of new vocabulary terms in Spanish. I can personally say that this course was necessary in order to fulfill this particular MLO, because the reading material was intense.
SPAN 306: Culture/ civilization of Latin America- This course in particular allowed me to put into practice my reading (1.3), speaking (1.1) and writing (1.4) abilities in the Spanish language. The course was divided into five sections and at the end of each section we had to write a reflective essay, as well as to present in groups what we had learned. Finally, I can personally say that this course allowed me to prepare for my capstone project, due to the fact the amount of presentations not only presented me with new opportunities to overcome my fear with public speaking, but most importantly to practice my Spanish speaking skills.