Intermediate Spanish

Course Overview

During this course, students will gain intermediate communicative skills in Spanish. They will learn more vocabulary that will provide them a wider range of topics of conversation as well as more complex grammatical structures and Spanish tenses. The students will continue working on communicative and meaningful activities which will improve their abilities to engage and acquire an intermediate level in the second language. The students will work towards writing compositions and the class will have a greater emphasis in communicating in Spanish. They will continue be exposed to aural stimuli, as well as, written and collaborative exercises and work on more elaborated cultural presentations. The students will need to be prepared before class, complete the online book exercises, watch the presentations, and complete the assigned homework. Our online meetings will be twice a week, and this will be the time to answer questions about assignments, grammar, have conversations and do activities using the second language.

Course Content

Episode 5 – Lesson A

During this lesson, the students will learn words and expressions associated with computers and the Internet, electronic devices, more verbs like gustar to talk about what interests them, bothers them, and so forth. They will also learn to avoid redundancy by using direct and indirect object pronouns together and talk about pastimes and activities in the present. They will learn about the imperfect tense to talk about what a person used to do. In the cultural section, they will learn and read information in Spanish about Bolivia and Paraguay.

Episode 5 – Lesson B

In this lesson, the students will learn to express years, decades and centuries, to use and differentiate the preterite and the imperfect tense to narrate events, to talk about important historical and personal events. In the cultural section, they will learn and read information in Spanish about El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Episode 6 – Lesson A

In this lesson, the students will learn vocabulary related to taking trips and traveling, restaurants and ordering food, how to give someone instructions using formal commands and to talk about what has happened using the present perfect. In the cultural section, the students will learn and read information in Spanish about Peru.

Episode 6 – Lesson B

In this lesson, the students will learn vocabulary to talk about geography and geographical features, vocabulary related to ecology, the environment, and for activities to do on vacation. They will learn to give instructions to someone addressing them with the informal pronoun tú (you) using informal commands and to talk about extremes using superlative expressions. In the cultural section, the students will read and learn about Costa Rica.

Episode 7 Lesson A

In this lesson, the students will learn to talk about feelings and mental conditions, use certain verbs to describe changes in emotion or mood, vocabulary to describe parts of the body, health-related issues, and talk about a visit to the doctor’s office. They will learn more about using the imperfect to talk about conditions in the past and use the verb hacer to express ago in a variety of contexts. In the cultural section, they will read and learn information about Argentina and Uruguay in Spanish.

Episode 7 Lesson B

In this lesson, the students will learn vocabulary to express feelings toward others, about how people act in relationships and their positive and negative aspects. They will talk about what people do to and for each other using nos and se, to talk about their wishes and desires using the subjunctive mood and to talk about contingencies and conditions using the subjunctive with conjunctions. In the cultural section, the students will read and learn information in Spanish about Ecuador.

Episode 8 Lesson A

During this lesson, the students will learn to talk about money, personal finances, economy, and debts. They will also learn more about the present progressive, infinitives as nouns, and the conditional to talk about what a person would do in a certain situation. Finally, the students will learn how to use the imperfect subjunctive to talk about hypothetical events and how to respond to them. In the cultural section, the students will read and learn information in Spanish about Venezuela.

Episode 8 Lesson B

During this lesson, the students will learn to talk about the media, information about current events through different media channels, types of TV programs, different ways the media presents information and how the public reacts to it, and be able to talk about social concerns. They will learn the meaning and differences between por and para, as well as, a summary about their uses. The students will continue learning about the subjunctive to express doubt and disbelief and to express what a person wants. In the cultural section, they will study and read information in Spanish about Panama.

Episode 9 – Final Lesson

During this lesson, the students will learn vocabulary related to professions in order to talk about necessary or useful traits for a particular job. They will learn how to use the future tense to talk about future events, and what a person is looking for in someone or something using the subjunctive with indefinite and negative antecedents. The students will be able to discuss their future aspirations and future time events with the subjunctive form.