Spanish 45 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 communicational situations (forms of social interaction) and personal relations (talking about habits and personal tastes).
     — reading and overall understanding of very simple texts which allow basic activities to be carried out.
     — reading aloud texts they have written themselves.
     — simple narration and using simple structures, present and past events related to the present.
     — writing personal notes and postcards.
     — use Spanish as a vehicular language of communicative interaction of the reading activity (between students and the teacher).

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: situation in relation to other places, what they are like and how to get there. Methods of transport.
     — Asking for and giving the necessary information for buying something: quality, quantity, colour, size, price.
     — Asking and telling the time: the time, timetables, carrying out an action.
     — Asking for and giving information about daily routines.

Evaluative function
     — Expressing tastes and preferences.
     — Simple ways of justifying preferences.

Inductive function
     — Expressing an intention or proposal.
     — Proposing an activity. Agreeing to the terms of a meeting: place, day and time.

Meta-linguistic function
     — Asking 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.

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.

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,…

Adverbs
     — Adverbs of state: bien, mal, regular…
     — Adverbs of place: aquí, allí, cerca, lejos…

Pronouns
     — Personal stressed subject pronouns: yo, tú, él…
     — 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
     — 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.