Courses are for people who need to master the Spanish language. Courses are taught in groups of a minimum of three students and a maximum of eight. Classes are held Monday through to Friday mornings (08:00-12:00), or 25 hours per week. Start dates are every Monday of the year (see calendar). When a student has prior knowledge of Spanish, he or she is invited to take an evaluation test to determine exactly which level course would suit best. The teaching of Spanish in AMISTAD is organized into four levels – Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced and Superior.
Beginner Level:
- Overcoming natural shyness to learn a new language.
- Understanding, confronting and resolving basic situations of daily life and work.
- Ability to communicate orally and in writing, mastering the grammatical structure of course work.
- Specific Objectives: Asking questions, responding, identifying, describing, writing and speaking of basic ‘things’. Knowing how to express likes and dislikes. Talking about activities in the immediate future tense.
Grammar: Grammatical sentence construction (interrogative, affirmative, negative) of the present tense. The indicative mode (regular, irregular, reflexive, etc.). Mastering the verbs ‘ser’ and ‘estar’… The verb ‘gustar’… Learning the near future tense…. Actions undertaken…. Adverbs… Prepositions…
Intermediate Level:
- Acquiring a mastery of oral and written verb tenses.
- Developing the ability to express complex situations.
- Mastering a conversation; being able to give views on current topics with a mixed temporal structure.
- Being able to talk easily with native speakers.
- Dealing with unexpected situations.
- Specific Objectives: Identifying, explaining, describing, writing about events in the past. Schedule future activities and likely future activities…
- Grammar: The past tense (simple past, imperfect and past perfect)… Prepositions… Adverbs… Pronouns… Direct object, indirect and combinations… The future (simple and compound)… The conditional (simple and compound)… The indicative mood.
Advanced Level:
- Controlling vocabulary for increased understanding and having a conversation at an advanced level…
- Managing the oral and written grammatical structures of the course.
- Being able to have a fluent conversation in Spanish.
- Synthesizing, arguing and drawing conclusions…
- Overcoming difficulties – especially on the telephone.
- Specific Objectives: Learning to ask, recommend, provide information, orders and suggestions in different situations and different places… Talking, discussing, analyzing, writing, narrating, planning activities… Being able to express goals and targets in the future, and speak eloquently on a variety of topics (culture, politics, economics)… Being able to sit and conduct interviews of all kinds.
- Grammar: The imperative mood (positive and negative)… The subjunctive mood (present, imperfect, past tense and past perfect)…. The conditional ‘If’… Expressions of wishes, doubts etc… Application methods and different times..
Superior Level:
- Apply oral and written grammatical structures of Spanish.
- Mastering the Spanish language fluently.
- Resolve any situation in daily life and work.
- Specific Objectives: Write, critique, analyze, display, recognize and create different types of texts. Possessing a large vocabulary to understand and pilot a conversation…
- Grammar: Textual structures (types of texts and contextual grammar). Linguistic coherence and cohesion… Spelling… Passive voice…