Welcome to Spanish Class!
This course is designed for English speakers who truly want to learn to understand and speak Spanish! The Language Loft curriculum was created over several years of teaching expats and travelers how to get around as they began to navigate everyday life in a Spanish. This course is the product of many years of research and work with adults and teens who had to start communicating quickly. Whether you’re a total beginner or you’ve been studying with one of the mega apps, this course will get you speaking and understanding on an all new level!
What you’ll need for this course:
- Readiness to learn
- A Spanish-English Dictionary, preferably downloaded on your computer or device
- Spanish speech to text dictation software enabled on your device (optional but highly recommended)
- Google Chrome (browser)
- Your computer microphone or external microphone enabled in Google (use secure https:// and allow for mic access in Google settings).
- The Spanish ISO keyboard enabled on your device
- Note-taking materials, your preferred way: pen & notebook, note-taking software., etc.
- A way to record your voice for assignments and upload them to the system. (You can use a phone, your computer (Audacity and Garage Band are easy ways to do this)
- Your computer microphone or external microphone enabled in Google (use secure https:// and allow for mic access in Google settings)
Semana 1
Students will learn to pronounce different consonants in Spanish. They will understand the various pronunciation rules of some consonants, as well as compare the letters between English and Spanish.
Students will learn pronunciation of the Spanish letters ll, q, r, rr, t, y, & z.
They will be assessed on pronunciation of vowels and consonants which differ greatly from English.
Review your vowel and consonant sounds while you take this quiz!
In this lesson:
- 21 most frequent words for expressing the basics
- Sentence building practice
- Listening and Pronunciation practice
Semana 2
Students will learn:
- Numbers 1-20 in Spanish
- How to identify and pronounce dipthongs
They will practice:
- pronunciation
- listening comprehension
- identifying numbers
Students will be assessed on numbers 1-20, as well as dipthongs.
20 minutes are provided for this quiz.
Students will learn:
- numbers from 0-1,000 +
They will practice:
- pronunciation
- listening comprehension
- arranging short sentences
Students will learn:
- How to ask for prepaid phone minutes in Spanish
- How to talk about data plans versus phone plans
- Review tens, hundreds, and express 8 digit phone numbers
Students will learn:
- the 21 most frequent verbs and verbal phrases in Spanish
They will practice:
- pronunciation
- listening comprehension
- arranging short sentences
Semana 3
Students will practice writing and speaking numbers and number sentences.
Students will be introduced to vocabulary for days of the week and months of the year.
They will be able to write dates in Spanish in the correct order, understand them, and speak them.
Semana 4
In this lesson you will learn a variety of ways to greet someone in Spanish. The lesson includes important information about formal and informal greetings, as well as the appropriate times of day in which to use each greeting. Several fun greetings are included to be used with your peers.
You will gain practice speaking as well, so as you listen to audio, it is a great idea to replicate what you hear because your speech will be tested at the end of the lesson.
Students will learn various responses for expressing how they are doing and their state of being. They will be able to respond correctly to different types of greetings using the first person singular form. They will learn about the concept of gender in language and how it is reflected with some mood adjectives.
In this lesson you will learn a variety of ways to say goodbye. These phrases of departure vary depending on the situation.
This lesson concentrates on practice and putting all you have learned this week together! Please continue studying and memorizing vocabulary, application of the formal versus informal usted and tú forms and their accompanying phrases, as well as general fluency and pronunciation.
Semana 5
You will learn weather expressions, and how to talk about sensations.
- Weather expressions with hacer.
- Weather expressions with estar
- Expressing sensations with tener
- Combining sentences with cuando
You will be given 25 minutes to finish the quiz.
You will be assessed on:
- Basic weather words
- Verbs used with weather words (noun versus adjective descriptors)
- Some moods with estar
Semana 6
In this lesson you will learn important vocabulary for ordering in a restaurant. You´ll begin building sentences for obtaining goods and services and practice listening and speaking.
Students will learn:
- How to ask for prepaid phone minutes in Spanish
- How to talk about data plans versus phone plans
- Review tens, hundreds, and express 8 digit phone numbers
Students will practice:
- Restaurant vocabulary for ordering food
- Sentence building
- Listening to native conversations
- Identifying the missing words
In this lesson, you will learn more about ordering food in a restaurant.
- You will continue to practice listening, speaking, and processing Spanish in the context of ordering in a restaurant.
