Many of us have had the typical grammar based Spanish class that focused on verb conjugations and senseless grammatical exercises. Many of us even got an A in said class only to realize that after one, two or even 4 years of Spanish, they cannot utter even the most basic phrases in comprehensible Spanish. Lately, students seeking to learn Spanish have been enticed to spend large sums of their hard earned cash to have a CD- ROM teach them what is truly the most human academic field: interpersonal interaction. Simply stated: Humans learn languages from humans!
Failing to learn to speak Spanish does not happen in my class. Students will be speaking real Spanish from the first moment and build their way to fluency. My method is not a course about Spanish but is a course in teaching students to PERFORM real life conversations in Spanish.
Spanish for Beginners is a class designed for learners who have had little to no experience with the language. The course focuses on five skill areas: reading, writing, listening, culture and speaking. While students will practice all of the skill areas, the focus of the class is on SPEAKING SPANISH. To that end, students will learn relevant vocabulary and grammatical structures that will enable to be able to actually do practical things in the target language that is SPANISH. The class is conducted mostly in Spanish but some English explanation will be utilized for the purpose of efficiency.
Students at the end of this 30 hour course will be able to do the following:
- State their name, tell where they are from, introduce others and ask basic questions about the same.
- Express their age, talk about their personality traits and what they look like, what they do in terms of working and studying as well as what they do in their free time.
- Discuss their likes and dislikes.
- Describe themselves and their family, including their names, where they are from, where they work or study and their likes and dislikes.
- Tell time and talk about their weekly schedules using days of the week
- Express wants, preferences, needs and desires
Textbook: Spanish for Beginners is available via free download for all students taking my class. As a teacher who has taught Spanish at all levels and seen the outrageous prices for Spanish textbooks, I decided to write my own. And provide it free of charge for all of my students.
How much time does class require per week? Spanish I students will work on average 4 hours per week on course.
What technology does student need? Computer or a tablet with broadband. Specfic details can be found here.
Who should register for this class? The class is designed for students from 6th grade on up. Adults are encouraged to sign up as well. There is a special discount for siblings and other family members.