Progressive Spanish for English-Speaking Students

OBJECTIVES
This Course is aimed at English-speaking students who already have a basic knowledge of Spanish. Its
key objective is to improve their communication skills by means of the consolidation of their grammar
competence and of the introduction of practical vocabulary so as to enable them to cope with the usual
communication situations of everyday life. On the one hand, teaching methodology will be based on the
assimilation of grammatical rules and their practical application via specific activities and, on the other
hand, will involve the gradual and progressive use of Spanish as a vehicle for communication within the
classroom.

CLASSES: THE SET-UP
The Lecturer will provide students with xeroxed material containing the grammar content to be studied
with regard to each section of the Course syllabus. However, this does not mean that class sessions will
be organized in terms of formal lectures on Spanish Grammar. In a key way, teaching will be practicebased:
using specific grammar exercises as points of departure, explanations will be provided of those
issues arising from the use of the Spanish language which tend to cause students most difficulty. Other
activities within the Course will include: (a) dictations; (b) listening comprehension exercises; (c) reading
comprehension exercises; (d) exercises in writing; and (e) vocabulary exercises. Use will also be made of
representative works of literature with a double objective in mind: (a) their use as tools by which to
improve students’ communication skills, and (b) to give students the opportunity of accessing Spain’s
literary heritage. With this in mind, students will be expected to read the prose work Lazarillo de Tormes
(in an edition adapted to their level of knowledge of Spanish), while extracts from the movie version of
Don Quijote de la Mancha will also be screened.

COMPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES
Two programmed activities will be undertaken so as to complement those carried out in the classroom:
(e) a city walk which will involve touring those places to which Miguel de Cervantes makes
reference in his works. During the tour extracts from Don Quijote will be read so as to provide
students with their first approach to Spanish Literature’s most representative work.
(f) a visit to Triana Market, with two aims in mind: getting students used to the vocabulary linked
with the consumption of foodstuffs in Sevilla on a day-to-day basis; and providing them with a
context within which to practice common communicative structures as employed by those who
normally use this kind of commercial establishment.

COURSE SYLLABUS
Each of the syllabus points indicated here contains a grammar-based component, as well as a lexicallybased
or/and communicatively-based component.
1. Grammatical Sentences: Basic Sentence Constituents. Sentence Structure in Spanish: the Order of
Sentence Constituents and its Effect upon Sentence Structure during Communication. Expressions to
aid Classroom Communication.
2. The Noun Phrase: Gender and Number in Nouns and Adjectives. The Use of Articles, Demonstratives,
and Structures involving Possession. The Grades of Adjectives. Ser and Estar: Description and
Location. Nationalities, Countries and Professions.
3. Personal Pronouns: the Use of Subject Pronouns within Sentences. Tú and Usted. Object Pronoun
Forms. The Verbs gustar, encantar and doler.
The Present Indicative Tense. How it is Formed. Its Uses. Reflexivity in Spanish. Pronominal Verbs in
Spanish. Everyday Activities and Leisure.
5. The Future Indicative Tense. How it is Formed. Uses of the Future Indicative. The Periphrastic
Configuration ir a + infinitive. Planning Activities.
6. The Imperative. Its Different Forms. Issuing Instructions and Giving Advice.
7. The Conditional Tenses. How they are Formed. Uses of the Conditional. Sentence Structures
involving the Conditional: the Main Types. Expressing the Wish to Do Something.
8. How to Express the Past. The Imperfect and the Past Perfect Tenses. How they are Formed. Uses of
the Imperfect and the Past Perfect Tenses. Telling the Time, the Days of the Week, the Parts that
Make Up a Day.
9. The Subjunctive Mood. Verb Tenses and the Subjunctive Mood. Basic Uses of the Subjunctive.
Expressing Prohibition.