Department of Modern Languages and Literatures

Capstoning Spanish: Meditation on the past, Metaphor for the future

Spanish Capstone Courses Taught so Far

Latin American SpanishDr. Otilia Cortez

(Fall 2002)

Dictatorship in Latin Am erican LiteratureDr. Otilia Cortez

(Fall 2003)

Paraguay, an Area Stdy Dr. Tracy Lew is

(Fall 2004)

Mexican TeatherDr. Georgina W ittingham

(I n progress)

Latin American Spanish: Significance of the Topic

Considering that the Spanish major fosters understanding and appreciation of the customs, traditions, and cultural values of the Hispanic world, the Latin American Course was designed as a capstone to provide opportunities for the study of literature rooted in diverse communities and their own worldview, feelings, hopes, beliefs, ideology, and other aspects of their cultural make up.

Latin American Spanish  

Outcomes:•Familiarizes  students with the variety of Spanish dialects spoken In Latin America and raises awareness of the impact that this diversity may have on teaching Spanish as a second language.

•Improves all basic communicative skills and provides training for comfortable interaction with native speakers of the various regions.

 

 

Linguistic Map

Speech Production Main Articulators

Latin American Spanish Course

Interviews Most interviewees were

native speakers of Spanish attending SUNY.

Visitors Professor: Francisco

Arellano (from Nicaragua)

Dr. Tracy Lewis (Specialist in Paraguayan culture)

MoviesMiel para OchumComo agua para

chocolateLa Historia OficialSongs from Colombia,

Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Chile etc.

Latin American Spanish

Text Book: John M. Lipski. Latin American Spanish. 1994

Additional readings: José G. Moreno de Alba.

El Español en América. 1995

D. Lincoln Canfield. Spanish Pronunciation in the Americas. 1981

Dictatorship in Latin American Literature -Dr. Otilia Cortez-Fall 2003Significance of the course Explores the past from

the present and the universal through the particular.

-Gives a broad knowledge about one of the most important issues in Latin American countries.

Facilitates students their intellectual growth through the coalescence of the Spanish language, culture and history. -Approaches students to Spanish native speaker real world.

Outcomes

-Helps students to reflect on their past experience at the college.

-Empowers student to be a good professional in the future.

-Helps students to understand culture and all artistic expressions.

-Provides students more confidence on themselves to speak Spanish.

Dictatorship in Latin American Literature

Dictatorship in Latin American Literature

Readings: Novels: La mujer habitada

La fiesta del chivo

Songs, poems, plays:

Interviews:

Students from college and native speakers from the area.

Invited Speakers: Dr. Yolanda Rosas

(Ecuador) Dr. Elias Ramos

(Venezuela)

Paraguay: an Area Study( Fall 200) Dr. Tracy Lewis

Paraguay: an Area Study

Aims at the student’s life and spirit. Gives an excellent overview of Paraguayan history

and daily life. It has much to say about The Latin American context

in which Paraguay exists. It offers meaningful analogs of the students personal

experience: the generation gap, love, sex, the quest for identity, the struggle to create beauty.

It offers students the chance to reflect on their majors in terms which actually produce enduring learning: the individual’s core of intimate concerns.

Significance of the Course:

Bibliography and Films

Marcos, Juan Manuel

El invierno de Gunter.

Roa Bastos, Augusto.

Hijo de hombre.

Jara, Víctor. Canto Libre

Machado, Antonio. Poesías Completas

García Lorca, Federico.Obras Completas Clastres, Pierre.“Mitos y

ritos de los indiosde la América del Sur.”

Films: -Mujeres en el mercado.-Mujeres en el mercado.-El gran chaco.

Stages of Discovery: Contemporary Mexican TheatreDr. Georgina Whittingham

The founding of Mexico(The eagle, the nopal and the stone)

Significance of the topic

Provides students with understanding of the major events and figures in Mexican cultural history through the dynamic medium of contemporary plays.

Allows students to experience what happens when a dramatic text is performed, and most importantly, performances engage students in situations that reflect Mexican cultural values…

Significance of the topic: Discussions and research

pave the way for students’ critical diaries and written commentary on each play and place it within its social, political and cultural context.

provide a re-creation and a re-vision of the past from the vantage point of the present and a meditation on what the future may hold as past and present intersect in contemporary Mexican plays.

Outcomes

Students have the opportunity to reflect on their own concerns and on the linguistic and cultural competency acquired, during their college career, an required to succeed in the profession.

Students take charge of learning through a variety of techniques: research, writing, performances, technology assisted learning, and an archive of personally created cultural images and texts.

Performance of Rabinal Achí- Ballet-Drama (Guatemala)

Rabinal Achí

Stages of Discovery: Contemporary Mexican Theatre

Sources:

Rabinal Achi

El Popol Vuh

El Libro de Chilam Balam

Los albañiles (Leñero)

Moctezuma (Magaña)

El sueño de Malinche

(Del Río Marcela)

Zapata Vive (Hoyos)

El Gesticulador (Usigli)

Chicles Joven (Galván)

Cuauhtemoc (Novo) etc.

Performance:

El Rabinal Achi,etc.

Filmed Documentary:

Electronically Produced Documentary.