GENERAL AIMS

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

 - Recognise the letters and corresponding sounds of the Spanish alphabet.
 - Recognise the main elements of Spanish intonation.
 - Use Spanish pronunciation and intonation well enough for Spanish speakers to understand without difficulty.
 - Understand basic survival information (the time, shopping, street directions, personal and third person information, announcements and basic instructions concerning academic activities) and communicate in everyday situations.
 - Take part in simple conversations concerning everyday life: basic communicative situations (using typical social expressions), personal relations (e.g. talking about personal experiences, asking for and giving opinions, ta1king about daily routines) dealing with officials and public services (e.g. asking for information, help, services).
 - Read and understand the gist of simple, short texts in order to carry out basic activities.
 - Read and understand in greater depth certain texts: e.g. enro1ment forms, academic syllabuses, library , sports centre, and association membership forms.
 - Read out loud texts written by themselves and others.
 - Narrate present and past events in simple language. Explain future plans and intentions.
 - Fill in simple forms, write personal notes, postcards, or short letters.
 - Take notes and write down spoken messages.
 - Use strategies to improve understanding of spoken or written message~ deduce the meaning of words or expressions from context, associate the meaning of compound or derived words, discover similarities between words with common roots in other languages, identify familiar terms (e.g. international expressions, acronyms).
 - Use Spanish as the classroom language (with fellow students and the teacher).

LINGUISTIC FUNCTIONS
Socialising
 - Greetings. Attracting people's attention and responding. Saying goodbye.
 - Saying thank you. Apologising. Asking for and giving excuses. Using common polite expressions (showing interest, offering, responding to offers).
 - Introducing yourself and other people.
 
Informative (obtaining information, describing, narrating)
 - Identifying yourself and other people. Asking for and giving personal information. (e.g. name, age, profession, address, place of birth, nationality, marital status, family).
 - Describing people's physical appearance. Asking for and giving information about
 - Asking for and giving detailed information about places: location ( address, location in relation to other places); description (external characteristics, internal condition and facilities); how to get there (street directions and transport information).
 - Asking for and giving specific information on objects: saying what they are called; asking who they belong to and what they are for; giving a general description ( e.g. shape, colour, size) asking and saying where they are and where they should be put.
 - Asking for and giving information required to buy a product: e.g. quality, quantity and size, price.
 - Asking for and giving information concerning time: asking and saying the time; asking for and giving information on opening and closing times, dates, and when something took place or will take place.
 - Asking for and giving information on activities and events: asking and saying what someone is doing or what is happening at a particular moment in the present or the past; asking for and giving information on daily routines.
 - Asking for and giving information on someone's health or mood: asking and saying how you are feeling, describing pains and symptoms, and saying what the matter is.

Expressive (feelings and moods)
 - Expressing happiness or sadness
 - Expressing satisfaction or dissatisfaction, pleasure or displeasure, enthusiasm or boredom.
 - Expressing interest, disinterest, admiration, rejection or indifference to someone or something.
 - Expressing physical pain or relief.
 - Expressing worry , fear, or nervousness. Expressing confidence and conviction.
 - Expressing surprise.

Evaluative
 - Showing agreement or disagreement with people or ideas.
 - Expressing likes and preferences.
 - Evaluating and comparing.
 - Asking for and giving opinions on people, things, events, or ideas.
 - Explaining, or asking for explanations, of opinions, evaluations, or statements.

Inductive
 - Asking someone to do something ( e.g. giving orders, asking for favours, asking for
 - help ). Offering or refusing to do something. Giving excuses.
 - Asking for and giving permission to do something. Authorising or forbidding.
 - Expressing wishes, wants, intentions, and plans. Asking about intentions and plans.
 - Inviting. Accepting or rejecting invitations.
 - Suggesting activities. Arranging to meet someone. Making a date.
 - Asking whether something can, must, or should be done.

Metalinguistic
 - Asking and stating how to say something in Spanish.
 - Asking about and explaining spelling and punctuation for a particular written expression (e.g. dieresis, commas, full stops, hyphens).
 - Asking and saying whether an expression has been understood.
 - Asking someone to repeat what they said, speak more slowly, or speak up.
 - Clarifying and asking someone to clarify the meaning of a word or expression.
 - Paraphrasing when an exact word or expression is not known.

