38 Para terminar… ¡Conversemos!

¡Conversemos! 2: Mi Vida Académica

During this in-class ¡Conversemos! activity, you will imagine you are at a party and you meet people your age who happen to also be students at UT! Begin by greeting your new friends. After saying hello and introducing yourself, talk about the UT and its campus– even though talking about school at a party is not that cool. It does give you the opportunity to get to know your new friends a little bit more and to discuss topics you are all familiar with. Before this in-class activity, please complete Pasos 1 through 5 below and submit them to Canvas.

[Copy pre-activity Google doc here]

Paso 1. Start this pre-activity by preparing a list of questions you will use in class to find out more about your classmates. Use the vocabulary in previous sections of our textbook, as well as present tense verbs. For example, you can ask what their major is, what classes they are taking this semester, the days, times and location of classes, the materials that are required, their favorite building on campus to study in, to name a few ideas. Feel free to be more adventurous and try to use new words (especially cognates)! This is also a review of question formation so make sure to include a mix of yes/no questions (e.g., ¿Eres de Austin?) and information questions (e.g., ¿De dónde eres?).

Paso 2. Now prepare a list of useful vocabulary words and phrases from previous sections of our textbook (and beyond) to share information about your own academic life. Importantly, do not write complete sentences here. You will lose points during the in-class ¡Conversemos! activity if you are simply reading your answers to your classmate’s questions.

Paso 3. Remember, cognates are a great tool for communication. Have you included any in sections (1) or (2) above? Go ahead and copy all the cognates you used above into the appropriate columns below. Columns two, three and four offer several examples but this is just a starting point. Practice pronouncing these words and make sure you are familiar with both the definite (provided) and the indefinite articles that accompany these words. In addition, find patterns for why the nouns are either assigned masculine or feminine gender (e.g., ends in -o is masc.).

Paso 4. At some point during the natural flow of the in-class conversation, get your phone out and share a picture of a place on campus or something about UT that is meaningful to you. Describe below in Spanish what image you will be sharing.

Paso 5. Finally, prepare a list of fillers (to hold the floor), expressions that show interest in the conversation (so that your new friends don’t mistake silence with disinterest), and helpful expressions for sharing your opinion, expressing (dis) agreement, and getting others involved.

Paso 6. Upload this pre-activity to Canvas before the in-class ¡Conversemos! activity.

Más práctica…

Trabaja con un@ compañer@ y practica tu español en estas situaciones sociales. You need to use the vocabulary and structures you learned in Módulo introductorio (e.g., saludos, el verbo ser, el verbo hay, question words) and in this module (e.g., -ar verbs, la hora y los días de la semana).