Spanish 003 is designed for students who have successfully completed Spanish 002 at PSU, or the equivalent level in high school or at another university.  For students who have taken and successfully completed 4 years of high school Spanish within four years immediately preceding admission to college, Spanish 003 is the minimum entry level course. Students with course work equivalent to the level of Spanish 003 will not receive credit for Spanish 003.

Two hours of this 4-credit one semester course is completed in class (i.e. two fifty minute class periods a week) and the rest (instruction + homework) is fulfilled on-line in ANGEL, the PSU course management system. The purpose of this course is to develop and improve communication skills when listening, reading, speaking, and writing in Spanish. The course follows a communicative information-based task approach, which springs from the idea that languages are best learned when real world information becomes the focus of students’ activities. Therefore, during the semester, you will exchange real-life information about yourself and your classmates.

During the first three weeks of the course we review some of the major grammatical points covered in Spanish 002, for example how to talk about events that happened in the past. Then, throughout the remainder of the semester students will learn how to use the future and conditional tenses, as well as how to construct compound tenses and talk about hypothetical situations using the subjunctive mood. We also cover pertinent vocabulary topics such as health conditions and medical treatments, travel plans and arrangements, immigration, demographics and social conditions, the economy, the environment, and advances in science and technology. For more specific details on the content covered in this course, click on the following link to access the Spanish 003 syllabus.

Students will learn as well as practice all of this material in class and on-line in ANGEL. Both in and out of class, students will utilize the Mosaicos textbook as a reference and tool in order to complete a wide array of activities. Homework assignments consist of weekly on-line exercises in ANGEL as well as writing assignments known as escrituras.ANGEL:You will need to use a program called “ANGEL” to do your online homework. At the beginning of the semester, students receive training on how to use this program. The on-line instruction that students receive on ANGEL concentrates on the acquisition of grammar and vocabulary, the development of listening, reading and writing skills, and exposure to Hispanic culture. Each week, students devote a minimum of 6 hours to complete the following on-line assignments: