I have proposed and developed three courses and one short course/workshop at Rice…..

• SPAN 507 Teaching Methodology Class for Graduate Students of Spanish and French
• SPAN 309 Practical Spanish Phonetics
• SPAN 105 Accelerated first year Spanish language
• 2-week workshop: Language Teaching Methodology short course for English teachers

SPAN 507:  Jose Narbona and I worked together to develop a methodology/pedagogy class for the Spanish and French graduate students at Rice.  We team taught the course for two semesters and received favorable evaluations from our students.   As we worked on the development of the course we focused on including  practical information that would be beneficial to the graduate students in their first years as language teachers.   Along with the theories of language teaching methodology we discussed differences in language learners, second language acquisition,  oral proficiency and communicative competence, the use of technology in language teaching, and we read current articles on language teaching and pedagogy.  We talked about and developed web-based activities, and of course we included a discussion of the interview process after graduation and writing cover letters for job applications.   We chose  Alice Omaggio Hadley’s  Teaching Language in Context as the textbook.

SPAN 309:  I proposed a Spanish phonetics course because I saw a need for help and guidance in pronunciation for the students I was teaching and because the course was not offered at Rice when I arrived in 2003.  The primary goal of the course is to help the non-native Spanish speakers improve their own pronunciation.  To improve pronunciation,  students  practice the Spanish sounds in class and we  discuss specific problems that English speakers have in learning to produce certain Spanish sounds, and the influence of English sounds on the pronunciation of Spanish. This is beneficial to the native English speaker learning Spanish and can also be helpful for the bilingual or heritage speakers who wish to teach Spanish to native English speakers. We also look at intonation of Spanish and English and show the effect of English intonation when used in Spanish sentences.   In addition to improving their own pronunciation, students  learn about the pronunciation differences or regionalisms of the Spanish spoken in different countries on three continents and they learn to recognize and understand regional differences in the pronunciation of Spanish.   A secondary objective is to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and to describe Spanish sounds using the phonetic terminology in Spanish. Students  also learn how to utilize the IPA to prepare phonetic transcriptions.  I have used Tessner’s Camino Oral in the past and am currently using Terrell Morgan’s Sonidos en Contexto.

SPAN 105:  In CSL we the Spanish instructors have struggled to place some students in the appropriate class when the results of their placement test indicated that they knew too much Spanish for SPAN 101 but not enough to take SPAN 102.   I developed an accelerated first year Spanish class to accomodate these students.  In SPAN 105 we spend about 4 weeks at the beginning of the semester to go over  material covered in SPAN 101. Most of the 105 students have taken 2 or 3 years of Spanish in high school so this is review for them.  The remainder of the semester we cover material from SPAN 102.  Since it is an accelerated class in which we cover the material from two semesters in one semester we move quickly.   The class is taught in Spanish from the beginning and at the end of one semester students are prepared for SPAN 201.  I am currently using Vista publishing Panorama Volume 2.

Language Teaching Methodology workshop/course:  I developed a Language Teaching Methodology and Pedagogy 2-week course for English teachers from the Heilongjiang province of China and taught the course/workshop at Rice University for three different groups from China.  In February of 2010 I taught the course for 28 high school English teachers from Harbin and surrounding towns of the Heilongjiang province in China and in February of 2011 I taught a shorter 5-day course to a group of 50 high school English teachers from Heilongjiang.  In March of 2011 I taught an 8-day course to 25 University English professors from various universities in China.  I researched textbooks and chose one for the course.  I wrote a syllabus and created powerpoints for the lectures that I presented.   The powerpoints are linked to my webpage at lang.rice.edu/ppatters.  (ppts for university professors and ppts for high school teachers).  For each of the three courses I revised the syllabus and materials to fit the attendees and the time period of the course.  I also revised and made changes to the course based on feedback from participants.

COURSES TAUGHT AT RICE  

The following courses are all classes that I have taught at Rice University since 2003.  The course numbers below are linked to either my course webpages which include a course description and syllabus or to a course description and syllabus from a previous semester .

• SPAN 101  Based on a task-oriented approach to language and culture learning, Spanish 101 allows students to develop the abilities to communicate satisfactorily in Spanish in everyday situations. Students are expected to be active participants in this process. Class meetings are primarily based on student interaction. No prior knowledge of Spanish.
• SPAN 102  Continuation of SPAN 101. Based on a task-oriented approach to language and culture learning. SPAN 102 allows students to develop the abilities to communicate satisfactorily in Spanish in everyday situations. Students are expected to be active participants in this process. Class meetings primarily involve student interaction and communicative activities.
• SPAN 105   (see description above) Alternate first year Spanish course for students who have taken 1 to 3 years of Spanish in high school or have studied beginning Spanish more than 2 years ago. Accelerated review of grammar and vocabulary from SPAN 101 and then new material from SPAN 102. Students will be prepared for SPAN 201 upon completion of the course.
• SPAN 201   (link to syllabus from fall 2006 class)Intermediate level students increase Spanish proficiency and cultural awareness through learner-centered communicative activities and thoughtful processing of authentic materials including short stories, news articles, film, and music. Classes are conducted in Spanish and not based on lectures.
• SPAN 202   (link to syllabus from spring 2010) Continuation of SPAN 201 based on a communicative approach to language learning. Classes incorporate proficiency based instruction focused on expanding vocabulary and further developing cultural awareness and communicative skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening).
• SPAN 301   (link to syllabus from fall 2009) This course aims to bring students from an intermediate towards an advanced level of proficiency in Spanish. Students will develop fluency and communicative competence through exposure to literary texts, newspaper and web articles, films and videos, in their cultural context. Emphasis will be on conversation strategies, vocabulary expansion and the writing of essays.
• SPAN 302   This course aims to bring students from an intermediate towards an advanced level of proficiency in Spanish. Students will develop fluency and communicative competence through exposure to literary texts, newspaper and web articles, films and videos, in their cultural context. Emphasis will be on conversation strategies, vocabulary expansion and the writing of essays. Recommended Prerequisite: SPAN 301 or placement test.
• SPAN 309   (see description above)
• SPAN 507  (see description above)