Academic writing in Spanish

Teacher(s)

Aulit Laetitia;

Language

Spanish

Prerequisites

The student has achieved a B2 level in Spanish.

Main themes

The aim of this course is to train students to write a scientific or academic text in Spanish. It covers the communicative, lexical, grammatical and editorial content specific to reference levels B1.1 and B2, as well as the writing techniques for academic writing in Spanish.  The course also teaches students how to problematise literary, historical and scientific texts, as well as written argumentation.  At the end of a three-year journey, this course aims to consolidate written expression in Spanish.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	Collect and select relevant information using rigorous and systematic methods
2	Synthesise essential elements of knowledge in order to problematise a research question
3	Synthesise essential elements of knowledge in order to problematise a research question
4	Produce a scientific text that respects the standards of the discipline and of academic discourse
5	Reflect on his/her knowledge, methods and productions
6	Read and understand specialised texts in several languages
7	Oral and written command of one or more foreign languages, so as to be able to produce a discourse at an academic level and to be able to adapt one's language productions to the context and to the interlocutors

Content

By reading articles, extracts from books (all genres) or comments on texts in the original language, students are invited to identify the language conventions, lexicon and structure of a scientific text in Spanish. Students are then encouraged to produce a text themselves that respects the codes, register, lexical richness and structure of a scientific text in Spanish. They will also work on problematisation and argumentation in Spanish with case studies from the Spanish-speaking world. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand complex texts in Spanish, to identify implicit and explicit theses, and to analyse, interpret and comment them using the appropriate vocabulary and academic structure.

Teaching methods

The course alternates readings and analyses of academic texts with practical writing exercises. The themes may vary from year to year to suit students' interests and/or to reflect current social issues.  
This unit comprises 15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of practical work. 

Evaluation methods

This teaching unit is assessed on a continuous basis and comprises three assessment components:

• Two interim assignments based on the exercises and activities carried out in lectures and practical sessions – 30% each
• A final assignment involving the partial writing of a scientific text – 40%

Instructions and a detailed calendar will be available on Moodle. Failure to complete an assessment task will result in a mark of 0 for the module as a whole.

In August, assessment takes the form of a written examination covering all the content covered during the course.

If the student uses generative artificial intelligence tools, this has to be done in a responsible way and in compliance with good practice standards of academic and scientific integrity. Since the scientific integrity implies that one cites one's sources, the use of AI always has to be mentioned. The use of AI for tasks where this has been explicitly forbidden will be considered a case of fraud. 
For a description of uses of AI that respect academic norms, students can consult the document "Lignes directrices pour une utilisation des outils d’intelligence artificielles génératives (IAG) en ELAL", available at LELALmemoire: L'utilisation des IA génératives et le plagiat | MoodleUCLouvain

Bibliography

Une bibliographie propre à chaque thème est mentionnée à la fin de chaque présentation PowerPoint du cours.

Faculty or entity

> ELAL