The Beginning level course is 90 contact hours and consists of two 45-hour modules. Module I, or the Intensive Course, is an intensive 15-day Spanish course taken at the beginning of the program. Once completed, the students will move on to Module II of the beginning level, which is a 45-hour non-intensive course lasting the final 12 weeks of the program.
BEGINNING LEVEL
1. Objectives
1.1.- The capacity to communicate
-Be able to understand phrases and expressions of common use related with experience areas specially relevant (basic information about oneself and one’s own family, shopping, places of interest, occupations, etc.).
-Be able to communicate when carrying out simple and everyday tasks that don’t require more than simple and direct exchanges of information about known and usual issues.
-Know how to describe, in simple terms, aspects of one’s own past and of one’s surroundings, as well as issues related with one’s own most immediate necessities.
1.2.- Linguistic competences
-Provide a basic repertoire of linguistic elements, that permits to deal with everyday situations of predictable content, even though generally with the need to adapt the message and search for the appropriate words to express it.
-Provide a sufficient vocabulary in order to perform properly in usual activities and in everyday transactions that imply known situations and subjects.
-Properly use some simple grammatical structures, without letting of the eventual presence of basic mistakes be an obstacle to the clarity of the message.
-Pronounce, generally, in a clear and comprehensible way, even if the result is the evident foreign accent and even if the interlocutors have to ask for a repetition once in a while.
2.- Contents
2.1.- Notions and functions
-Identify and describe people, places, objects and states
-Inform about professional activities
-Refer to past actions and situations
-Refer to plans and projects
-Arrange an appointment
-Give and ask for opinions about someone or something
-Express (and ask for):
--agreement or disagreement
--the possibility or impossibility to do something
--likes and dislikes
--feelings and physical condition and states of mind
-Suggest activities and react to suggestions
-Ask a favor
-Invite, offer, accept and reject
-Offer, ask, accept and reject help
-Salute and say goodbye
-Introduce someone and react when introduced
-Apologize, give thanks, congratulate and react adequately
2.2.- Grammar
2.2.1.- Morphology
Introduction to Spanish basic morphology:
-The inflection: of genre, of number, of person
-Forms and members of basic paradigms:
--Article
--Personal pronoun
--Demonstratives
--Possessives
--Indefinite and quantitative
--Interrogatives
--Numerals
-Introduction to the relative pronoun
-The verb: morphology of regular and the most common irregular forms of the following tenses; general contrasts of use:
--Presente de indicativo
--Pretérito perfecto de indicativo
--Pretérito imperfecto de indicativo
--Pretérito indefinido
--Futuro imperfecto
--Imperativo
--Presente de subjuntivo
--Condicional simple
--Formas no personales (infinitivo, gerundio y participio)
2.2.2.- Syntax
-Basic syntactic relations: concordances
-Basic syntactic structures: noun phrase, verbal phrase, simple sentence, coordination; introduction to subordination
-Prepositions and most frequent conjunctions
-Affirmative, negative, interrogative and exclamation sentences: syntax and prosody
-Introduction to impersonal constructions
-Verbs with special regime (gustar, doler)
-Introduction to verbal periphrasis (Ir+a+infinitive, poder+infinitive)
-Reflexive verbs
-Unstressed pronouns
-Impersonality
-Comparison
2.3. Vocabulary
The class
The house
Marital status
Nationality
Clothes
The human body
Character and personality
Professions
Communication media
Accommodation
The city
Life stages
Family
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