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FLS 202 Course Objectives

The primary objective of FLS 202 is to prepare students for the transition to 300-level Spanish courses by developing and expanding upon previously acquired language knowledge and communicative skills within a content-based curriculum focusing on Hispanic peoples and cultures.

During or by the end of the semester, successful students of FLS 202 will be able to:


  • Understand and interpret the main ideas and some details of increasingly longer stretches of speech including various verb tenses and moods.
  • Utilize context clues, both aural and non-aural, to piece together non-comprehended information.


  • Initiate a general conversation by means of asking questions.
  • Paraphrase what somebody else has said or what has been read.
  • Begin to sustain conversation by utilizing effective communicative strategies to express ideas (i.e., circumlocution, soliciting opinions).
  • Use increasingly precise vocabulary words in diverse communicative contexts.
  • Describe characteristics of people and things, and physical and mental conditions of people. Express likes and dislikes and offer opinions.
  • Narrate experiences or events in various tense and mood references including present, past and future, and the emergence of conditional and hypothetical situations.
  • Exchange opinions and individual perspectives on cultural topics (e.g., traditions, historical events or characters).
  • Express agreement and disagreement, supporting opinion with simple reasoning
  • Make evaluative statements and recommendations, attempting to influence others.
  • Prepare and deliver short oral reports on a given topic pertaining to Spanish-speaking cultures (artistic/literary and/or popular culture).


  • Read with increasing understanding a variety of authentic materials, which might include short stories, poems, essays, or readings from a Spanish language newspaper or magazine.


  • Take notes in some detail on course topics and provide detailed written responses to assigned questions.
    Increase precision in the expression of ideas, using various verb tenses and both indicative and subjunctive moods.
  • Describe and narrate ideas or information in extended informal writings, such as journal entries.
  • Prepare a composition with a clear organization of topic sentence, supporting details and conclusion, as well as an increased focus on achieving greater cohesion in writing, through using such elements as pronominal substitutions and transitional expressions.


  • Gain a greater understanding of and appreciation for Hispanic peoples and cultures.
  • When presented with cultural phenomena, make justifiable inferences about relevant cultural practices, products and perspectives.
  • Obtain information about the Spanish-speaking world from outside sources such as the Internet, and make sound judgments about the validity of the information.
  • Obtain information about “Big C” culture, such as music, art, architecture, literature and film; experience such works; and react to them.
  • Obtain information about “small c” culture such as daily routines and patterns of behavior, perspectives on domestic and international issues and products that identify and define the culture. Look for and identify connections between material studied in class and the world in which students live
  • Identify major contributions that the Spanish language & Spanish –speaking culture have made to United States society and the world.