Organized online by University of Alcalá (UAH) in Spain, the Language and Culture Summer School started on July 4th, and rounded off 3 weeks later on July 22nd 2022. With Mr. Manuel and Ms. Laura of UAH lecturing, the Summer School was attended by the Class of 2025 from Spanish Department, ZJU, and other students interested in Spanish language and culture. The curricula included Spanish courses for MCRE A2-level Test, daily assignments, and a final exam that evaluated and guaranteed the learning outcome.
Drawing uponan e-textbook called Español Lengua Extranjera (Spanish as a Foreign Language), students learned about the subject ofEntorno Laboral (Working Environment) that covered several novel topics, such as industrial manufacturing, office facilities, high-tech electronic products, corporate establishment, import and export, and advertisement design. Besides, in the textbook, grammar is taught in an unusual way. Instead of preaching points pedantically, it tried to familiarize students with the grammar-in-use situation, e.g., by telling traditional Chinese stories to name the difference between pretérito indefinido (indefinite past tense) and pretérito imperfecto (imperfect past tense). Students were therefore able to grasp Spanish grammar with the combination of Chinese context and Spanish mindset. Throughout all the tasks, group discussions, case studies and presentations where knowledge was applied to solving practical problems, students not only enriched their knowledge of Spanish language and culture, but also reviewed what they had learned before. As a comprehensive platform for language acquisition and cultural exchange, the Summer School offered them a fulfilling learning experience.
The Summer School not only equipped students with professional skills and better understanding of Spanish culture, but also witnessed their improvement in language competence, as their oral expression turned to be increasingly fluent, coherent and logical, and one after another got activated for participation and interaction in class.
Bridging China and Spain through the Internet, the Summer School opened for Chinese students a new chapter of Spanish as a most beautiful language. In this harvest season of summer, joint efforts were made by devoted teachers and hardworking students to culminate the 2022 Zhejiang University – University of Alcalá Language and Culture Summer School.
Spanish Department, SIS, ZJU
Translated by Cai Zhengwu, Revised by Xu Xueying
