Spanish (false beginner's level) 0 - A2

lespa1130  2024-2025  Louvain-la-Neuve

Spanish (false beginner's level) 0 - A2
0.00 credits
30.0 h
Q1
> Schedule
Teacher(s)
San Basilio Pardo Fernando Juan; Serey Mendoza Osvaldo (coordinator); Tirado Fernandez Alicia Maria (coordinator);
Language
Spanish
Prerequisites
This course is destined to BAC 1 students from the ESPO faculty who want to choose Spanish as a second language during BAC 2 and BAC 3.
The objective of this learning module is to offer a fast-track update that would allow students with a poor level of Spanish to follow the intermediate-level course during their Bachelor's degree.
There are several admission requirements, depending on the student's academic track record:
  • BAC 1 students having followed at least two years of Spanish or having acquired this knowledge through other means (a long-term stay in a Spanish-speaking country, bilingualism): they will need to take a placement test.

    (a) if the test results are "very weak" or "weak", they will have to follow the LESPA 1130 course during the term corresponding to their Faculty programme;
    (b) if the test results are "average" or "good", they will be placed in a group corresponding to their faculty programme (see the ESPO "languages document").
     
  • students not having sat the placement test will have to justify their absence. They will have to send a special request for an override to the Faculty and present to the course as soon as possible (pending the Faculty's answer).
  • students who redo their year with a grade lower than 10/20 fro LESPA 1100 have to follow the LESPA 1130 course in the first semester (and include this course in their curriculum) and the LESPA 1230 course in the second semester.
  • Will be denied access to the LESPA 1130 course, those students with no preliminary knowledge of Spanish whatsoever.  
Main themes
This course is aimed at BAC 1 students from the ESPO Faculty who, having studied Spanish before, have not reached the A2 level of the Common European Framework for languages after a placement test.
The aim is to help them to reinforce their level by revizing the basics of grammar and vocabulary in view of efficient communication corresponding to a zero starting level and an A2 target level.
The themes dealt with in the course are the following: myself and the others (training and work, tastes, family, describing things, past activities and personal experience); life (work, housing, the environment); basic needs and simple wishes (emotions and physical sensations, purchases, projects and their preparations, travel, possessions and services, meals and requests for information); everyday life (habits, leisure and sports); socializing expressions (elementary forms of politeness and expressions used in commercial exchanges in shops or restaurants; travelling expressions used in Spanish-speaking countries).
Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

1
  • cope by dealing with basic needs in everyday situations; make oneself understood during brief interventions, descriptions and presentations of people, life, habits, personal experience, events or activities.
  • make oneself understood using sufficient vocabulary to meet their basic communicative needs and to undertake everyday transactions in familiar situations and about familiar subjects.
  • pronounce sufficiently clearly so as to be understood despite a clear foreign accent; recognize sounds so as to be able to phonetically write (but not necessarily accurately spelling-wise) short words that belong to their oral vocabulary.
  • cope orally with and in writing in commonly-used social exchanges (inviting people, offering apologies, answering to invitiations), using everyday forms of politeness, the language of hosting and making contact, while applying the rules of usage.
  • express and respond to basic language functions, such as information exchanges, requests for information, expressing an idea and/or an opinion, justifying one's opinion, explaining opinions, etc.
  • draw people's attentions to launch a subject and use simple techniques to start, pursue and end a brief and straightforward face-to-face conversation.
  • recount a story or describe something, using a simple list of items in succession and basic connectors, such as "and", "but" and "because".
 
2
  • cope orally with and in writing in commonly-used social exchanges (inviting people, offering apologies, answering to invitiations), using everyday forms of politeness, the language of hosting and making contact, while applying the rules of usage.
  • write short letters, personal e-mails and biographies of celebrities or fictional characters.
  • understand and extract key information from short and simple texts with frequently-used vocabulary (brochures, menus, announcements, inventories, timetables, letters, flyers and brief newspaper articles describing simple facts) and from short audio- or video-podcasts about predictable everyday or work-related subjects.
 
Content
This teaching unit aims to develop language communication skills for effective basic communication, in order to cope in situations of primary necessity in a Spanish-speaking context. The typology of exercises (in production and reception) is very diverse and related to the themes covered. The assignments are to be presented either during class or on Moodle UCLouvain.
Teaching methods
Cette unité d'enseignement se donne en présentiel avec une approche communicative qui prend en compte les contenus lexicaux et grammaticaux.
Pour ce cours, on suit un manuel d'espagnol langue étrangère (A1 + A2) : Nuevo PRISMA fusión A1+A2 (Editorial Edinumen) ISBN: 978-849848520-2
Evaluation methods
The assessment will consist of a final written test, on Moodle, containing exercises in reading comprehension, listening comprehension, communication, grammar and vocabulary, which represents 50% of the final mark.
There will also be a continuous, formative and certifying assessment: different assignments and practical tests will be required of students throughout the term. Value counts for the remaining 50%.
Exams and their value December session:
  • Final exam 50%
  • Continuous assessment 50%
May and August  sessions:
Final exam on Moodle (same method as in June) 100%
Warning: Generative artificial intelligence (AI) may not be used in this course. Their use will be considered as cheating.
*Depending on the health situation, exams could take place remotely.
Bibliography
  • Conseillé (pas obligatoire): Gramática básica del estudiante de español. Editorial Difusión
Teaching materials
  • Nuevo PRISMA fusión A1+A2 (Editorial Edinumen) ISBN: 978-849848520-2
Faculty or entity
> ILV