» Spanish course outlines

The Cactus Course Outlines provide a learning framework for the Cactus Foreign Language Evening Courses. They are designed to provide you with a good idea of what you might cover during the course and include typical themes, vocabulary fields, grammar, cultural content and skills work for the language and the level. The Outlines are flexible rather than prescriptive, in that our teachers always plan their lessons with the specific abilities, aims and interests of the students in their classes in mind.

• Spanish Beginner 1
• Spanish Beginner 2
• Spanish Beginner 3
• Spanish Elementary 1
• Spanish Elementary 2
• Spanish Elementary 3
• Spanish Intermediate 1
• Spanish Intermediate 2
• Spanish Intermediate 3
• Spanish Upper Intermediate
• Spanish Advanced
• Spanish Proficiency

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Greetings and introductions
• The alphabet
• Personal information: name, address, telephone number, email address, age, marital status
• Countries and nationalities
• Professions.
• Numbers 0-100
• The family
• Describing people
• Colours
• Formal and informal ways of addressing people

Grammar:

• Number and gender
• Articles: definite and indefinite
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Personal pronouns
• Interrogative pronouns
• Noun-adjective agreement
• Present tense of basic verbs like ser, estar, trabajar, vivir, tener, llevar
• Quantifiers: muy, bastante

Cultural content:

• The differences in the use of tú/usted and vosotros/ustedes between Spain and Latin American countries.
• Cultural differences when meeting people.
• Spanish language in the world.

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking
• Lots of listening
• Lots of pronunciation

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Common everyday objects
• Shopping
• Numbers from 100
• In the town
• The house and furniture
• Leisure activities and sports
• Likes and dislikes
• Public places in a town
• The time
• Days and months
• Seasons and the weather

Grammar:

• Indefinite articles
• Demonstrative pronouns and articles
• Question words (¿cuál?, ¿qué?, cuántos?, ¿dónde?, ¿cómo?, ¿por qué?)
• Some uses of ser and estar
• Hay (there is / there are)
• Verb gustar
• Quantifiers: mucho/a/os/as, bastante/s, poco/a/os/as
• Prepositions
• Muy - mucho
• Llueve and nieva: present tense of the verbs to rain and to snow.

Cultural content:

• Housing in Spain
• Latin-American music
• Public places in Spain, opening times.
• Geography in Latin-America

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking
• Lots of listening
• Lots of pronunciation

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Daily routine and weekend activities
• Internet
• Leisure activities and sports (2)
• Professions
• Transport
• Giving opinions
• Describing what you did yesterday

Grammar:

• Present tense of regular and irregular verbs
• Reflexive pronouns
• Frequency adverbs
• Quantifiers: mucho, bastante, poco
• Question words: ¿cómo?
• Prepositions: de...a, desde...hasta, en, a, por
• Differences between saber and conocer (to know)
• Agreeing and disagreeing (también, tampoco, sí, no)
• Verb creer to give opinions
• Ser + bueno/malo
• Introduction to the past tense: preterito indefinido, regular and some irregular verbs (hacer,venir, ser, ir, estar)

Cultural content:

• Travelling around Perú
• Spanish television habits
• Famous Latin-American people

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking
• Lots of listening
• Lots of pronunciation

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Expressing desire and needs.
• Plans and intentions.
• Health and feelings.
• Giving advice and suggestions.
• Body parts & remedies.
• Going shopping.
• Ordering food and drinks in a restaurant.
• Talking about what you have done.
• Excuses and apologies.
• Talking about personal experiences and opinions.

Grammar:

• I want / I would like + infinitive (Quiero / me gustaría + infinitivo)
• Have to + infinitive (Tener que + infinitivo)
• Need to + infinitive (Necesitar + infinitivo)
• Going to + infinitive (Ir a + infinitivo)
• Verb doler –form and syntax.
• Regular and irregular verbs in the present.
• Present perfect.
• Regular and irregular participles.
• Quantifiers: muy, mucho, etc.

Cultural content:

• La siesta in Spain.
• Spanish food.
• Montevideo, Uruguay.
• Spanish music: El Flamenco.

Skills Work:

• Listening and responding.
• Reading for comprehension.
• Speaking activities to encourage interaction in class.
• Writing assignments as homework.
• Games to build vocabulary.

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Shopping for clothes.
• Describing what people are doing.
• Offering food and drinks.
• Days of the week.
• Months of the year.
• Talking about past holidays.
• Describing the life of somebody (Biography).
• Requesting permission and favours.

Grammar:

• Comparison.
• Direct Object pronouns (lo, la, los, las)
• Verb ’estar’ + gerund (present continuous).
• Uses of verbs ‘ser’ and ‘estar’.
• ‘Para’ + personal pronoun.
• Past simple of regular and irregular verbs.
• Prepositions ‘de’ and ‘en’
• Verb ‘poder’ + infinitve
• The affirmative imperative
• Imperative + OD / OI pronouns.

Cultural content:

• El día de los muertos en México.
• Las islas Galápagos.
• Simón Bolívar el Libertador.
• La ñ una letra muy española

Skills Work:

• Listening and responding.
• Reading for comprehension.
• Speaking activities to encourage interaction in class and build confidence.
• Writing assignments as homework.
• Games to build vocabulary.

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Talking by telephone.
• Talking about films and outdoors activities.
• Inviting people to go out: accepting and rejecting.
• Means of transport: Buying a train ticket.
• Asking and giving directions.
• Talking about free time activities in the past: weekends and holidays.
• Expressing possession and preferences.
• Talking about childhood memories.

Grammar:

• Want + infinitive (Querer + infinitivo)
• Can / Be able + infinitive (Poder + infinitivo)
• Regular and irregular verbs in the present.
• Comparisons.
• Regular and irregular verbs in the simple past.
• Regular and irregular verbs in the imperfect.
• Prepositions ‘a’ and ‘de’.
• Other uses of ’ser’.
• Direct and Indirect Object pronouns.

