Spanish 90 Beginner (A1)

LEVEL A1

DESCRIPTION

On completing this course, student should be able to:
     — Be familiar with the Spanish alphabet letters and signs and relate them to the corresponding sounds.
     — Recognise the main intonations of the Spanish language.
     — Express themselves with a minimum level of correctness and a pronunciation that can be understood by a Spanish speaker.
     — Understand basic information (timetables, shopping, personal information) and communicate in everyday situations.
     — Take part in very simple conversations on topics of daily life: basic communicative situations (formulae for social interaction), personal relationships (talking about habits and personal tastes) and relationships with public service staff (asking for information).
     — Reading and overall understanding of very simple texts which allow basic activities to be carried out.
     — More precise reading and understanding of specific texts: enrolment forms, library service application forms, sports, etc.
     — Read aloud texts they have written themselves.
     — Narrate, simply and using simple structures, present and past events related to the present. Talk about future plans and intentions.
     — Fill in simple forms, write personal notes, postcards and brief letters.
     — Take notes and transcribe oral messages.
     — Apply strategies to improve comprehension of oral and written messages, associate meanings, discover similarities by comparing with other languages, identify internationalisms.

LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS

Social function
     — Offering and receiving greetings. Asking and responding to questions. Saying goodbye.
     — Saying thank you. Apologising.
     — Introducing one self.

Informative function
     — Identifying yourself and other people. Asking for and giving personal information (name, surname, age, profession, nationality, civil status, etc.).
     — Describing people's physical appearance. Asking for and giving succinct information about people's character.
     — Asking for and giving general information about places: location with respect to other places, what they are like and how to get there. Methods of transport.
     — Asking for and giving basic information about objects: asking and telling who they belong to, what they are for, describing them and situating them.
     — Asking for and giving the necessary information for buying something: quality, quantity, colour, size, and price.
     — Asking and telling the time: the time, timetables, carrying out an action.
     — Asking for and giving information about activities: what somebody is doing, what is happening at a specific time, daily routines.

Expressive function
     — Simple expressions of happiness and sadness.
     — Expressing satisfaction or a lack of satisfaction, likes and dislikes.
     — Expressing interest, admiration for something or someone. Expressing a lack of interest, indifference or rejection.

Evaluative function
     — Expressing agreement or disagreement with someone or about something.
     — Expressing tastes and preferences.
     — Simple ways of justifying preferences.

Inductive function
     — Expressing desires, wishes, intentions or proposals. Asking about a proposal for action.
     — Proposing an activity. Agreeing to the terms of a meeting: place, day and time.
     — Asking if something can be done, should be done or if it is better not to do it.

Meta-linguistic function
     — Ask how to say something in Spanish.
     — Asking and telling how to spell a word and which punctuation signs are necessary.
     — Asking a telling about understanding an expression.
     — Asking someone to repeat something, to talk louder or slower.
     — Asking for clarification about the meaning of a word or an expression.

GRAMMATICAL CONTENT

Determinants and quantifiers
     — Definite articles (el, la, los, las) and indefinite articles (un, una, unos, unas).
     — Demostratives: este/a, ese/a, aquel/lla.
     — Possessives: mi, tu, su, nuestro/a, vuestro/a, su, mis, tus, sus, nuestros/as, vuestros/as, sus.
     — Cardinal numbers.
     — Grades of meaning: muy, bastante, demasiado, poco.

Nouns and adjectives
     — Gender and number.

Verbs
     — Present tense of the most common regular and irregular verbs (trabajar, estudiar, ser, vivir, estar, ir, venir, cerrar, abrir, costar, empezar,…) and most frequent expressions of time (siempre, todos los días normalmente, a veces,…).
     — The verb 'haber'. Uses as an auxiliary and main verb.
     — Most common regular and irregular reflexive verbs: llamarse, levantarse, ducharse, acostarse,…
     — Verbs with emphatic pronouns: gustar, encantar (“a mí me gusta”).
     — Modal verbs of obligation (tener que), desire (querer) and possibility (poder).
    — Simple past tense: most common regular and irregular verbs. hablar, ver hacer poner, ser…
     — Presentation of expressions using estar + gerund.

Adverbs
     — Adverbs of state: bien, mal, regular…
     — Adverbs of place: aquí, allí, cerca, lejos…
     — Adverbs of time: ahora, después, luego…

Pronouns
     — Personal stressed subject pronouns: yo, tú, él…
     — Personal unstressed direct object pronouns: me, te, lo, la, nos, os, los, las.
     — Personal unstressed indirect object pronouns: me, te, le, nos, os, les.
     — Reflexive pronouns: me, se te, nos, os, se.
     — Emphatic pronouns: a mí me, a ti te…

Interrogative pronouns
     — Qué, cómo, quién, cuándo, por qué…

Prepositions
     — Most common prepositions: a, en, por, para, de…
     — Prepositions or prepositional expressions of place: en, entre, encima de, debajo de, dentro de….

Conjunctions
     — Frequently used conjunctions: y, o, pero, porque.

Vocabulary
      — Introduction and familiarisation with the most useful words for daily situations.