SW Florida Spanish

Beginner Spanish

 

    Beginner sessions are for those who have never had Spanish or had it many years ago, perhaps in high school or college. 

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   You learn to read, speak and understand Spanish in a step-by-step process. Initial sessions focus on language fundamentals including alphabet, numbers, colors, days of week, and months of the year. Basic grammar and parts of speech are taught, which enables participants to focus on nouns, verbs and how to conjugate them, and other grammatical rules.  Throughout the sessions participants focus on pronunciation, reading, listening, and writing skills. 

   Beginners typically participate in multiple six-week sessions before moving to intermediate Spanish and where they study verb tenses other than present tense and other more advanced topics.

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   Two books, listed below, are used for Beginner Spanish I, II, & III. You can purchase them from Amazon ($31.02 for both) or another source, or from the instructor on the first day of class. Or you can include the additional $31.02 as part of your payment (just let us know when you call with your credit card information) and we will have the books mailed directly to your home. It takes about 3 days after order placement for the books to be delivered.

 

• Practice Makes Perfect Basic Spanish Third Edition (ISBN: 978-1260453492) Amazon Cost: $17.12 ($16 plus $1.12 tax)

• Easy Spanish Reader 4th Edition by Tandy (ISBN: 978-1-260-46360-6) Amazon Cost: $13.90 ($12.99 plus $.91 tax)

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    An example of how a participant might progress is as follows: 

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Level 1: For new Spanish participants with little or no Spanish background, it is necessary to learn alphabet, rules of pronunciation, definite and indefinite articles, adjectives, interrogatives, cardinal numbers from one to 1-million, ordinal numbers and their usage, colors, conversational present-tense verbs, greetings and dialogs. Participants are introduced to the Spanish verbs “ser” and “estar” (which means "to be") and to basic listening, written, and oral exercises enabling them to gain basic conversational skills.

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Levels 2 and 3: Subsequent sessions are designed to prepare learners for Intermediate Spanish. Topics include more practice with present-tense verbs, creation of written dialogs, more advanced oral, written, and listening activities. Participants also read a level 1 Spanish-language novel. New vocabulary includes review of basic and complex numbers (e.g. dates), days of the week, months, giving/receiving directions, discussing family relationships, and telling time and weather. Learners are taught how to engage in public using the Spanish language in scenarios such as ordering food at a restaurant, purchasing items in a store, and asking for directions.

 

   The instructor and participant make a mutual joint decision regarding when the learner should move to the intermediate level classes.