Cultural content:

• Films in Spain and Latin-America.
• Going around in Madrid
• Free time and leisure activities in Spain.
• The Inca society.

Skills Work:

• Listening and responding.
• Reading for comprehension.
• Speaking activities to encourage interaction in class.
• Writing assignments as homework.
• Games to build vocabulary.

Topics & Vocabulary:

• A wide range of possibilities, inc.: Entertainment, mass media, work, education, changes, cities, people and relationships, arts and politics......
• Talking about present, future and past events and describing situations.
• Explaining habitual past actions.
• Talking about memories
• Comparing how things used to be and how they are now
• Explaining anecdotes
• Reactions: Que pena!, Menos mal! ¿De verdad?
• Expressing feelings such as happiness, pity, surprise, fear
• Expressing how long you have been doing an action for
• Sentence and word building

Grammar:

• Imperfect tense
• Past simple vs. Imperfect past
• Prepositions inc. por/para
• Past pluscuamperfecto
• Different clause types

Cultural content:

• Introduction to Spanish and Latin American Literature
• Differences in vocabulary words between different countries
• Different indigenous peoples in Latin America and their customs and habits
• Variety of food in all the Spanish speaking countries

Skills Work:

• Written style and register. Formal and informal
• Orthography: punctuation and spelling
• Lots of talking and active practice
• Lots of listening
• Pronunciation
• Writing and reading

Topics & Vocabulary:

• A wide range of possibilities, inc: Entertainment, mass media, work, education, changes, cities, people and relationships, environment, arts and politics, globalisation.......
• Describing people and the feelings we feel for them and how they make us feel
• Expressing wishes for us and for others. Ex: Deseo que mis padres sean felices
• Expressing future wishes. Ex: Espero que no haya mas guerras en el futuro
• Explaining problems and giving advice
• Giving orders and instructions
• Reported speech, ex: Dali dijo que si moria no moriria del todo
• Passing messages

Grammar:

• Present subjunctive
• Imperative
• Conditional tense
• Pronouns and prepositions
• Different clause types

Cultural content:

• Introduction of Spanish and Latin American cinema
• Aspects of Latin personality
• Aspects of Latin habits
• La Fiesta del sol in Peru
• Refrains and proverbs

Skills Work:

• Oral and active practice.
• Listening
• Written style
• Orthography: accents
• Lots of talking and active practice

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Entertainment, work, education, changes, cities, people and relationships, arts and politics, ecology, environment, publicity.....
• How to express opinions and argue them with other people
• Talking about past events, describe them and give and ask opinion how they were
• Expressing doubt and probability
• Giving opinion and recommending films
• Complaining about things and situations
• Demanding things.
• Using gestures to communicate.

Grammar:

• Revision of present subjunctive tense, conditional tense, imperative tense and all past tenses.
• Uses of all past tenses
• Direct and indirect pronouns
• Future tense
• Expression to use when you argue like: me molesta que...,no soporto que..., me sorprende que..

Cultural content:

• Telling jokes
• Idioms
• Introduction to Spanish and Latin American poetry
• El dia de los santos innocentes
• Latin American music.

Skills Work:

• Lots of active oral practice
• Lots of listening
• Writing formal style
• Debates
• Accents

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Entertainment, work, education, changes, cities, people and relationships, personality, feelings, ecology, arts and politics, environment, publicity and media and current topics.
• Asking for advise and reacting to the advise given. Ex: te aconsejo que....
• Making hypothesis about past events and giving explanations.
• Making hypothesis about the future.

Grammar:

• Present, past perfect and past imperfect subjunctive.
• Second conditional sentences, ex: si fuera rico no trabajaria y viviria en la playa.
• Future simple and compuesto.
• Conditional simple y compuesto.
• Revision of imperative tense affirmative and negative.
• Pronouns, prepositions.
• Different clause types.

Cultural content:

• Spanish and Latin American Arts and Literature and music.
• How is life in modern cities in Latin America
• The Amazon rainforest.
• Telling jokes.
• Refrains and proverbs.
• Slang vocabulary and expressions.

Skills Work:

• Lots of listening, ex: news.
• Lots of writing and reading.
• Orthography.
• Debates.
• Lots of oral practice and lots of fun...

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Entertainment, work, education, changes, cities, traditions, people and relationships, arts and politics, environment, ecology, publicity, media.
• Explaining news to others: reported speech.
• Expressing feeling for others and how others make us feel. Ex; me molesta que mis vecinos hagan ruido.
• Writing a letter of complaint.
• Expressing hypothetical situations in the past and the consequences they had or have. Ex: Si hubiera estudiado chino ahora tendria mucho trabajo.
• How to express regret.

Grammar:

• Revision of present, past perfect and past imperfect subjunctive tenses.
• Revision of affirmative and negative imperative tense.
• Past imperfect subjunctive.
• Third conditional sentences
• Conditional simple y compuesto.
• Direct and direct pronouns.
• Prefixes and suffixes.
• Prepositions.

Cultural content:

• Spanish and Latin American Literature, poetry and music.
• Idioms.
• Slang vocabulary and expressions.
• Jokes.
• Proverbs.
• La isla de Pascua.

Skills Work:

• Lots of active oral practice.
• Lots of listening,
• Writing complaint letters, formal style.
• Debates.
• Orthography and accents.
• And lots of fun.

Conversation:

• A wide range of topics based around students’ own interests, could include topics of general interest: global issues, popular science, environment, media and advertising; culture and entertainment; beliefs and religions, etc.
• Materials used to spark conversation will include articles, DVD, video, internet extracts.