Spanish 3.3

Course Times & Enrolment

This course is currently unavailable.

Course Summary

Continuation of the independent stage. Students will move on to more complex grammar. The aim is to enable students to deal with most situations likely to arise when travelling in an area where Spanish is spoken. By the end of the course, students should be fairly confident in talking about past experiences, telling tales and jokes, talking about wishes and future plans, etc.

Course Details

Pre-requisites for enrolment

Students should have completed Spanish 3.2 or otherwise acquired a similar level of proficiency.

Content of Course

Discussing and writing about matters of social interests (i.e. gender inequality, animal rights and politics). Arguing in favour or against something.
Telling stories. Linguistic resources to talk about personal anecdotes and to talk about causes and consequences of our actions (como, porque así que…)
Expressing our preferences, opinions, desires and complaints. Talking about our needs.
Uses of the Present Subjunctive: Me parece bien/mal…que+ Subjuntivo. “Querer/pedir/exigir/necesitar” structures with Infinitivo or Subjuntivo.
Giving advice and solutions to a particular problem: debería/se debería/ habría que
Talking about a past event: Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto de Indicativo; different uses of the past tenses in Spanish: Perfecto/Indefinido/Imperfecto/Pluscuamperfecto.
Historical and cultural aspects of Spain and Latin America e.g. Democracy in Spain, Ecuador.
Reading and discussing cultural texts and newspaper articles in Spanish
Listening to TV news from Spanish-speaking countries.

Teaching method(s)

The emphasis in this course is on speaking and listening. The lessons will focus on language that is required for communicating in real situations.

The lessons will include whole class activities and pair or small group work, role-play watching videos and listening to CDs. Grammar is introuduced in context. More extensive written exercises and reading texts are normally only set as homework.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students should be able to:

Understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc.
Produce connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest.
Describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes, ambitions and desires and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.

Sources

Core Readings

To study this course you will need the course book. Your tutor will advise you on the purchase of the textbook at your first class.

Web Sources

Where appropriate Web sources will be provided by tutor.

Class Handouts

Handouts will be provided during the course.

Queries

If you have questions regarding the course or enrolment, please contact COL Reception at Paterson's Land by email COL@ed.ac.uk or by phone 0131 650 4400.

Student support

If you have a disability, learning difficulty or health condition which may affect your studies, please let us know by ticking the 'specific support needs' box on your course application form. This will allow us to make appropriate adjustments in advance and in accordance with your rights under the Equality Act 2010. For more information please visit the Student Support section of our website.