The Cactus Course Outlines provide a learning framework for the Cactus Foreign Language Evening Courses. They are designed to provide you with a good idea of what you might cover over a 10-week period, and include typical themes, grammar and vocabulary fields. They are flexible rather than prescriptive, in that our teachers may decide to adapt their learning plans to the specific level, aims and interests of their classes.

• Spanish Beginner
• Spanish Beginner Plus
• Spanish Elementary
• Spanish Lower Intermediate
• Spanish Intermediate
• Spanish Upper Intermediate
• Spanish Advanced
  

Topics:

• Greetings and introductions
• In a bar/ restaurant: ordering food and drinks
• Around the city
• In the hotel: booking a room
• Your everyday life
• Describing people
• In the shop: buying food and clothes

Grammar:

• Formal/informal register
• Present tense (regular and irregular verbs, reflexive verbs)
• To be (estar vs. ser)
• Word order – affirmative sentence, negative sentence, questions.
• Gender: masculine vs. feminine
• Number: singular vs. plural
• Concordance noun+adjecive
• There is/there are (Hay…)
• Determined article vs. undetermined article (el, la, los, las/un, una, unos, unas)
• Prepositions of place
• Possessive adjectives
• Frequency adverbs
• Pronouns – subject, reflexive, object.
• How much/how many (cuánto, cuánta/cuántos, cuántas)

Key vocabulary:

• Numbers (cardinal and ordinal)
• Alphabet
• Dates (days of the week and months)
• Jobs
• Nationalities and countries
• Food and drinks
• Names of places in a city
• Parts of the house, common objects and furniture
• Items of clothing
• Names of different shops
• Key adjectives, verbs, adverbs, connectives

And…

• Lots of speaking/active practice
• Lots of listening
• Pronunciation – key sounds
• First steps on reading/writing
• Cultural input
  

Topics:

• Revision of some of the topics seen in the ‘Beginners’ level
• Going out
• Likes and dislikes
• Your future plans
• On holidays
• At the train station
• The weather
• Your biography (talking about the past)

Grammar:

• Revision of the grammar points seen in the Beginners Course.
• Quantifiers (demasiado, muy,mucho, bastante, un poco…)
• Key prepositions: en, a, por para
• Interrogative pronouns, adverbs and prepositions (qué, quién, cómo, cuándo, dónde, por qué)
• Pronouns: indirect object
• Indirect object verbs: gustar, encantar…
• Ir a + infinitive
• Comparatives and superlatives
• Present continuous
• Simple future (regular and irregular)
• Preterite (regular and irregular)

Key vocabulary:

• Review of the vocabulary seen in the Beginner Course
• Hobbies
• Entertainment
• Means of transport
• Weather and seasons
• Travelling
• Key adjectives, verbs, adverbs and connectives

And…

• Lots of speaking/active practice
• Lots of listening
• Pronunciation – key sounds
• Reading/writing
• Cultural input

Topics:

• Revision of some of the topics seen in the ‘Beginners Plus’ level
• Health and illnesses
• What have you done today?
• Leisure time
• Travel and holidays
• Money & shopping
• Talking on the phone

Grammar:

• Tense revision: present tense (regular and irregular)
• Tense revision: future (simple future, ir a +infinitive)
• Tense revision : preterite (regular and irregular)
• Present perfect
• Imperative
• Expressing necessity: hay que, tener que
• Expressing ability: poder
• Impersonal ‘se’
• Possessive pronouns
• Demostrative pronouns
• Exclamative sentences

Key vocabulary:

• Review and practise ‘Beginner Plus’ level vocabulary
• Prepositions of movement
• Word-building (prefix and suffix patterns)
• Word families (noun-verb-adjective-adverb)
• Time phrases
• Key adjectives: size, shape, speed
• Key verbs, adverbs and connectives

And…

• Lots of speaking/active practice
• Lots of listening
• Pronunciation – key sounds
• First steps on reading/writing
• Cultural input
  

Themes/Lexical Fields can include the following:

• Famous People
• Education
• Music & Film
• Hotels/places to stay
• Food
• Personal Anecdotes
• Relationships
• Problems
• Imagining the Future
• Emotions
• Making phone calls

Grammar

• Review & practise ‘beginner/elementary’ level grammar
  (eg. through mixed tense/aspect work – present/past/future simple/continuous) &
• Present/Past Perfect. Indefinite Preterit vs. Imperfect
• Preterit
• Modals
• Modified comparatives & superlatives
• Reported speech
• Conditionals (if…+ Future, Indicative mood)
• Passive
• Relative clauses (que)
• Direct/Indirect Pronouns: usage and position

Other vocabulary

• Review & practise ‘beginner/elementary’ level vocabulary
  (eg. through dialogue creation) &
• More extensive word-building (prefix and suffix patterns) + Affective Suffixes
• More extensive word families (noun-verb-adjective-adverb)
• Common idioms
• Number & quantity
• Common linking words
• Wider range of functions – inc. social language, giving advice, ordering, booking, making enquiries

And…

• Lots of speaking/active practice
• Lots of listening
• Pronunciation
• Reading / writing
• Cultural input

Themes/Lexical Fields

• A wide range of possibilities, inc.
  Entertainment, mass media, work, education, the environment, tourism & travel, news, social & political issues, books, generation changes, cities, people, relationships, the arts, technology, health & fitness, social life, night life, national traditions/customs & culture, consumerism, globalisation

Grammar

• Review, consolidate & extend intermediate’ level grammar:

Introduce:

• Impersonal “Se” and passive “se”
• Written style & register (formal/informal)
• Different clause types
• Multi-Verb patterns
• Perfect Preterit, Imperfect Preterit (subjunctive mood) and its usage

Other vocabulary

• Review, consolidate & extend the following:
• Word-building (prefix and suffix patterns)
• Word families (noun-verb-adjective-adverb)
• Idioms
• Common linking words
• Wide range of functions
• Collocations
• Compound words
• Orthography: Punctuation and Spelling

Introduce:

• Metaphor
• Phrasal verbs (Verbal perífrasis: Tener que + infinitive, Hay que + infinitive, etc)

And…

• Lots of listening
• Pronunciation
• Reading and writing
• Cultural input

Themes/Lexical Fields

• A wide range of possibilities, inc.
  Entertainment, mass media, work, education, the environment, tourism & travel, news, social & political issues, books, generation changes, cities, people, relationships, the arts, technology, health & fitness, social life, night life, national traditions/customs & culture, consumerism, globalisation

Grammar

• Review, consolidate & extend intermediate’ level grammar:

Introduce:

• Impersonal “Se” and passive “se”
• Written style & register (formal/informal)
• Different clause types
• Multi-Verb patterns
• Perfect Preterit, Imperfect Preterit (subjunctive mood) and its usage

Other vocabulary

• Review, consolidate & extend the following:
• Word-building (prefix and suffix patterns)
• Word families (noun-verb-adjective-adverb)
• Idioms
• Common linking words
• Wide range of functions
• Collocations
• Compound words
• Orthography: Punctuation and Spelling

Introduce:

• Metaphor
• Phrasal verbs (Verbal perífrasis: Tener que + infinitive, Hay que + infinitive, etc)

And…

• Lots of listening
• Pronunciation
• Reading and writing
• Cultural input