Costa Rica Rainforest Outward Bound School :: SPANISH IMMERSION SEMESTER ACADEMIC

Veritas University will facilate the classroom Spanish section of the course. Students will attend class for 40 days for a total of 160 hours of classroom spanish study. During the past 9 years, VERITAS has transferred credits to hundreds of universities in North America and certified hundreds of European Students in Spanish proficiency.

Students will attend Spanish courses during the following months:

SIA Fall: September and November
SIA Spring: February and April

Veritas Spanish courses are based on the use of authentic and practical contexts in order to facilitate the acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical structures. The Whole Language approach in our conversation program has lightened the intensive 4-hours per day schedule. All of our courses have a maximum of 10 students per class. Students work within realistic and commonly occuring situations such as: restaurant and food necessities, making hotel reservations, formal and informal interviews, political and social issues, and other contexts. Interviews with native speakers of different ages and social status are the basis of our students' familiarity with Costa Rican issues and culture.

All levels of work with a wide range of activities in order to develop reading comprehension, listening, writing and oral skills. The process approach to the acquisition of basic skills includes pre and postproduction activities. Students are coached in the analysis of linguistic and extra-linguistic elements during the reading and writing practices. We are fully accredited by the Ministry of Education in Costa Rica.

Students must take a written and oral placement exam on the first day of classes in order to assess his/ her level. Attendance is mandatory and students are only allowed to have one EXCUSED absence. If a student is absent more than one day he/she will automatically fail the course. Our evaluation system reinforces our program objectives. We integrate convergent (grammatical structures) and divergent (global use of language) techniques in our test procedure. All levels evaluate oral, listening, reading and writing proficiency through midterms and finals.

SPN-1120         GRAMMAR AND CONVERSATION BASIC 1
SPN-1121         GRAMMAR AND CONVERSATION BASIC 2
SPN-2200         GRAMMAR AND CONVERSATION INTERMEDIATE 1
SPN-2201         GRAMMAR AND CONVERSATION INTERMEDIATE 2
SPN 210/2100   INTERMEDIATE CONVERSATIONAL SPANISH
SPN-3300         GRAMMAR AND CONVERSATION ADVANCED 1
SPN 302/3301   GRAMMAR AND CONVERSATION ADVANCED 2
SPN 310/3100   ADVANCED CONVERSATIONAL SPANISH
SPN 340/3340   ORAL EXPRESSION TECHNIQUES
SPN-410/4010 RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION

In addition to classroom Spanish study, students will be expected to practice and utilize their Spanish skills during the adventure section of the semester course.

Certifications

All certifications are earned during adventure elements. Each is designed to develop a student’s independence in the outdoors. Students will be able to earn the following certifications:
• CPR
• First Aid
• NAUI Scuba Certification

The combination of outdoor/academic independence will help each student become a well rounded individual preparing them to be self sufficient in a multitude of settings.