Spanish 45 Upper Intermediate (B2.1)

LEVEL B2.1

INTRODUCTION

On completing this course, students should be able to:
     - Understand without any difficulty any conversation between native speakers on non-specialist themes, in standard register.
     - Follow an oral presentation in an academic environment on subject included in their studies (lectures, conferences, presentation and contributions by colleagues in the classroom), write and summarise information from notes taken during the class.
     - Recognise attitudes and moods in a speaker from intonation, gestures, rhythm, etc.
     - Understand genuine literary texts by contemporary authors, both Spanish and Latin American, with some lack of vocabulary.
     - Intervene in conversations, discussions, debates, etc., Take part in conversations, discussions, debates, etc. on general subject matters, adjusting the discourse to the required register, formal or informal, with an appropriate control of the Spanish language and recognising idiomatic expressions appropriate to the level.
     - Speak about a subject with clarity and coherence for a brief period of time, suing the appropriate resources for discourse.
     - Write texts (personal letters, formal letters, etc.) adjust use of language to different models, using the appropriate vocabulary and register for each type of text.
     - Reproduce orally and in writing information, opinions and stories from other people.

LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS

Social function
     - Encourage and calm someone down.
     - Apologise.
     - Offer congratulations.

Informative function
     - Transmit information, orders and instructions from one person to another.
     - Narrate any fact or event or information transmitted by other people stating the time references (previousness, simultaneousness, immediacy, etc.).
     - Formulate hypotheses referring to the present, the past and the future.

Expressive function
     - Express different moods: happiness, sadness, resignation, satisfaction, anger, hope, etc.
     - Reproach, complain.
     - Show interest or rejection.

Evaluative function
     - Judge and value people and periods (refute valuations).
     - Express conditions and request special conditions.

Inductive function
     - Demanding, insisting on the fulfilment of something.
     - Threaten.

Meta-linguistic function
     - Organising a discourse: starting with a topic, enumerating, arguing a case, summarising, indicating the conclusion.
     - Asking for and giving explanations about points of grammar.

GRAMMATICAL CONTENT

Determinants
     - Structures with the neuter article 'lo' (lo que yo digo...).

Nouns and adjectives
     - using adjectives as nouns with the neutral article 'lo' (lo curioso, lo malo,...).

Verbs
     - Simple past and imperfect subjunctive.
     - Past perfect subjunctive.
     - Simple and composite conditional tense
     - Verbal agreement in the expression of an impossible condition ("Si lo hubiera sabido,...") using the particle si.
     - Pronominal verbs.
     - Verbs of change: convertirse en/a , llegar a ser, etc.
     - Prepositional verbs: preocuparse por, acordarse de,...
     - Phrasal verbs.

Adverbs
     - Adverbial conditional expressions: como, siempre que, siempre y cuando, depende de...
     - Adverbial time expressions: así que, en cuanto, antes de que, hasta que, mientras, mientras tanto, de repente...

Pronouns
     - Neutral pronouns: esto, eso, aquello, lo ("Eso no lo discute nadie").

Prepositions
     - Extension of the use of prepositions and prepositional sayings (por tanto, por si acaso, por cierto...).

Conjunctions
     - Extension of conjunctional expression of subordination.

Spelling
     - Extension.