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).

Course description

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

° Can write short and current documents (a postcard, a personal letter, etc.) A2 level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

Main themes

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

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

[90h] 9 credits

Teacher(s): Isabel Baeza Varela, José María del Águila Gómez

Language: Spanish

Level: this course is mainly for 1st cycle

Prerequisites

° Not to have studied Spanish previously

° To be student of a faculty of the UCL and to have registered the course in the program of studies.

° To fulfill the requirements established by the faculty to which the student belongs

Workload

Course hours: 90 H

Autonomous work: 130 H

Pedagogical accompaniment

° the ideal number of students by group is of 25 maximum
° the teacher is available in his/her hours of reception
° the course gives the student a guide of electronic addresses and materials to support the autonomous training and other didactic materials for the controlled autonomous practice.

Course materials

° Español 1 : communicative method used during the course divided into 10 units. It includes very elaborate grammatical tables and exercises of acquisition of the vocabulary, communicative exercises based on songs, plays, publicities, texts, role plays, cultural charts, etc.

° Gente que lee: Novel-comic for the autonomous reading. The subjects, the structures, the functions and the vocabulary follow the most usual progression of a course of the elementary level.

° Español G Cuaderno de ejercicios: (177 p.): exercise book of grammar for the autonomous practice. It presents a broad range of exercises for 27 subjects suitable for the elementary level. This book is accompanied by the key of the exercises and an audio cassette available to the CAA of the ILV.

Assessment

Various marks make the final Assessment:
° Several written tests and an oral test throughout the year.
° Continuous Assessment (work to be returned, presence and participation).

Other credits in programs