Letra Hispánica
Escuela de Lengua y Cultura Hispánicas. Centro de Estudios Filológicos Avanzados

Letra Hispánica is committed to:

• Providing high quality undergraduate programs in Spanish language and culture.
• Providing excellence in teaching and learning, striving for continual improvement and responding to changes in our current world.
• Creating a safe and humane environment.
• Ensuring that students develop problem solving abilities and skills, critical and creative thinking abilities, effective communication skills, and global awareness.
• Ensuring that students explore their capabilities and interests and develop their full intellectual and human potential.
• Opening the minds of students through different world perspectives and fostering understanding among different cultures through knowledge and cultural immersion.
• Promoting respect of ideas and rejoicing in discovery. Recognizing the value of such experiences in fostering global understanding and peaceful cooperation among nations in an increasingly interdependent and rapidly changing world.
• Enhancing intercultural engagement within Salamanca‟s community and maintaining an active group of learners engaged in community service through volunteer projects.

Letra Hispánica Foreign Language Teaching Methodology

• In Letra Hispánica we integrate the Communicative methodology with the best aspects of other approaches.
• The Communicative Approach is based on the theory that language is acquired in a process whereby the information, which goes into our short memory storage, needs to be stimulated in order to be transferred into the long memory storage.
• In a communicative class the material is presented and practiced with creative, task-based learning activities. These communicative type activities stimulate a transference whereby the information goes from the short memory storage to the long memory storage.
• This approach ensures and encourages your active involvement in the learning process and puts greater emphasis on development of communicative, as opposed to merely linguistic, competence.
• You participate in discussions, role plays, problem solving exercises and small group activities. Small groups classes ensure extensive and individualized practice using Spanish. Our teachers encourage accuracy and language development through constructive feedback.
• We also pay great attention to reading and writing, in addition to listening and speaking, by exploring the significant differences between spoken and written languages.
• From The Natural Approach, which believes language acquisition can take place through constant exposure to real and natural language through communicative activities in a relaxed atmosphere, Letra Hispánica is specially interested in the insight it has provided about the importance of the psychological factors and attitudes of students in the process of learning.
• Our professors take into account the differences in learning styles of each student in order to incorporate diverse teaching techniques in the class and ensure that you are provided the opportunity to learn to the best of your ability. Therefore, your active participation is very much encouraged.
• Classes are lively and creative. You learn in a friendly atmosphere in class and also outside of class, talking to professors, collaborators and friends of Letra. The goal of extracurricular activities is to get you closely involved in real life situations, so that you can develop, at the same time, social interaction skills.
• Tertulias (gatherings in a coffee place to chat) and Intercambios (meeting Spanish students to exchange language practice) have this same purpose. Other cultural activities, such as the Cineforum or Humanities classes (i.e. Art, Civilization, History and Literature) will increase your knowledge and passion for Spanish culture.
• Finally, in our Voluntariado (Volunteer Program) if you choose to do so, you will be involved in projects which help some under-privileged sections of the community. This will also give you the opportunity to learn about Spanish society from a different point of view.

Academics and Credits

• Class descriptions and syllabi
• Length
• Levels
• Credits
• 2011 Calendar
• Weekly Schedule (Samples)
• Prices, Deadline and registration

Lodging facilities
In addition to the quality education we offer, Letra Hispánica provides accommodation in carefully selected families, apartments, residences or shared flats.

About Salamanca
Inviting Salamanca. With a population of 170,000, Salamanca is a safe and peaceful city. The old city can be traversed from one side to the other in 30 minutes, where you will encounter an open and friendly local population. As Cervantes, who knew the city well, wrote: “Everyone who experiences the peace of Salamanca is enchanted, and must return to her.”

Collegiate Salamanca and Salamanca by night. Known as "the Athens of Castile” and "Little Rome,” Salamanca has three universities with more than 40,000 students. The public university was founded in 1218, and has grown to encompass a city full of libraries, theatres, cinemas, galleries and much more. The city at night is a hive of student activity, which continues into the early hours of the morning with “la marcha” moving into its many clubs and bars. For a more tranquil experience there are the “la tuna” players serenading the beautiful Castilian women on their balconies, and moonlit walks through the historic Old City.

Monumental Salamanca. Salamanca’s variety and multitude of historic buildings has earned it the title of ‘UNESCO World Heritage Site.’ The local sandstone, from which the city is built, gives the name: “Salamanca, the Golden City.” Of particular interest are the magnificent Plaza Mayor, the two Cathedrals, and the innumerable convents, palaces, churches and private houses.

Salamanca and the Humanities. From the Songs of Alfonso the Wise of Castile, to Nebrija’s celebrated first Spanish Grammar, Salamanca has consistently brought Spanish letters and language together. Her streets ring with the steps and voices of Fray Luis de Leon, Fernando de Rojas, Garcilaso, the unknown author of Lazarillo del Tormes, Góngora, Esproncedo and Unamuno, Carmen Martín Gaite and Torrente Ballester, among many, many others.

Letra Hispánica

Letra Hispánica is a Spanish Academy offering courses in Spanish Language and Hispanic Culture. Our courses cover all aspects of the rich tapestry of Hispanic culture and language. All our students receive individual attention for their specific needs and requests.

Our teaching philosophy is based on the old motto "enseñar deleitando" ("teach so that learning is a delight"). We want every student to acquire the necessary theoretical knowledge in the classroom as well as knowledge based on real world experience. That is why we encourage and promote personal contact with professors, writers, artists and intellectuals in addition to other students from Salamanca. The genuine regard we have for Hispanic culture fosters our dedication and enthusiasm. We are committed to a vision without stereotypes.

Our classrooms are located in a modern and spacious building in the heart of Salamanca, three minutes walk from the Main Square, (La Plaza Mayor). Our academy is fully equipped with all modern amenities; air conditioning, computer access, broadband and WIFI, multi-media screens and sound devices, wheelchair access…