Grammatical content
Determiners
 - Definite articles: el, la, los, las.
 - Indefinite articles: un, una, unos, unas .
 - Contracted articles: al, del.
 - Demonstratives: este/-a..., ese/-a..., aquel/-lla...
 - Possessives: mi, tu, su, nuestro/-a..., mis, tus, sus, nuestros/-as...

Quantifiers
 - Indefinite: algún/-na..., ningún/-una, algo, nada, alguien, nadie. - Definite: cardinal and ordinal numbers.
 - Degree: muy, bastante, demasiado, poco.

Nouns and adjectives
 - Gender and number inflection.

Tenses and verbs
 - Present indicative of the most common regular and irregular verbs ( e.g. trabajar, estudiar, ser, vivir, estar, ir, venir, volver, conocer, cerrar, dormir, costar, empezar) and the most common time markers (e.g. siempre, todos los días, normalmente, a veces).
 - Present continuous: estar + gerund.
 - Auxiliary verbs: haber.
 - The most common regular and irregular reflexive verbs: e.g. llamarse, levantarse, ducharse, acostarse
 - Verbs with emphatic pronouns: e.g. gustar, parecer, encantar
 - Modal verbs: of obligation (tener que, hay que); of volition (querer); of possibility (poder).
 - Future indicative and the most common time markers ( e.g. mañana, la semana que viene, el mes próximo). Future verb pattems: ir + infinitive; pensar + infinitive. Use of the present with future meaning ( e.g. «Mañana empiezo a trabajar» ).
 - Preterite perfect indicative: regular and irregular verb forros of the most common verbs ( e.g. hablar, levantarse, ver, hacer, poner, volver).
 - Indefinite preterite: regular and irregular forms of the most frequently used verbs ( e.g. hablar, levantarse, llegar, ir, ser, venir, poder, tener, pedir, ver, hacer, volver, poner).
 - Difference between the preterite perfect and indefinite indicative, and the most frequently used time markers ( e.g. hoy, ayer, esta semana, el fin de semana pasado, el otro día).

Adverbs
Adverbs of manner: e.g. bien, mal.
Adverbs of place: e.g. aquí, allí, dentro, arriba, abajo. Adverbs oftime: e.g. ahora, después, luego, pronto, tarde.
Pronouns
- Stressed personal pronouns: yo, tú, él, nosotros/-as, vosotros/-as, ellos/-as.
- Unstressed direct object personal pronouns: me, te, se, nos, os, la, los, las.
- Unstressed indirect object personal pronouns: me, te, se, le, nos, os, les.
- Emphatic pronouns: me, te, le, nos, os, le (a mí me..., a ti te...).
- Reflexive pronouns: me, te, se, nos, os .
- Relative pronoun: que.
Prepositions
- Most frequently used prepositions: e.g. a, de, con, desde, hasta, para.
- Prepositions and prepositional phrases introducing the idea of place: e.g. en, entre, dentro de, debajo de, encima de, detrás de, delante de.
Linking words
- Most frequently used linking words: e.g. y, e, o, ni, pero, porque.
Questions words
- Qué, cómo, quién, dónde, cuándo, cuánto, por qué.
Lexis
- Word formation:
. The superlative: -ísimo.
. Word building: plata/ plateado.
Comparison
- Superiority más ... que, mayor. -Inferiority: menos ... que, menor. - Similarity: tan ... como.

Course books
Textbooks:
- Gente 1 (libro del alumno). Ed. Difusión - Gente 1 (libro de trabajo ). Ed. Difusión
Recommended complementary books:
A. GONZÁLEZ, J. R. GUENOT, M. SÁNCHEZ ALF ARO. Gramática de español lengua extranjera. Edelsa.
A. SÁNCHEZ, E. MARTÍN, J. A. MATILLA. Gramática práctica de español para extranjeros. Ed. S GEL
Dictionaries:
- Diccionario intermedio de lengua española. Ed. SM.
- Diccionario para la enseñanza de la lengua española (español para extranjeros). Universidad de Alcalá. Ed. Vox.