Class Level Descriptions

Beginning 1
For those without any knowledge of the Spanish Language, emphasizing simple conversation and everyday vocabulary. Upon completion, the student will be able to formulate and understand short sentences relating to basic necessities, forms of politeness, likes, and dislikes. Material covered includes:

  • Numbers and ordinal numbers, general everyday vocabulary, seasons, dates, days, months, time, and currency
  • Synonyms and antonyms, definite and indefinite articles, adverbs, common adjectives and nouns
  • Position and concordance of adjective (number and gender), demonstrative and possessive adjectives
  • Ser vs. Estar
  • Present regular verb (ending in AR, ER, and IR) and irregular verbs

Beginning 2
A continuation for students to develop vocabulary for topics including the weather, seasons, sports, leisure, food, restaurants, holidays, and clothing, as well as an introduction to:

  • Past tenses
  • Reflexive verbs
  • Por and para, prepositions, and verb “gustar”
  • Pronouns direct and indirect, present progressive – present participle – present indicative
  • Idiomatic expressions and vocabulary building

Beginning 3
For students with a small working vocabulary and basic knowledge of the present, preterit and imperfect. This is a great class for students returning to study after a haitus. The class covers:

  • Formal and informal commands, preterit, and introduces imperfect
  • Prepositions and comparisons
  • Conditional tense, future tense, and present perfect

Intermediate 1
Intermediate levels serve students who already have learned the basic foundation in Beginning courses and are ready for further practice in expressing themselves with increased spontaneity in everyday situations. This level includes practice in building on the foundations of basic structures and vocabulary use. The class covers:

  • The sophisticated differences between preterit and imperfect
  • Idioms and idiomatic dialogue
  • Listening and reading comprehension
  • Use of verb ‘haber’ and writing skills

Intermediate 2
For students who are comfortable with the basics covered in previous courses, Intermediate 2 allows students more comprehensive study of:

  • Subjunctive mood (present and imperfect) and the accompanying grammatical structures
  • Gustar and similar verbs with the same structure
  • Future simple and conditional; prepositional phrases
  • Ser, estar, hacer, haber, tener, and expressions of time

Intermediate 3
At this stage, students are able to write, speak, and read Spanish with ease.  Course themes at this level range from practical travel to professional scenerios. Coursework:

  • Reviews of the present subjunctive and develops knowledge of the imperfect subjunctive; indicative and preposotional phrases
  • Use of the conditional and other challenging verb forms including imperative, future perfect, conditional perfect, present perfect subjunctive, and pluperfect

Advanced
This course is designed for those at ease in expressing themselves in the target language who desire more opportunity for conversation and complete immersion. The focus of the course changes every session to allow students to continually explore new topics, introduce new vocabulary and expand practice opportunities. The instructor assists in negotiating a syllabus with students to incorporate the text, current events, discussions, debates and activities relevant to the interests to the students enrolled.

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