First term

From 13 October 2025 to 05 December 2025 (8 weeks - 12 hours)

Second term

From 12 January 2026 to 20 March 2026 (10 weeks - 15 hours)

Third term

From 16 April 2026 to 21 May 2026 (6 weeks - 9 hours)

Spanish 401 is a high intermediate level course designed to help students develop proficiency in Spanish and deepen their knowledge of Hispanophone cultures. Students will draw on previous knowledge of Spanish to further develop their ability to communicate in the target language in four basic ways: speaking, writing, reading and listening. Students will also be able to gain cultural competence by discussing oral, written and visual authentic texts that explore the vast cultural diversity of Spanish speaking countries.  This course requires continuous, independent work outside of the classroom to ensure successful performance in all class sessions. At the end of this course, students will have reached a B2 level and will be able to: 

• Refer to past non-declarative, hypothetical contexts.

• Express what has happened recently or a past action/situation that still bears relevance in the present. Discuss past events that occurred prior to another action in the past.

• Talk about hypothetical situations and elicit polite requests. How to express hypothetical, possible and contrary to fact situations that depend on a previous condition.

• How to express what has happened recently or still bears relevance in the present in a non-declarative context. How to talk about the future and what will have happened by a specific time.

• Read, write, discuss, and express opinions on different socio-cultural and artistic topics of personal and/or research interest.

• The subjunctive mood in subordinate sentences (noun, adjective and adverbial).

• Present perfect indicative, past perfect: pluscuamperfecto de indicativo.

• Conditional tense. Different types of “Si” clauses.

• Present perfect subjunctive.

• Future perfect.

• A summary of the uses of the preterite and the imperfect tenses. A summary of the uses of the subjunctive mood.

Students will be asked to buy a textbook for this course. This could be either a physical or digital copy. Additional material will be provided by the teacher. More information on the first day of class. 

Please be aware that this course follows a flipped classroom instructional approach, rather than a traditional instructional method. Under a traditional method, students come to class to learn the material, then go home to practice. However, for this course, you are required to study the material at home and then you come to class to practice, in context, what you have learned. The textbook will offer a digital platform for homework and extra activities.

In class, you will interact with other students and with your teacher only in Spanish, and you and your classmates will engage in activities and projects to use the Spanish language creatively and to give meaning to the grammar you are learning through a communicative and collaborative approach.