Spanish Beginners (full syllabus)

From greetings to essential phrases, this course gives you the key vocabulary and basic grammar you need for conversation.

When you study Spanish at City, you’ll learn to introduce yourself, order food, ask for directions and more. To understand the structure of the language, we’ll discuss articles, verb conjugation and pronunciation. Most importantly, you’ll practise day-to-day situations with others on the course.

Our Spanish Beginners course is a great opportunity, whether you travel regularly for work, want to chat fluently with overseas relatives or own a property abroad.

Complete this course and you will be communicating at CEFR A1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages.

Who is it for?

Completely new to Spanish? Know the odd phrase or two? This course is a great place to start. You don't need any previous knowledge or experience of Spanish to start learning with us.

Timetable

The course includes 60 hours of learning and is taught across three terms, starting in October and finishing in July.

October–December (part 1)

One evening per week (two-hour lessons) for 10 consecutive weeks.

Christmas Break

January–March (part 2)

One evening per week (two-hour lessons) for 10 consecutive weeks.

Easter break

April/May–July (part 3)

One evening per week (two-hour lessons) for 10 consecutive weeks.

Missed the October start date? We have other beginners options in January or in April/May.

Benefits

• Learn the full beginners syllabus (parts 1-3) at the best price
• Become confident with the basics of speaking and listening in Spanish
• Learn from qualified and native speakers
• Practise through role-play, discussion and group work
• Become part of a diverse community of people eager to challenge themselves

Throughout the year you'll cover

• greeting and introducing yourself and others: profession, nationality, activities and family
• the alphabet
• numbers, telling the time, days of the week, the months, the weather
• describing people and places
• likes and dislikes
• Spanish in context: eating out, shopping, daily activities, work
• formal and informal situations
• describing past events
• expressing opinions.

Grammatical structures

• pronunciation
• present tense: regular, irregular and reflexive verbs
• personal pronouns
• definite and indefinite articles
• adjectives and nouns: gender and number
• asking a question
• demonstrative adjectives and pronoun
• ser vs. estar, prepositions of place
• verb gustar and encantar
• adverbs of frequency
• saber vs. conocer
• introduction to the past tense (pretérito indefinido).

Teaching

You’ll complete work in groups or pairs, take part in discussions and listen to audio clips. At home, we’ll ask you to complete more comprehensive grammar exercises and read around topics. Throughout the course, we’ll assess your performance and provide regular feedback.

Assessment

There is no formal assessment, but we will informally check your Spanish speaking and listening skills. We’ll look at how you use language in authentic situations, whether this is grammar in context or your pronunciation.

Certificate

At the end of each term, you’ll be awarded an Official City, University of London certificate if you have attended over 70 per cent of the course.

We’ve designed this course for complete beginners.

If you know a little bit of Spanish already, you may want to enrol onto part 2 or part 3 of the beginner course.

Our beginners courses build towards CEFR A1 level. Check out our Spanish Lower Intermediate course to progress to CEFR A2.

English requirements

You will need a good level of spoken and written English to enrol on this course.

Ele Actual A1 by Virgilio Boribio

• Publisher: Editorial SM;
• ISBN: 978-84-675-4741-2.

Units 1-15 from the textbook are covered in the evening class.

You are advised to purchase a copy of the book, available from most major bookshops.