SPN 313: Advanced Communication Skills

Abstract

This syllabus for SPN 313 (Advanced Communication Skills) at the College of Staten Island, CUNY, presents a zero-textbook-cost, OER-based course in advanced academic writing in Spanish designed for a mixed population of heritage speakers and advanced second-language learners. The course follows a genre-based progression through four textual forms — description, narration, exposition, and argumentation — organized around a recursive writing process of drafting, instructor feedback, and revision. Its signature assignment, the Autobiografía lingüística (Linguistic Autobiography), serves as the Spanish program's ACTFL-aligned assessment artifact and is supported by a structured independent-inquiry project on dialectal variation. The syllabus foregrounds the dialectal diversity of the Spanish-speaking world — Caribbean, Mexican and Central American, Andean, Rioplatense, Peninsular, and U.S. varieties — treating the language varieties students bring to the classroom as linguistic assets and objects of study. Course materials are drawn entirely from openly licensed sources, and learning outcomes are aligned with both ACTFL World-Readiness Standards and NACE career-readiness competencies. The document includes the full grading scheme, weekly course schedule, participation rubric, and course policies, and may be adapted by instructors of advanced Spanish composition, heritage language pedagogy, or writing-intensive language courses.