Colonial Spanish School - Semester Spanish Course

Course description This course is aimed at those of you who want to learn Spanish as a second language and then do voluntary work as well as three months voluntary work in an NGO. This course has been designed to consolidate the language skills and to build communicative skills, it emphasizes the natural use of practical, high-frequency language for communication. There are six levels in the course: beginner through to advanced.

Start date You choose! You can start your course on whichever day and date is most convenient for you. We are open all year, including weekends and holidays.

Number of students We recommend that your classes are one-to-one, at least during the earlier levels, so you get really personalised tuition. We find that students learn more quickly when they study at their own pace with the full attention of the teacher. However, there are other options if you prefer:

For classes of two or more students, all students must have the same level of Spanish. Bear in mind that if there is more than one student, the course will take longer to complete.

Time The course lasts 160 hours (one-to-one) Spanish course plus eight weeks of voluntary work. You're welcome to study and volunatry for less, but obviously you won't reach such a high level.

Course requirements No prior knowledge of Spanish is necessary! If you have some prior knowledge we will give you a placement test. This ensures you start at the right level for you . We sorry that we can't take students of younger than 16.

Certificates At the end of the course you will receive a certificate of completion stating which level you achieved. These certificates are validated by the Ministry of Education, Ecuador.

BEGINNER'S LEVEL (30 HOURS)

Abecedario	Verbo Ser. Usos	Diferencia “Estar y Haber”
Frase	Diferencia Frase y Oración	Adjetivo Posesivo
Articulo, sustantivo, adjetivo	Pronombre Demostrativo	Pronombres Preposicionales
Pronombres Personales	Verbo “Estar” / Usos.	Palabras de pregunta
Verbos regulares en presente del Indicativo	Verbos irregulares en presente del Indicativo

At this level you'll have your first contact with the Spanish language. From the first day you'll learn to deal with everyday situations like shopping and eating out. You'll be learn how to take part in simple conversations at home and in hotels, and you'll learn how to greet and introduce people. The aim of this level is to give you the confidence to start communicating in Spanish and using some of the most common structures.

BASIC LEVEL (30 HOURS)

Diferencia entre “Tener y Tener que” / Expresiones	Contracciones	Verbos Recíprocos
Saber y Conocer	Futuro Perifrástico	Palabras indefinidas
Uso de los Artículos	Verbos Reflexivos. Cambios	Pronombres Posesivos
Verbos Modales	Verbos regulares en Pretérito Simple del Indicativo	Verbos irregulares en Pretérito Simple del Indicativo

Having completed this level, you will be able to use the present tense correctly, and also you will have begun to use the past simple (one of the most important and most used tenses). You will be becoming more fluent in simple conversations. You will increase your vocabulary, not only through studying everyday situations, but also through learning about news and current affairs.

PRE-INTERMEDIATE (30 HOURS)

Complementos	Verbos impersonales	Forma corta adjetivos
Conjunciones coordinantes	Diferencia entre el Pretérito Simple y el Imperfecto del Indicativo	Pretérito Imperfecto del Indicativo
Hacer impersonal	Por y Para	Diminutivo y Aumentativo
Adverbios	Números ordinales

On completion of this level, you will be able to give detailed descriptions using the past simple and past imperfect tenses – quite an achievement, as this is one of the most difficult areas in the Spanish language!

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL (20 HOURS)

Ser impersonal y “estar de”	Modo Imperativo	Modo Condicional Simple
Comparativos	Usos de “Se”	Preposiciones
Pretéritos Perfecto y Pluscuamperfecto del Indicativo	Diferencia entre el Pretérito Simple y el Pretérito Perfecto del Indicativo	Futuro Simple del Indicativo

By the end of this level you will have covered 50% of the main areas of the Spanish language. You should now find you have no problems dealing with everyday actitivities such as using banks, shopping, family get-togethers and other social events. You'll probably enjoy these situations even more, because you will be more fluent. You will also have increased your vocabulary and improved your writing and reading skills through the diverse topics you'll have covered in class. At this level you will read interesting texts in each class. After this level you will have enough Spanish to take part in voluntary work, if this interests you.

ADVANCED LEVEL (30 HOURS)

Nominalización	El Acento, Tilde diacrítica	La Oración y tipos
“Ser y Estar” + adjetivo	Diptongo, hiato	Verbos en Futuro Compuesto del Indicativo
Verbos en Presente del Subjuntivo	Verbos en Pretérito Imperfecto del Subjuntivo	Modo Condicional Compuesto
Usos del Presente del Subjuntivo	Usos del Pretérito Imperfecto del Subjuntivo

Well done! On completing this level you have reached an advanced level of Spanish. You'll easily understand newspaper articles and you won't need to use subtitles when watching Spanish language films. If you're interested, you can read Latin American literature in it's original form.

ADVANCED 2 LEVEL (20 HOURS)

Verbos en Pretérito Perfecto del Subjuntivo	Verbos en Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto del Subjuntivo	Usos de Sí
Usos del Pretérito Perfecto del Subjuntivo	Usos del Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto del Subjuntivo	Relación de tiempos
Pronombres Relativos	El Verboide	Perífrasis Verbales
Estilo Indirecto	Conjunciones	Usos de “Que”

At this level you will be studying topics that are not necessarily chosen by you. You will learn to present and defend arguments with the appropriate vocabulary, and to discuss hypothetical situations. By this point you should feel confident using all the different modes of the Spanish language.

SUPERIOR LEVEL (80 HOURS)

To start with, we'll do a general grammatical revision, focusing on your weaker areas. After this, we'll start at the Superior level, which covers the following:

Oral and written expression: First we'll work on improving your pronunciation, addressing any problems and at the same time increasing your vocabulary. We will also work on improving your written Spanish.

Comprensión y Comunicación. El profesor y el estudiante realizan lecturas de temas variados junto a sus respectivos análisis en las cuales se practica la audición con el fin de continuar afianzando la captación del estudiante sobre los que paulatinamente va a reflejar su nivel auditivo, consiguiendo de esta manera una comprensión máxima que le permitirá narrar lo que ha escuchado o leído.Con los fundamentos anteriores el estudiante está capacitado para participar en una conversación, una discusión o para manifestar su punto de vista sobre cualquier tema que es conocido o desconocido. El objetivo primordial de este curso es lograr un nivel óptimo en el estudiante apara que entienda y desarrolle situaciones de toda índole, ya que se pondrá en practica todos los conocimientos adquiridos del idioma español.

Completentary courses: Alongside this course you can also take the following courses:

If you want to continue studying after this course, you can take the following courses: