Mester Spanish Courses

--SPANISH GRAMMAR / COMPOSITION--

The ELEMENTARY LEVEL I & II is designed for absolute beginners and/or false beginners as well as advanced beginners. In these courses students acquire a command of the question/answer structure, exchange practical information, learn to understand short, recorded conversations and simplified texts. Some time is also devoted to learning the basic sound structures of the language (practice of pronunciation and intonation). Students become familiar with basic, everyday situations, such as meeting people, talking about themselves, describing places and people, asking for and giving information and so on. Under the guidance of the teacher, they learn to follow simple conversations and live recordings and respond to the multiple stimuli coming from drawings, photographs, audio-visuals recordings, etc. Group games and stimulating situations also facilitate the application of the newly acquired vocabulary.

The INTERMEDIATE LEVEL I & II is for students who already have a previous knowledge of the language. First, the basics of the language are reviewed, this process also serves the purpose of giving uniformity to the group. These courses then concentrate on extending students' productive and receptive capabilities: choosing the right tone according to the different social situations (people and the environment), expressing concepts, understanding (both listening and reading), using authentic material, developing written expression and improving pronunciation and intonation. Courses at this level enable the students to communicate successfully in all sorts of situations and to deal easily with Spanish natives. Relying on audio-visual aids, the teachers create situations and make use of model conversations to stimulate the students to speak and understand. These courses also concentrate on the phonetic aspect of the language, and strengthens the students' grasp of the pronunciation and intonation of Spanish, and at the same time teaching to spell correctly.

The ADVANCED LEVEL I & II is for people with a good knowledge of the language. By combining communication type exercises with more traditional teaching, students can express their opinions and personal feelings clearly and convincingly, and can deal with specialized terminology and literary texts, and also write in various styles. Personal knowledge of vocabulary and grammar is consolidated now with language structures. The object is, from this point on, to learn to use language correctly, mastering current idiomatic expressions and the capacity to use the language in a manner appropriate to each situation. Students apply their knowledge bringing to class discussion materials from different sources, such as literary and journalistic readings, targeted television programs and miscellaneous materials collected for this purpose.

The SUPERIOR LEVEL I & II is for those very advanced students that really are able to make the most out of the six weeks spent studying in Salamanca. This kind of course combines the studies carried out in the accelerated intensive courses with a series of high powered lessons that aim at developing fundamental abilities to the fullest, such as listening, reading, verbal and written expression. These lessons have been specially conceived to bring students into contact with real situations by broadening their knowledge of Spanish life and putting into practice the more sophisticated linguistic structures of the Spanish language. Students improve their ability to understand and express themselves by listening to news broadcasts, watching extracts from films and reading snatches of plays, letters to newspapers and so on. All this information is then reelaborated in class discussions, commentaries and reports.

--CONVERSATIONAL SPANISH--

This course offers the student who is not proficient in spoken Spanish the opportunity to practice Spanish in small groups. It also moves intermediate proficiency students (as well as the more advanced levels), to a higher level of oral proficiency, using topics of a more academic and abstract nature. Emphasis will be on development of the essential skills for interpersonal communications.

Objectives:

1. To help the student develop further the needed skills to understand what is said in ordinary Spanish conversation and to be able to speak Spanish so that a Spanish speaker can understand them.

2. To help the student acquire and use everyday vocabulary they will encounter in a conversation.

3. To develop further the student's aural-oral skills.

4. To provide educational and cultural activities within the context of conversational Spanish and of Peninsular culture.

Students will be placed in the appropriate level according to their oral proficiency. The complexity and issues of the class and topics will be related to the level of proficiency for which they qualified. The description given above is for the elementary and intermediate levels. Also, some of those topics would be applicable to the advanced and superior levels. However, the level of sophistication of the classes and the nature of the topics and their sources will deal directly with the level of proficiency. These more advanced levels will be trained to formulate hypothesis and develop problem solving skills, as well as to discuss abstract topics, such as "The role of morality in religion and politics".

TESTS-- INITIAL TEST: On the first day (or at the home institution, prior to arrival in Spain) all new students are asked to take a short written and oral placement test. They are then assigned to classes according to their ability.

FINAL TEST: At the end of the course students take a test administered by the faculty at Academia Mester. Students who pass the test proceed to the next course or receive credit for the work completed.