CESA
Blog

Methodology

Let's talk Spanish in Barcelona!

> Methodology
> Spanish language levels
> Language course content
> Spanish and Catalan

Methodology 

The main focus is to improve communicative skills, the classroom activities in Barcelona are therefore aimed at developing the students' abilities to speak and understand spoken Spanish. Classes are ONLY conducted in Spanish and students are given many opportunities to practise the style of language they would use outside the classroom. The college want you to be able to actively "use" the Spanish language not just "know" it academically!

The curriculum is structured on twelve theoretical language levels, with a natural duration of two weeks per level. There are of course classes in grammar, oral and written exercises, practice with video and audio material and conversation on subjects of general and cultural interest.

The methodology is the result of years of experience in the teaching of Spanish. Special importance is given to the communicative aspect of the language and its use in everyday life. Whilst the classroom atmosphere is relaxed and informal, students have to be prepared to work hard and participate fully.

The main objective of most of our Spanish courses is to improve the students' communicative skills. The emphasis of classroom activities is therefore the development of the students' abilities to speak and understand spoken Spanish.  For this reason, classes are conducted entirely in Spanish and students are given plenty of opportunity to practise the sort of language they are likely to need outside the classroom. Due attention is also paid to grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing skills, and a wide variety of materials is used including published materials from many sources as well as materials which have been written by the Spanish language school's teachers.

All materials that the students need to work with are provided free of charge. Students who attend private classes will have course materials designed specifically to meet their particular needs.

The teaching and the course programme are carefully supervised by the Director of Studies, who is also responsible for ensuring that students are placed in the appropriate levels and that their progress is satisfactory.

=========================================

Spanish language levels

The table (below) gives an idea of how the Spanish language school levels compare to those established by the Council of Europe's Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEF, in Spanish the MCER) and by the Instituto Cervantes for its Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera (DELE) examinations.

School system	CEF	DELE descriptions
Principante	A1	Diploma A1
Elemental	A1/A2	Diploma A2
Preintermedio	A2	"
Intermedio I	B1	Diploma B1 (Incial)
Intermedio II	B1	"
Intermedio III	B1	"
Preavanzado	B2	Diploma B2  (Intermedio)
Avanzado I	B2	"
Avanzado I Alto	B2	"
Avanzado II	C1	Diploma C1
Avanzado II Alto	C1	"
Perfeccionamiento	C2	Diploma C2  (Superior)

You will normally need at least 40 hours tuition at any one level before advancing to the next course.

On the first day that you begin a Spanish course, there is both a written and an oral placement test.
Lessons will begin on the following morning (generally speaking Tuesday AM)

=========================================

Language course content

Phase 1 - Beginners, Pre-Elementary, Elementary
Students develop basic skills in Spanish grammar, including gender and number nouns, adjective formation, adverbs, adverbial phrases, comparative and superlative, prepositions and the use of ser and estar.

Present, simple past and future tenses are presented at the appropriate level. Participants express needs and desires surrounding their daily routine and experience as a student in Barcelona. Students learn to identify and to describe people, places and objects in their environment and to express personal opinions in simple concrete language.

Other basic functions of language include: agreeing and disagreeing, asking for help, expressing lack of understanding and asking an interlocutor to repeat or to speak more slowly.Participants develop comprehension of simple written and spoken messages in a variety of media: signs, news highlights, announcements, personal letters, postcards, etc.

Instructors place language in its proper situational context which, at these levels, includes: the classroom, the workplace, the restaurant, the market/supermarket, the travel agency, the bus/subway, a celebration or sporting event, etc.

Phase 2 - Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Post-Intermediate
In the intermediate levels, students develop an increasingly accurate use of Spanish grammar. Building on work in previous levels, students learn more subtle and idiomatic uses of grammatical forms including contrasting uses of the preterit and imperfect tenses.

Instructors introduce complex verb forms such as the conditional and subjunctive moods for the first time. Students develop an understanding of more complex messages and learn to contribute comments and personal opinions to a conversation, turn taking and other conversational norms.

Participants begin to develop a passive understanding of colloquial phrases and slang. Students also learnto describe their personal experience in greater detail and to narrateevents in the past with greater accuracy.

Situations and topics include: the family, making invitations, describing character or personality, relationships, planning a celebration, the movies, asking for advice from friends, family or others, appreciating art and music and looking for a job or apartment.

At this level, instructors begin to introduce more cultural topics and current events in the target language.

Phase 3 - Pre-Advanced, Advanced
The advanced levels provide students with an opportunity to hone their command of Spanish grammar, to develop fluency and to improve pronunciation.

Upon completion of Phase 3, students will have covered the core grammatical syllabus. Students develop greater idiomatic control of the language and begin to understand movies, read literary passages and write advanced texts.

Students develop ability with complex linguistic functions including: inferring opinions from a text or dialogue, arguing a point, recommending or giving advice and instructions and making predictions.

Themes at this level may include idiomatic expressions, relationships, the newspapers and media, contemporary music, theatre and cultural events, etc. Specific topics vary according to the needs and interests of the class.

Phase 4 - Post-Advanced, Proficiency
These are the most advanced grammar and conversation courses offered and the most individualised.

Instructors assess individual needs and design a programme to review complex grammatical forms that students have not fully mastered. As the names suggest, these courses are designed to perfect and polish linguistic ability.

Instructors use a range of media and materials to develop the courses around topics of interest to the participants. Students further develop colloquial conversational ability.

Students and instructors become co-creators of the course programme and work closely on individualised assignments.

=========================================

Spanish & Catalan

As most people now know, there are two official languages in Cataluña: Spanish (or Castilian) and Catalan. Catalan isn't a dialect of Spanish; it is a separate language which in many respects is as close to French as it is to Spanish.
The Catalan government has spent a lot of money trying to increase the number of people who speak Catalan. Not surprisingly, some students have written to us asking whether Catalan could interfere with their Spanish studies. The answer is "no".
At our school in Barcelona, we teach Spanish (not Catalan) to our foreign students, and our host families will also speak Spanish (not Catalan) to them.
Students may overhear some conversations in Catalan, but they are equally likely to overhear conversations in English, French or Italian - Barcelona is a very cosmopolitan city!
According to a recent survey, over 67% of the people in Barcelona consider Spanish to be their first language. In small towns and villages Catalan is more widely spoken, but in Barcelona, because of a long history of immigration from other parts of Spain, the dominant language is very definitely Spanish. Most of the television channels currently available broadcast in Spanish, and all the leading newspapers - including those published in Barcelona - are also written in Spanish.
What's more, everyone in Barcelona automatically uses Spanish to speak to foreign students as they don't expect them to know any Catalan, so there is very little danger of students being asked to understand anything other than Spanish while they are here.
It is also worth noting that we always ask our students for feedback on every aspect of their course, and in all the years we have been teaching Spanish in Barcelona, not one student has ever complained about Catalan interfering with their studies. In other words, the perceived problem simply doesn't exist.
Finally, it is also worth bearing in mind that all Catalans are totally bilingual and that they speak Spanish without any noticeable accent. So what Spanish students will hear in Barcelona is in fact much closer to "correct" Castilian Spanish than the Spanish they would hear in some other regions of Spain where Spanish is often spoken with a very strong regional accent.

Return to Learn Spanish in Barcelona

Course Finder

Enrol Now

Special Offers

Brochure Request

• Contact Us
• Client Zone
• CESA newsletter

CESA Blog