Intensive Spanish Course/ classes only

Cursus beschrijving

20 hours of classes per week. All classes will be in groups of 5 students maximum at the same level of Spanish. The classes consist of highly structured grammar lessons, interactive activities, conversation and written exercises. Specific homework assignments are given daily and every student is evaluated and tested on a weekly basis.

The focus of the Academia Latinoamericana de Español is on communication and our methodology involve a natural approach, total physical response, language experience approach, directed reading thinking activities, and the writing process. An integrated, topical curriculum approach reinforces vocabulary.

Our teaching program has been designed under the guidelines of the Instituto Cervantes, the placement testing of the OPI (Oral Proficieny Interview), in combination with the ACTFL model of 9 levels of proficiency: absolute beginner to superior. Highly structured grammar lessons, interactive activities, conversation and written exercises. Specific homework assignments are given daily.

This will provide 20 classes of 60 minutes each. Teachers will also change each week so that students will have a significant variety of expertise within each week.

FIRST SESSION
This first session will be specifically dedicated to studying Grammar and to practicing Reading, Comprehension and Writing style.

GRAMMAR: Each student will study linguistic structures, grammatical functions and rules of Spanish. It has a very pragmatic approach in combination with a wide range of consolidation activities that are selected to reinforce the lesson of the day.

READING COMPREHENSION: The development of this skill will be carried out with real texts or didactically created ones that are coordinated to the lecture. With the help and guidance of the teacher, each student interpret the texts orally and in writing to further aid their comprehension. Orthographic rules, vocabulary and punctuation will also be reviewed.

SECOND SESSION
This second session will be dedicated to studying oral comprehension and expression.

ORAL COMPREHENSION: The development of this skill will be carried out with real and didactically created documents that are designed to coordinate with the lecture. The student, with the help of the teacher and different comprehension activities, will then interpret the audio visual documents orally and / or in writing.

ORAL EXPRESSION: The student will participate interactively in a variety of different activities conducted by the teacher, such as presentations, debates, mini-plays, etc. These activities will be carried out with different materials proposed by the teacher or the students, depending on the everyone's necessities or interests. Spanish Phonetics (pronunciation, rhythm of the sentences and so on) will also be studied.

This new program is based upon cultural elements as well as the language itself, thus adding a valuable dimension of the Latin American Culture.

Short field trips will be hosted to different sites within Quito or close by the city (markets, museums, cathedrals, historical monuments), along with dancing classes, cooking lessons, lectures, etc.