- You will explore the relationships between words with similar meanings in different forms.
This quiz tests Restaurant Vocabulary for placing orders, including food and drink featured on the menu from Lecture 2.
This lesson requires listening and speaking practice. Students will be able to speak the sentences and check their pronunciation and understanding in real time. Retaking or retrying to earn more points is allowed as many times as you like.
Semana 7
In this lesson:
- Vocabulary: types of plates and glasses
- directional words: a la derecha, a la izquierda, arriba de, debajo de, entre, sobre, etc.
- Impersonal expressions with se + 3rd person verbs
Students will:
- learn words for setting the table
- more useful expressions with se
- reinforce words of orientation
- practice listening comprehension of entire sentences
They will practice:
- pronunciation
- listening comprehension
- arranging short sentences
In this lesson you will practice all the vocabulary words for the past 2 weeks, including En el Restaurante, ¿Dónde se pone? and En el Gabinete and Al Poner la Mesa. You will practice giving instructions for setting the table, practice pronunciation, and process language to create meaningful sentences. You will practice requesting each item.
Students can prepare for this quiz by studying:
- the impersonal se and phrases with se (from this section)
- types of plates and glassware
- orientation words: a la izquierda, a la derecha, arriba de, debajo de, entre, a lado de
- Ways to request something more in a restaurant and reinforce vocabulary set I for ordering
Semana 8
Students will Review numbers (again!)Learn to explain bills Talk about mistakes with numbers and billingLearn to say ´excuse me´ in Spanish
Students will
- Review numbers (again!)
- Learn to explain bills
- Talk about mistakes with numbers and billing
- Learn to say ´excuse me´ in Spanish
This quiz serves as a review to reinforce the vocabulary and concepts in this section.
Semana 9
Students will learn vocabulary and phrases for negotiation. They will also learn a few cultural notes to improve their success in negotiating in the market.
Semana 10
In this lesson:
1.) Gender and Number of Nouns and Articles
2.) Words referring to people
3.) Marking adjectives for number and gender
Students will learn article and noun correspondence, as well as adjective and noun correspondence. They will practice creating full sentences with correct gender and number correspondence.
Students will learn about using definite articles before certain classes of words.
- days of the week
- school subjects
- languages
- world religions
- government institutions and bodies of knowledge
Students will learn several more noun endings, review the concept of gender, and the application of the definite and indefinite articles.
They will be able to identify feminine nouns ending in -dad and -ión, and apply appropriate definite and indefinite artciles.
They will also review the application of the masculine definite articles.
Students will learn some outliers (words with Greek roots ending in -ma, -pa, -ta) and be able to apply correct articles.
Students will be able to recognize common shortened words, (el colegio-->el colé; la manografía-->la mano), recognize the correct gender, and apply correct definite and indefinite articles.
Students will learn several special noun endings and learn how to identify the gender of these special nouns.
Students will learn how to talk about groups of mixed gender
Students will summarize the rules of gender and number
Students will answer questions and build sentences with singular and plural subjects.
Students will learn to make 3rd person verb forms plural.
Semana 11
In this lesson, you will concentrate on answering the questions ¿Quién es?, ¿Cómo es?, and ¿De dónde es? You will be able to use physical and personality descriptors to create sentences.
- Students will learn that nouns and adjectives must correspond in number, and in gender.
- Students will learn to use the correct articles.
- They will learn how to change adjectives and nouns, make them plural and use the correct articles.
- Students will learn to identify adjectives marked for gender, and those which are NOT marked for gender.
In this lesson students will learn to express where they are from, physical and personality characteristics, likes and dislikes.
They will learn several questions for asking others about themselves in an interview-like setting.
They will also learn to describe and introduce a friend or an acquaintance with the verbs tener, ser, and vivir.
Semana 12
Students will learn about several cultural influences and historical factors that influenced the emergence of modern day Spanish.
Semana 13
Students will learn
- why words bear written accents
- general rules for spoken accentuation
This lessons teaches students to systematically blend sentences and find connected speech between words. The focus is pronunciation and comprehension.
Students will learn to syllabify words and re-syllabify (la resignificación de oraciones)
Students will learn about spoken and written accents in Spanish. They will be able to pronounce the words and locate the emphasized syllables in Spanish words.
Students will be able to use the Spanish keyboard to add accents to vowels and write the letter ñ.
Students will be assessed on the basic grammar points of the first semester of this course.