Spanish 1

Course Overview

Please note that each weekly evening session will be two and a half hours in length and run from 6pm to 8.30pm (please disregard any other timings on this page).

Learn how to speak and understand Spanish from beginner level. You will discover the different varieties of Peninsular and Latin American Spanish and the diversity of cultures in the Spanish-speaking world. You can take Spanish 1 as a short course, or as part of the Certificate of Higher Education in Culture and Language (French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish) or a BA degree.

Designed for complete beginners of Spanish, this Spanish 1 course leads to *CEFR A2 (Elementary)/GCSE level. We use textbook Nos Vemos Hoy 1, supported by a wide range of other materials.

You will learn to interact with native speakers at a basic level in a range of everyday situations, such as speaking about:

• yourself and your family
• your home, your home town, your everyday routine
• likes and dislikes
• future and past events.

You will gain a basic knowledge of a range of grammatical structures, including different tenses, and will acquire enough vocabulary to 'survive' and deal with predictable and/or specific information in simple everyday situations. You will learn to listen for general and specific information in everyday contexts and acquire basic skills in reading and writing. You will also gain some awareness of everyday life and the diversity of cultures in the Spanish-speaking world and will develop independent learning skills through the use of online resources.

Assessment is via two pieces of coursework (10%), a 40-60-minute in-class written assessment (20%), 90-minute in-class written and listening assessment (40%), an oral in-class assessment (20%), class participation (5%) and portfolio (5%).

We offer Spanish language courses from beginner to advanced levels so you can continue your journey to a high level of competency.

As a student on this course, you will study alongside Birkbeck students enrolled on one of our undergraduate or postgraduate courses, giving you the opportunity to network with a range of Birkbeck current students while you learn.

*Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Please note: this is only an approximate equivalence.

This can be taken as a standalone short course or as part of:

• Culture and Language (French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese) (Certificate of Higher Education)

Credits: 30 credits at level 4