BEI Spanish courses are designed to meet the busy schedules of working professionals, students and adults. Courses are taught in Spanish only and are designed to help the student acquire fluency and accuracy to communicate in everyday situations.
The main focus of these courses is placed on developing core language competencies: grammar, conversation skills, listening-comprehension, reading, and writing skills. Lessons and student practice focus on authentic use of the Spanish language, including on-line practice and guides.
The group classes’ Spanish program offers six levels of Spanish. Each level is correlated with an international Standard for language leaning, CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference):
- Low Beginner (Part 1, 2), CEFR: A1
- High Beginner (Part 1, 2), CEFR: A2
- Low Intermediate (Part 1,2), CEFR: B1
- Intermediate – Advanced (Semi-Private/Private), CEFR: B2 – C2
The Low Beginning Levels are created for individuals who have never studied Spanish, and for those that have a limited knowledge of the language. In terms of communication, the student will acquire a sufficient amount of vocabulary and language tools to help him/her cope with conversations ranging from simple to somewhat complex.
The course begins with the present tense and ends with an introduction to the preterite (simple past). These concepts will be reviewed and recycled throughout the next four courses of High Beginning and Low Intermediate. Students will learn: how to greet people and introduce yourself; say goodbye; talk about the time of day; talk about school life; discuss everyday activities; describe people and things; talk about family and friends; express possession; talk about past times, weekend activities, plans, and invitations; talk about seasons and weather; express preferences when travelling and shopping; and negotiate and pay for items.
High Beginning students understand sentences and basic expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance such as personal and family information, shopping, numbers, general likes and dislikes. They are able to communicate in simple and routine situations such as meeting and greeting, talking about time and date by using present tense structures.
In the High Beginning levels students will expand their vocabulary and cultural knowledge and continue to develop structure. They will master simple past tense. Grammatical material will include: reflective and irregular verbs; indefinite and negative words; double object pronouns, pronouns after prepositions, and relative pronouns; comparisons and superlatives; adverbs and present subjunctive.
High Beginning students will learn: how to talk about daily routine, personal hygiene, celebrations, health and medical conditions, home equipment, the Internet, car rentals, and household chores. In addition, students will learn communication techniques such as reassuring, clarification, expressing the emotions, and answer with elaboration.
Spanish Low Intermediate Levels (4 & 5)
Students in the Low Intermediate levels understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. They are able to handle most situations likely to arise while travelling in an area where the language is spoken.
Students in the Low Intermediate levels understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. They are able to handle most situations likely to arise while travelling in an area where the language is spoken.
These courses strengthen the language skills previously learned by students and take them to the next quality level of a language acquisition. The students will apply more complex grammar concepts into speaking, reading, and writing. They will attain more vocabulary words and language tools, which gives them the opportunity to communicate in more complex situations, includingprofessional and survival language areas.
Vocabulary and topics range from talking about nature, city life, and mass media to talking about professional life, job interviews, healthy lifestyle, and politics. Some of the topics seen in the beginner level are repeated but these topics are studied more carefully and communicative production from students is increasingly more complex. Some of the grammatical material includes past participles used as adjectives, present and past perfect, future and future perfect tense, conditional and conditional perfect structures.
This level emphasizes speaking and listening communication skills of the Spanish language. Therefore, the spoken communication is more complex and detailed than in previous levels. In addition, several reading comprehension exercises are provided as part of the course work for homework as well as classroom work.
Additionally, the listening and speaking skills are put to a test with the provision of a wide variety of learning situations. There is an ample range of vocabulary to be acquired to strengthen deal with more complex and detailed situations that the novice or intermediate student would not be able to face.
The topics to be studied in this level are repetitions of those studied in previous levels but the detailed vocabulary to be learned provide students with better tools to face even more complex situations than before. Examples of these are solving communication problems using the telephone, requesting a bank loan, fixing a car problem, following commands to prepare a recipe, going to the hospital, etc.
Students in the Advanced level understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognize implicit meaning. They are able to express themselves fluently and spontaneously without hesitation or pause. Advanced language users are capable of producing clear, well-structured, detailed texts on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organizational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices.
This level marks the conclusion of the Spanish Program. It is designed to polish the conversational skills and language tools acquired in previous levels. During this course students address any weak points or doubts in grammar or other topics that they may have to help them achieve proficiency and fluency in the language.
The language production at this level should be of greater complexity than that in previous levels and students need to demonstrate a superior command of the language.