Aims

This course is given to absolute beginners who have never studied the Spanish language. By the end of the course the students are expected to have reached an A2 level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

Main themes

Reading Comprehension

- can understand short, simple texts written in common everyday language.
- can understand everyday signs and notices in public places, such as streets, restaurants, railway stations and in
workplaces.
- can understand short simple personal letters.
- can understand short, simple narrative or descriptive texts written adapted to A2 level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

Listening Comprehension

- Can understand key information from short, simple messages relating everyday life.
- can understand the essential information from short recorded passages dealing with predictable everyday matters which are spoken slowly and clearly. A2 level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

Speaking Production

- Can speak about oneself on a descriptive way, about his environment and living conditions (learning a language, introducing him/herself, speaking about his/her family, everyday situations and job, describing his home, etc.)
- Can communicate simple and current tasks requiring only short and direct exchange
A2 level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).
Writing production
- Write short and current documents (a postcard, a personal letter, etc.) A2 level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

Code

- Can correctly pronounce the various sounds of standard Spanish and put them in relation to his writing
- Can control the basic vocabulary of standard Spanish (approximately 2000 words)
- Can control the principal grammatical contents and the linguistic exhibitors of basic Spanish. A2 level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

Culture

In reference to all the above mentioned aptitudes, sensitizing with the culture of the Spanish-speaking countries

Content and teaching methods

- 90 hours course, 3 hours a week throughout the year
- This course is given to members of the personnel of the UCL and to students of a faculty of the UCL who have
registered the course in the program of studies - 9 credits (a different number of credits can be given depending
on the faculty)

Prerequisites:
not to have studied Spanish previously and to fulfill the requirements established by the faculty to which the student belongs

Course objectives:
A2 level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) for every competence (reading comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking production and writing production)

Content andMethodology:
- pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar exercises
- listening and reading comprehension exercises
- spoken interaction and spoken production exercises
- writing production exercises
- communicative method and activities regarding general subjects

Assessment:
continuous assessment (4 written tests and an oral test throughout the year, work to be returned, presence and participation)

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

The course is centered on the communication and uses a method halfway between the communicative and the notion-functional one. Therefore, the elements of the code are not acquired by the study of lists of vocabulary or the structural approach of grammar exclusively. These elements are built-in in significant contexts, grouped according to functional contents (to give and ask personal data, to speak about the usual actions, to speak about the spare time and tastes, to describe a city, to suggest activities, to speak about the future projects, etc), and later they are practiced with exercises requiring the development of an integral communicative competence. The course provides the student with didactic materials made by the professor according to the described method and crated from current bibliography including more than 40 works not only to be used at class but also to practice the controlled autonomous practice. The materials include very elaborate grammatical tables and exercises of systematization, but the typology of exercises is very heterogeneous: songs, plays, role plays, real or adapted texts or created in a teaching goal, publicities, etc.

Other credits in programs