B.U.I.L.D. Spanish 2

FREE CLASSES! Come join the fun and be sure to bring your computer to class!

B.U.I.L.D. Spanish 2A

Tuesdays 1:00 pm – 1:50 pm

February 14, 2012 – May 1, 2012

Monterey Institute of International Studies

A Graduate School of Middlebury College

MORSE BUILDING
426 Van Buren Street

Room A201

Instructor: Celia Stauty

MATFL-Spanish

contact me @ cstauty@miis.edu

This semester students will have the opportunity to build (pun intended) their Spanish skills while communicating with each other both in the classroom as well as with native speakers of Spanish as we explore various options for building Internet mediated intercultural communication skills.

Some of the benefits we look forward to from our online  intercultural communication sessions include:

• Helps build negotiation strategies
• Improves Spanish language skills
• Promotes the idea that learning is fun because:
  • it’s a novel way to communicate
  • students view virtual worlds as places where they can take risks and “try on” different faces
• Positively impacts the development of intercultural competence
• Makes face-to-face characteristics (such as age, race, and gender) a non-issue
• Cultivates a “community of learners” despite physical and cultural distance between learners
• Expands knowledge and understanding of other cultures
  • This, in turn, fosters cognitive development as participants’ new-found awareness of different perspectives increases their flexibility
• Takes advantage of communication media’s increased social sensitivity (compared with printed or electronic one-way broadcast media

New to Second Life

(http://secondlife.com)

If you have never been in Second Life before, it is recommended that you :

• set-up your account

• look around and get your bearings a couple of days before class

• It is always good to ensure that you can walk, talk, and hear what is going on before class

Looking for an online practice partner outside of Second Life?

Try The Mixxer – a free educational website for language exchanges via Skype

Here you can meet native speakers of Spanish (or any other language you are interested in learning)

who want to practice with you so that they can learn your native language!

Try busuu.com – a free online community for learning languages.

Here you can meet native speakers of Spanish (or any other language you are interested in learning)

where you can learn by talking to native Spanish speakers around the world through their video chat.

busuu.com also offers interactive language learning materials to practice and improve your language skills.

The materials are arranged into learning units. Each one is based on a certain topic and contains

all of the most important vocabulary and phrases so that you may continue practicing your language skills outside of class.