The <span> tag has very similar properties to the <div> tag, in that it changes the style of the text it encloses. But without any style attributes, the <span> tag won't change the enclosed items at all.
The primary difference between the <span> and <div> tags is that <span> doesn't do any formatting of it's own. The <div> tag acts includes a paragraph break, because it is defining a logical division in the document. The <span> tag simply tells the browser to apply the style rules to whatever is within the <span>.