Lourdes Hernandez Martin

Mercedes Coca

This course is available on the BA in Geography, BA in Social Anthropology, BSc in Economic History, BSc in Economic History and Geography, BSc in Economics and Economic History, BSc in Environment and Sustainable Development, BSc in Environment and Sustainable Development with Economics, BSc in International Relations, BSc in International Relations and History, BSc in Language, Culture and Society, BSc in Management, BSc in Social Anthropology, Erasmus Reciprocal Programme of Study, Exchange Programme for Students from University of California, Berkeley and MA in Modern History. This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

This course has a limited number of places (it is capped) and priority will be given to Centre for Language Studies BSc students and students from other Departments following a Language Specialism. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and on the MA in Modern History. This course is available with permission to General Course students. All students should seek approval from the teacher responsible before completing course selection. Please see here for information on seeking approval for undergraduate modern language degree courses (https://www.lse.ac.uk/languages/undergraduate-degree-programmes/degree-courses-as-part-of-an-undergraduate-degree).

Assumed prior knowledge:

Language skills and knowledge of Spanish at C1 level of the Common European Reference Framework for Languages are required.

Additional requisites:

Completion of LN220 Spanish Language and Society – Proficiency, or equivalent prior knowledge, is required.

All students must seek approval from Lourdes Hernandez-Martin (l.hernandez-martin@lse.ac.uk) before completing course selection. For further information, see Degree courses as part of an undergraduate degree.

Students considering this course for their second or third year are advised to contact Lourdes Hernandez-Martin before the summer vacation.

This course is designed to develop students' Spanish proficiency to mastery level (C1–C2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, CEFR), refining their interaction, production, reception, and mediation skills through engagement with the cultural production of the Spanish-speaking world. Teaching adopts a seminar-based, collaborative approach, conducted in Spanish, in which students are expected to take an active and analytical role in discussions, readings, and project work.

The course is structured around sociocultural units that examine how cinema, photography, graphic novels, and other cultural expressions narrate and bear witness to social change. Units explore themes such as memory and state violence, North–South relations, the ethics of representation, and the experience of minority identities. Through the close analysis of specific cultural objects, students develop the critical and linguistic tools to engage with cultural production as both aesthetic practice and social document.

Throughout the academic year, students also undertake an independent research project within a simulated editorial environment, working as cultural journalists for the Cultura section of Enfoques, an online magazine and podcast that promotes understanding of the contexts where Spanish is spoken. Students produce a research dossier for an end-of-year special issue of Enfoques/Cultura.

The course thus aims not only to bring students to mastery-level proficiency in Spanish but also to develop their critical engagement with Spanish-speaking contexts, sharpen their research and analytical abilities, and foster sociolinguistic critical awareness.

10 hours of classes and 10 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.
10 hours of classes and 10 hours of classes in the Winter Term.
1 hour of classes and 1 hour of classes in the Spring Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

Two hours per week.

The course adopts a seminar-based, collaborative approach, conducted in Spanish, in which students are expected to take an active and analytical role in discussions, readings, and project work.

Students will be required to complete weekly tasks. 

Continuous Assessment tasks can take place in class and outside the class.

Students will be provided with study materials developed by the Spanish team at the LSE Language Centre. These include guides for the eight sociocultural units around which the course is structured, as well as guides supporting the Enfoques research project. 

Additional resources will be recommended at the start of the course.

Exam (30%), duration: 90 Minutes in the Spring exam period.

Oral examination (30%).

Continuous assessment (40%).

Language courses map to the Common European Framework for Language Learning.  This framework defines linguistic proficiency in the four language skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) at different levels.  To pass this course, students are therefore required to achieve a pass mark in each element of the assessment (continuous assessment, oral and written exams), as these test all four skills.